Canada Post: Carriers that Care
Experience Design
Fall 2023
Leveraging Canada Post to strengthen connections between independently-living Canadian seniors and their loved ones.
Carriers that Care is an extension of Canada Post’s existing door-to-door postal delivery service with several touch points, created to address the needs of varying stakeholders. This project was a 7-week academic case study for a senior experience design course at Simon Fraser University. My team and I were tasked with finding a client with a specific business problem in order to generate value and craft a compelling experience design intervention for.
Nominated for Best New Talent, Autumn 2024 - UX Design Awards, awarded by International Design Centre Berlin (IDZ)
Project Type
Academic
Tools
Figma, Premiere Pro
Role
UX Researcher, UX Designer, Video Editor
Team
Erika Wang,
Hugo Duran,
Jasper Precilla,
Samaila Newaz
Team
Erika Wang,
Jasper Precilla,
Samaila Newaz
A Preview into Our Solution
Understanding UX was Here’s Mission
UX was Here began as an anonymous act of UX design, observing the chaos of a crowded company cafeteria serving approximately 1,500 employees daily. As employees scrambled, frustrated, in selecting their meals and making payments, the founder Matt recognized an opportunity to reduce inefficiency and optimize the lines.
After a successful guerrilla experiment, rearranging and optimizing queues, he left behind a stick note that proclaimed, UX was here! As a result, Matt found his solution carried an impact beyond simply improving a lunch line but a demonstration of how “one person’s determination and love for helping others could create a chain reaction of positive change.”
With this sentiment, the UX was Here platform was created with the sharing of resources, expertise, and insights at its core, irrespective of the level of experience or professional backgrounds of the site's users.
This section is still currently in progress.
Please click here to take a look at some of my work samples.
Investigating UX was Here’s High Turnover Rate
In the initial brief, users were noted to quickly drop off after creating their accounts, so as a team we wanted to explore further. Is UX was Here speaking to the right target market? What motivations are driving users to engage with existing communal platforms? What is UX was Here offering that other communities aren’t and how can we differentiate it?
Existing Online Communities and Why do they Work?
As UX was Here caters to a broad spectrum of individuals ranging from students and recent graduates to seasoned professionals, it's essential for us to understand the needs and motivations of its diverse user base.
To begin, our team took a look at competing UX platforms in Design Buddies, IterateUX, and ADPList and various indirect competitors such as Glassdoor, LinkedIn, and Reddit to see where users are positioned and a market discrepancy where UX was Here could potentially fit in.
UX Designers on Online Communities and UX was Here at a Glance
To gain perspective from a diverse UX demographic, we conducted 6 remote interviews with UX designers ranging from students to professionals on their experience and behaviours in online design communities (or design-adjacent communities). After, we had the designers complete a think-aloud walkthrough of the existing UX was Here website. With this, we organized our qualitative findings into affinity maps.
Interaction Patterns and Opinions on Online Communities (left), First Impressions of UX was Here (right)
“If i have multiple tabs of existing platforms on my browser such as LinkedIn and Event Brite, what’s the difference between that and this platform - besides saving the need to login between three separate accounts.”
“The expectations of having such a wide demographic of users seems very daunting to creating meaningful content and interactions for.”
“There’s a lot of ego on LinkedIn since masses are wanting to get jobs, there is little barrier to authenticity - “divorced from reality.” I much rather prefer the 1-on-1 interactions between people as it gets rid of fake veneer.”
Our Insights in Relation to UX was Here’s Brand Value Pillars
With insights from our competitive analysis and user interviews, we synthesized UX was Here’s brand value pillars and existing value propositions to surface the sectors that our team could focus on.
After looking at how the platform approaches professional networking and growth through features such as events and its job board, we see more long-term potential over time in intervening in enabling open conversation and participation. As our interviews revealed, the primary appeal of most online communities is the active user base and the quality of authentic interactions and conversations that occur as a result.
