Carriers that Care
A senior check-in service designed in 5 weeks that extends Canada Post's door-to-door infrastructure to reduce social isolation among elderly Canadians by connecting mail carriers, seniors, and long-distance families through a new three-sided service ecosystem.
Team
Jasper, Tristan, Erika, Hugo
Tools
Figma, Premier Pro
Contribution
Conducted user interviews and secondary research, created a new design system, focused on the wireframes, and final prototype for the mail carrier interface.
Awards
This project was nominated for the 2024 UX Design Awards.
Strategic Case
Why Canada Post is uniquely positioned for this
Compared to other services, Canada Post offers 4 structural advantages that makes it the perfect client for this:
Existing door-to-door reach
Canada Post already visits more addresses than any delivery service in North America. The infrastructure is in place and this service rides on top of it.
Canada's most trusted profession
Mail carriers are ranked among Canada's most trusted professionals (Leger 2021). Trust is the hardest thing to design and here, it already exists.
Proven precedent internationally
Japan (Mimamorii) and France (Veiller sur mes Parents) have both successfully launched postal senior check-in programs at a large scale.
Tackle revenue loss
Canada Post reported a steady decline in revenue for 17 consecutive years, where they reported losing market share to FedEx and UPS.
The Canadian Union of Postal Workers (CUPW) has been actively advocating for a senior check-in program since 2016. This service simultaneously responds to a national wellbeing crisis and gives Canada Post a meaningful reason to exist beyond parcel delivery.
Mockup of Carriers that Care homepage
Mockup of Carriers that Care homepage
The Need
Social isolation among seniors is a documented crisis
Seniors desire to live independently and theres a growing population
96% of Canadians want to age at home and live independently for as long as possible (CMA, NIA) and by 2030, 1 in 4 Canadians will be over the age of 65, a 15.3% increase from 2013 (StatCan).
Outside of the documented crisis, we also saw the need to check-up on our loved ones along with the guilt associated with not being able to physically check-in because you have to move away due work or school.
The Problem
How might we support socially isolated seniors in Canada through Canada Post’s existing infrastructure?
User-Research
We got our hypothesis wrong and that was the breakthrough
Emphasis on building trust, consent and rapport
We conducted a short 3-day design sprint with the goal of developing a shared understanding of our company, the challenges in our problem space, and how to cater to our various stakeholders: the senior, family members, and Canada Post postal workers. We identified that our service relies in establishing trust, gaining consent, and building rapport with both family members and seniors
Images of our team design sprint.
Evaluate prototype and validate the service's value proposition
The team quickly got to prototyping using the existing Canada Post design system. We focused on the discovery and 'sign up' flow with an emphasis on building trust and providing enough context about the service.
30-40 minutes / session
Background building, think-aloud study, post interview.
7 participants, 20-50 years old
People who live independently from their parents
Overview of the prototype
Synthesizing user-feedback
The key takeaway indicated that by focusing on the tangible value of reporting observations and offering preventative health services caused a decrease in user trust. It led to user perceiving Carriers that Care as an alternative to healthcare services, such as caretaker without the necessary training of medical professionals.
Lack of trust in the carrier and their abilities
“They don’t have medical training? But I understand that they’re not doctors or medical professionals...”
Perceiving service as a replacement to personal interaction rather than a supplement
“I feel like I'd go visit myself, since i don't have terrible relationship with parents.”
Trouble separating the service from Canada Post’s traditional parcel delivery services
“Canada Post? Are they just going to send my parents mail?”
Unfamiliar with the carrier
"Would she want to give her info to some guy she doesn't know, especially when I don't know if it will be the same person each week?"
Pivot to reducing loneliness and building social connections
Using the Canadian National Institute of Aging's 4 Essential Pillars for Supporting Aging the Right Place (2022) as a guideline, we shifted our focus to improving social connections to alleviate loneliness and social isolation. This space was the most feasible for Canada Post's postal workers to reasonably intervene in terms of training and credibility
Final Design
Primary touchpoints
Primary phases for Carriers that Care service.
Step 1: Sign Up & Consent
Canada Post Subdomain
STAKEHOLDERS: RECEPIENT & RECEPIENT'S FAMILY
Canadians can sign themselves up or their loved one by reading through the homepage highlighting the service's logistics, limitations and expectations. However, the service will not start until consent is given by the recipient.
Prototype walkthrough of the Carriers that Care homepage and sign-up process
Step 2: Reoccurring Check-ins
Mail Carrier App
STAKEHOLDERS: RECEPIENT & MAIL CARRIER
Mail carriers visit recipients while on route doing mail deliveries, assist with small tasks, and report back with access to resources and emergency contacts if needed.
Report feature is formatted to be short and easy to reduce the cognitive overhead for the busy postal worker.
Prototype walkthrough of the mail carrier app and filling out the post-visit report.
Step 3: Further Actions
Post-visit Updates & Actions
STAKEHOLDERS: RECEPIENT & MAIL CARRIER
Subscribers get text/email updates linked to a dashboard to manage accounts, visits, family members on the plan and can get to know who their carrier is.
Send a Gift lets families purchase from Canadian businesses via Canada Shop, with gifts hand-delivered during visits.
Prototype walkthrough of recepients' family receiving an update, their dashboard to manage their account and Send a Gift.
Design Decisions
Addressing User Concerns
Building personal connection with seniors.
To address the service feeling impersonal, we included a section in the sign up for families to add hobbies and interest of their loved one. These details would act as conversation starters and initial touchpoint for the senior and mail carrier to build a personal connection.
Final mock-up during the sign-up process inquiring about recipients' personal interests.
Ensuring Consent and Privacy
As a team, we recognized the potential invasiveness of this service and the importance of respecting the privacy of seniors. Consequently, we devised pamphlets families can send to their loved one to inform them of this service. Additionally, we implemented safeguards to encourage discussion amongst families about this service before signing up and ensuring that the service only commences after consent is given by both parties.
Images of various instances our team implemented consent and privacy of the recipient.
Developing a Sub-brand
To address concerns from initial user testing where people were confused about how Carriers that Care differentiates from Canada Post’s letter and parcel delivery services, I created a dedicated design system for the service, where I focused on the components, color and type.
This new illustration style is used to guide our branding towards a more approachable and familiar feeling. These also help us guide our interactions, or if there is a lot of information to digest.
Image of the final design system.
Reflection
At the end of the project
Articulating value to multiple stakeholders
Implementing a user scenario video proved to tremendously generate value to our service. Guest critics and users were hesitant, confused how it worked and struggled to see the value our team saw in our service. However, the video allowed for others to visualize the loneliness among Canadian seniors and opportunity to leverage Canada Post in an captivating manner, finally getting everyone to see its benefits and how it would function.
Trust your Process
It was easy to begin panicking as we were constantly returning to the idea of “building trust and establishing consent” and pressure to show results. However, the time our team took critically answer user doubts, scenarios, and isolating issues allowed us to have a wholistic understanding of our service and solidify our approach. Later aiding our team to easily visualize our interface and designate tasks, and envision more opportunities to extend our service within the Canada
Post ecosystem.
A letter to my wonderful IAT 438 team.