Experience the world beyond your limitations
User Research, Information Architecture, Storyboarding, Visual Design, User Evaluation
2 User Researchers
2 UX Designers
(Including me)
6 weeks
Oct 22 - Dec 22
Imagine wanting to travel to new and exotic destinations but being held back by physical limitations or mobility challenges. This is the unfortunate reality for millions of mobility-disabled people, such as those who are wheelchair bound or the elderly. They face challenges that limit their ability to travel to a place and can result in feelings of isolation and missed opportunities for learning about places and cultures.
An mobile app designed to help mobility-impaired individuals explore new and exciting destinations using augmented reality and 360-degree virtual tours to provide an immersive experience. Users can connect with local volunteers who can guide and inform them about the significance and culture of places, making their travel experiences even more meaningful.
Jump to Final Design
We had a vague understanding of the mobility impaired people when we started this project. We were not informed enough to know their needs and their expectation. That is why, we started by learning about the difficulties they face to empathize with them. We needed to find answer to the following questions:
• What are their existing problem and pain points?
• What do they genuinely want?
• What do they actually need?
To find out the answers to these question we dived into an intensive research sprint.
• Literature Review to understand the previously done research
• Conducted 7 user interviews
• Competitive Analysis to understand existing solutions
People from 61 million of U.S. adults have a mobility disability with serious difficulty walking or climbing stairs.
Intrapersonal, interpersonal, and structural barriers are the three-dimensional hierarchical travel constraint framework.
People with disabilities have the same desires for travel as those without disabilities, and want to enjoy a full, and active traveling experience.
To truly understand the experiences and challenges faced by those with mobility disabilities, so we spoke directly with friends, family, and acquaintances who faced these obstacles on a daily basis. We conducted 7 interviews to gain deeper insights into their needs and expectations.
Users rely on family and friends for travel and try to minimize the number of requests to them to reduce the burden.
Some users are afraid and uncomfortable when asking strangers for help in new places
They have to pay more than others when traveling, which is a significant barrier for them.
For example, a user shared that they always have to pay more when traveling as a disabled person.
They are well aware of the structural, economical and interpersonal limitation.
Still they are interested in looking and learning about the world. So, they turn to Vlogs, books, Youtube videos and street view on Maps.
We got to know few source they turn to, so, we did SWOT analysis of the current solutions that cater to user's need that are Vlogs and Videos, Google Street View Map and Articles and Books.
There is a lack of personal connection with the subject matter. This could be due to the absence of live interaction with the people in Vlogs.
Lack of opportunity to ask questions, or limited engagement with other people.
Vlogs, Street View, and books lack the immersive experience that is necessary to fully appreciate a subject.
For instance, watching a video about a city may not provide the same experience as seeing the city from first POV.
There are gaps in the information available which could be due to the limited scope of the content, or inauthentic information.
Thus, users may not be able to fully understand the cultural significance of a place.
At this stage, we begin to understand there might be a difference in what we first expected and what we heard from the users. In order to make sense of all of this, we had to:
• Categorize gathered findings and define design direction
• Understand the key pain points and needs
• Choose user type then synthesize ideas for possible solution
We did Affinity Mapping to group similar data and findings together and identify common themes that emerged from the data. To our surprise, we realized that the problem is not so much about adding accessibility features but experiencing places. Thus, we decide to build a solution that will have following qualities.
The solution should allow the users to feel a sense of personal connection that goes beyond what is typically offered in Vlogs and Maps.
It'll enable them to ask questions, share thoughts, and interact with people in real time.
The solution must offer real world immersive experience such as VR and AR. This will make user explore exhibits as if they were physically present.
This creates a sense of presence and immersion that is similar to visiting a place in the real-world.
This means that user should be able to learn authentic information about the culture and the place.
This differentiates the experience as the users learn about the place rather than just sight seeing like Street View.
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We conducted brainstorming sessions to explore different ideas for the design direction. Each session we tried to think of possible solution for the three design opportunities using the "Diverge and Converge" method.
We let our imagination go wild. Some of those ideas were:
• A Virtual Reality headset based application
• A community app that takes disabled people on tours
• A travel buddy app for mobility disabled
• A recommendation app for accessible places
• A mobile application with Augment Reality Tour
• A travel guide or blogs app
To better understand and empathize with our users, we created two scenario by storyboarding.We considered two use cases:
1. A young wheelchair bound kid
2. An elderly woman
A mobile app that uses augmented reality and 360-degree virtual tours to help people with mobility impairments to explore and experience new destinations. The app connects users with local volunteers who can guide and inform them about the significance and culture of the places to have a more immersive and learned experience.
A fully immersive experience of different cultural sites and landmarks around the world.
Users can view these sites from any angle and get a real sense of the place they're seeing.
Allows users to see virtual objects and animations overlaid onto their real-environment.
This enhances the user's experience by providing additional information and interactivity to the tour.
Connect with locals in real-time and get insights into their culture and way of life.
Users can ask questions, participate in discussions, and learn directly from the people who live there.
• Local people who want to share their knowledge and promote local culture.
• Tourist guide with professional experience.
• People with mobility impairments who have traveled before.
After finalizing the idea and layout, we explored several iterations of the concept, combining different ideas that focused on design goals.
After making our first few low fidelity iterations, we assessed the paper prototype through cognitive walkthroughs and task analysis. This usability evaluation helped us in rectifying following concerns:
The new livestream tab helps users' to feel more immersive experience of live stream.
"This live stream page feels little restrictive, I may not be able to see the place behind"
Added an avatar of the volunteer guide, who will share interesting facts while you're getting connected with them.
"What will I do while the app connects me with the guide?"
Connect with a volunteer guide and virtually visit and explore different tourist attractions making it easier for mobility-disabled users to get an authentic experience.
Experiencing places as artefactss using AR technology. Whether you're interested in touring a historic city, visiting a natural wonder, or simply exploring a new neighborhood, our AR view feature makes it easy for you to do so from the comfort of your own home.
Users can ask questions, learn about the destination's culture and history, and get valuable insights and recommendations that they might not be able to obtain elsewhere.
Some livestreams could be paid to help local business and provide incentive to people to share their traveling experience with others.
The "Read" tab feature allows users to access a wide range of blogs that provide in-depth information about a particular place or culture. This is a useful for users who are interested in learning more after a tour or who like to read.
We conducted 4 Think Aloud sessions with potential users, 4 Expert evaluation sessions and we asked them to take System Usability Score (SUS) test.
An average SUS score of 85 was obtained by adding the total scores of all participants, indicating an A rating for the application. It suggests that the users are comfortable with the system and that minor changes can make the application more stable.
Undertaking this project challenged me to push beyond my limits and expand my capabilities, resulting in significant personal and professional growth.
Listening to the stories shared by users gave me a newfound awareness. It was eye-opening to the numerous challenges they encounter on a day-to-day basis.
There were times when our team had different opinions or perspectives. However, we made a conscious effort to communicate and finding solutions that satisfied everyone.
I realized how crucial it is to design products with accessibility in mind. It was a humbling experience that reminded me of the power of design to make a positive impact on people's lives.