The Guiding Question
Our Solution
Reducing Barriers with an Option to Post Anonymously
Posting under a professional identity can be daunting for a multitude of reasons including online permanence, imposter syndrome, fear of criticism, or lack of confidence. Typically, people desire to show only the best versions of themselves, causing hurdles in getting accustomed to online communities where the voices of its users are essential. By allowing UX was Here’s demographic the option to post pseudonymously, our solution reduces some of the barriers associated with posting under a professional identity.
Inspired by the origin of UX was Here, we saw an opportunity to copywrite pseudonymous posting as a branded interaction in the form of “... was here”. Using this space as a means of providing context behind a purely anonymous profile allows for a degree of camaraderie and accountability in its interactions.
Segmenting Discussions through Sub-communities
As UX was Here currently stands in its beta, the existing explore section acts as one large discussion rather than multiple conversations happening simultaneously. Having everything posted to the same space, especially for a platform with such a wide expected demographic in designers of all skill levels and disciplines make it difficult for specialized content to be found.
Current UX was Here site
With this, we created sub-communities where users are able to participate and connect with others through more focused topics of conversation and interests. Communities allow for opportunities for specialized community engagement such as design jams and challenges, organized discussions, and targeted feedback and support.
Encouraging Activity Through Passive Engagement
As surfaced in our user interviews, a common trait we noticed amongst some of our participants is the desire to join an online community with a visibly active user base. In addition, some interviewees expressed a disinterest in actively engaging with their communities due to time or simply being content as a passive user.
With this, we sought to increase opportunities for passive engagement on the platform. One avenue we’ve redesigned is the home page, moving from a single-column to a multi-column layout. Doing so not only enhances the perception of activity on the page visually but also increases the number of posts available for engagement at once. In addition to liking posts, we’ve added features such as reposting and polls for users to engage with without the need to textually contribute to a conversation.
We’ve redefined UX was Here's existing resources and saved sections as “collections” to help foster a community-driven compilation of resources. Here, users can collaborate with others or curate a personal list of content to share or reference privately. Currently, resources are a series of hyperlinks leading to articles on external sites and do not appear on the home feed. With this, we've turned resources into regular posts, allowing for better visibility on the home page and reducing clutter.
Understanding the Average Consumer
To better understand the average consumer and their consumption habits, I conducted a short survey and shared it on Instagram and various survey-sharing subreddits such as r/SampleSize and r/TakeMySurvey. Participants answered questions pertaining to their clothing consumption habits and knowledge of sustainable fashion practices. Click here to see the full survey results.
The survey reached 35 people, 70% between the ages of 16 to 25 and 30% between the ages of 26 and 44. I found that most users particularly value the size, fit, and price when purchasing a garment. 90% of participants buy multiple clothes with similar characteristics to the ones they already own. Interestingly, some participants supported this by noting that doing so reduces the frequency of laundry loads. Others have also mentioned that they had forgotten they had already owned something similar.
The general outlook on sustainable fashion implies costly effort. Most people seem aware of sustainable choices such as eco-friendly materials, fair labour wages, and buying secondhand. However, an overlooked aspect of the sustainable fashion was reusing garments they already own.
Analyzing Competing Closet-organizing Applications
Leading personal closet organizer apps, such as Cladwell, Style Book, and Smart Closet, share common features like wardrobe logging, outfit compilation, calendar planning, and closet statistics. However, a notable flaw across these apps is the presence of paywalls, hindering accessibility. Additionally, Smart Closet's focus on a shopping catalog contradicts the goal of promoting an economically-smart application.
Another identified gap is the lack of a robust social-community setting in these apps. The user experience tends to be private and primarily centred around shopping, lacking personalized and practical interactions. Existing databases in these apps also fall short, with limitations in search functionality and gender-centric designs. There's a missed opportunity to engage a growing male fashion audience, reflecting the evolving androgynous trends in fashion. The conclusion emphasizes the need for an application that prioritizes user agency in creating personalized closet categories, tags, and communities.
Framing the Solution
Problem (Why)
Based on the survey, it seems as if most people are aware of making sustainable fashion efforts through educating themselves on the garments and how they were made, supporting sustainable brands, and opting to buy secondhand. Although these options are great in theory, they still promote buying and consuming more.
