Allezy

Overview

Community and personalization to support diverse travelers

I worked with Concordia University's Access in the Making (AIM) lab to find a way to better support disabled travelers and commuters in Montreal, discovering curb effects along the way*.

*The curb cut effect is the phenomenon of disability-friendly features being used and appreciated by a larger group than the people they were designed for.

Problem

Navigation apps don’t provide less-abled users with enough options and information

There isn’t enough transparency behind ‘accessible’ options, which aim to primarily serve users in wheelchairs. Some people use crutches, push their baby on a stroller or need to lug their bike around. New breakthroughs in accessibility could improve services for a range of demographics.

"There isn’t enough transparency behind ‘accessible’ options, which aim to primarily serve users in wheelchairs"

Insights

Over 30% of the American population struggle with at least one disability

This statistic comes from Transit’s ‘Rider Happiness Benchmarking Report’. Since accessibility is a major concern amongst such a large segment of the populous, I began noting daily inconveniences that weren’t catered to by existing apps— starting local, in Montreal.

I visited several metro stations around the city and noted their performance regarding accessible entrances. I soon discovered an organization named 4 Days 4 Lines had compiled similar statistics which aided heavily with data collection.

There were a multitude of instances wherein existing apps and notices didn’t alert me of important changes; Paying for a metro fare only to hear about a severe delay; OPUS terminals out of service, and perhaps worst of all: The Beaudry metro’s escalator maintenance turning a leisurely wait into a climb of over 70 stairs— An impossible task for some.

Most navigation apps have little to no focus on crowdsourcing knowledge

To find out whether a new app was a viable solution, I began by taking a look at the 4 most popular navigation apps in the USA. Of all these options, Waze is extremely successful in pushing community-sourced knowledge, but exclusively for drivers. Google Maps dips its toes into the concept but ultimately transit accessibility is not its main focus— Rather preferring places, establishments and drivers.

User interviews

I conducted interviews with 9 of my classmates to discuss their transit experiences. Though I gleaned from research that many modern apps are missing functionality for accessibility support, I asked short response questions to see if there were any trends regarding accessible features.

"My interviewees reported their transit concerns could be appeased if given advance notice"

College student persona

Since most of my survey participants were healthy young adults, I devised the persona of a less physically-abled person to see if there were any fringe improvements to be made to the transit experience which I had overlooked.

Prototyping

Maybe try a game?

Prior to designing the app, my classmates and I experimented with different methods of spreading awareness of the need for better accessibility options in public transportation. To that end, they designed a game with feedback from myself to showcase how differently abled approach the metro systems in Montreal.

The actual process of implementing solutions for universally accommodating public transit for all would take years— if not decades. In lieu of that, I began designing Allez-y

User flow

Testing and iteration

Based on feedback from my professor, peers and my growing sense of design, I iterated upon the structure of the app with 4 major improvements:

Final screens

Reflections

This project was a reminder of the importance of use-cases and personas.

Challenges

Being unfamiliar with designing surveys, I had to iterate on questions and consult new participants often to gain meaningful results. It was a valuable lesson in performing the proper preliminary research and learning on the spot.

Lessons

I realized the importance of nailing down the goals and scope of a project prior to designing, especially in the case of brand new products or features. It's easy to get ambitious and deliver undercooked features when your goals aren't concise enough.