Opportunity (What)
By using user personas to frame this issue, I found a unique opportunity in creating a virtual wardrobe experience that promotes the reuse of garments users already own and decluttering unneeded items.
Solution (How)
After analyzing market gaps in competing closet-tracking applications, I propose to create a visual, community-driven, interactive experience. Key features to note are having a gender-neutral UI, custom closet article limiting, and a Pintrest-esque fashion community to drive outfit inspiration.
Site Map
Grey Box Wireframes
Full Fidelity Prototype
Onboarding
The user onboarding for Grid Rack offers a seamless experience, allowing users to sign in through various platforms. Preferences are collected to personalize content recommendations, and users have the flexibility to skip, modify, or backtrack during the onboarding process, ensuring a user-friendly. A progress indicator enhances transparency by informing users of the completion status.
Home Page & User Profile
Grid Rack's home page prioritizes sustainability by showcasing users' own outfits, fostering the idea of reusing garments. The interface, inspired by popular platforms like Instagram and Pinterest, employs a familiar style for seamless navigation. With a two-column following feed, the design emphasizes quick inspiration viewing, and the profile page follows an intuitive interaction pattern with swiping for easy tab navigation.
User Closet
Grid Rack's primary closet page provides users with a quick overview of their items, and upon tapping, an overlay highlights the selected clothing item. This detailed view allows users to edit tags, view properties, and explore existing outfits featuring the garment. Users have the flexibility to customize their closets by adjusting category orders, setting numerical limits, and employing quick sorting options, fostering a personalized and organized user experience that promotes decluttering and mindful consumption habits.
Add New Items & Compile Outfits
The plus icon in the navigation bar triggers an overlay offering three options: adding a new item manually, via search, or creating a new outfit, signifying key features within the app. Adding an item via camera enables users to snap or upload pictures, with mandatory red-star details and optional tags, including brand suggestions. Adding via search prompts users to select items from results to include in their closet. Creating a new outfit follows a similar process, allowing users to select items, generating a visual representation or permitting an uploaded image for the outfit.
Explore & Search
The explore and search pages feature item and outfit cards showcasing items similar to those in the user's closet. The search bar aids efficiency with a recent search history and recommended search tags, offering sorting options by alphabet, color, and date in keyword search results. If users can't find desired results, a user-centric call to action prompts a return to the search bar.
Introducing Carriers that Care
Business Problem
Founded in 1867, Canada Post is a crown corporation functioning as Canada’s primary postal delivery service. The company’s 2022 annual report notes a steady decline in revenue for the past 17 years, losing market share to faster and cheaper competitors such as FedEx and UPS. With this, Canada Post seeks to expand their market offerings beyond traditional letter delivery services.
Framing our Problem Space
With countries such as Japan and France already implementing successful extensions to their postal services to aid the social isolation of seniors, our primary goal was to navigate the service in the Canadian socio-cultural landscape. In addition, we aimed to leverage Canada Post's existing infrastructure of door-to-door delivery, status as a crown corporation, and reputation of being one of the most trusted professions amongst Canadians (Léger, 2021).
Arriving at our Framing
Emphasizing Trust and Credibility with Canadians
My team and I underwent a 3-day design sprint to gain a better shared understanding of our problem space, Canada Post as a company, and the ideal journeys of our various stakeholders: the postal worker, Canadian families and their elderly registered for our program.
After performing exercises such as exploring our users' ideal golden paths, how might we creations, analyzing competitors, an insight we uncovered was the importance of building and maintaining trust with Canadians. We realize that this was a cultural nuance we needed to be more mindful of as opposed to successful precedents Japan Post and France's La Poste.
Focusing on Senior Social Isolation
Later, through a series of seven 30-40 minute user tests with participants ranging from 20 to 50 years-old, living independently from their parents, our sprint assumptions were further justified with trust being a significant barrier to adopting Carriers that Care as a service. Recurring points of concern included "feeling impersonal," security, and medical qualifications postal workers would have.
Our primary takeaway indicated that emphasizing the tangible value of reporting observations and offering preventative health services led to a decrease in customer trust. This was attributed by users perceiving Carriers that Care as a direct alternative to services such as caretakers or palliative care without proper licensing and training.
With this, paired with the Canadian National Institute of Aging's 4 Essential Pillars for Supporting Aging the Right Place (2022), we have decided to shift our focus to improving social connections to alleviate loneliness and social isolation. We found this particular pillar to be the most feasible for Canada Post's postal workers in terms of training and credibility.
Primary Touchpoints
Canada Post Subdomain
phase 1: homepage & onboarding
A subdomain of canadapost.ca allows users to learn about the service and sign up using their existing Canada Post accounts.
Postal Carrier Interface
phase 2: recurring check-ins
Postal workers use this app to quickly send reports and access resources they may need during visits.
Post-Visit Updates
phase 3: email, text, & dashboard
Family members can stay updated after visits occur via text, email or through the Carriers that Care dashboard.
Phase 1: Homepage & Onboarding
Canadian Seniors and Canadian Families
The Carriers that Care homepage aims to offer clear and concise information for both senior Canadians and families seeking to register their loved ones, focusing primarily on providing transparency regarding the service logistics, limitations, and general expectations.
Carriers that Care's onboarding begins by assuming the user has a pre-existing Canada Post account. After, standard details are inputted, such as recipient contact information, visitation schedule, and recipient details to personalize check-ins. Options to opt into text and email notifications are present to keep users updated with daily visit reports. Onboarding ends with a pending confirmation from the recipient before beginning daily visits.
Phase 2: Recurring Check-ins
Canada Post Mail Carriers
While completing their daily routes, postal workers will have access to a list of Carriers that Care recipients, daily check-in reports, links to resources, and emergency tool-tips. Carriers will call service recipients prior to each visit through the application. Afterward, posties will chat with or assist Carriers that Care recipients using the information and topics of interest provided during onboarding.
Once completed, visitation reports are formatted through quick response buttons to reduce cognitive overhead for the postie. In the case of unexpected events, a series of resources are at the postie's disposal through the application, such as protocols, Q&As, and emergency phone numbers.
Phase 3: Post-Visit Updates
Canadian Seniors and Canadian Families
Carriers that Care subscribers will receive visitation updates depending on their opt-preferences during onboarding. Both email and text will offer redirect links to their user dashboard, where updates can be made on account information, managing family members who receive updates, and visitation details.
Send a Gift is an extension of Carriers that Care that allows gifts bought through Canada Shops, an existing subsidiary currently piloted by Canada Post to promote Canadian-owned businesses. Products bought through Send a Gift will be hand-delivered by posties during their Carriers that Care check-ins.
Addressing User Concerns
Consent and Privacy
As opposed to successful precedents in Japan and France, Canada differs culturally in the potential invasiveness of the service as a primary concern. To mitigate this, we've implemented measures on the site, including callouts, physical information packages, and a follow-up call after signup. These steps ensure that families inform their loved ones about the service and obtain their consent before signing up.
When registering for Carriers that Care, an informational brochure will be sent to the recipient of the service while waiting for verbal consent. Once consent has been authorized, only then will Canada Post carriers begin visitations.
Developing a Sub-brand of Canada Post
Carriers that Care Before and After
When developing the visual identity of Carriers that Care, we understand the value Canada Post has as a crown corporation and recognizable, trusted brand for Canadians. However, our initial user testing revealed concerns and confusion between Canada Post's close ties with letter and parcel delivery services and introducing Carriers that Care as an extension of their current services. With this, we differentiated Carriers that Care's visual identity as a sub-brand, while keeping the essence of Canada Post through colour.
Carriers that Care's New Design System
Discovery
Canada Post Postage Stickers
We anticipate customers discovering this service primarily through news, word of mouth, or online advertisements. Yet, leveraging stickers on Canada Post packages offers a chance to inform existing customers about the service while maintaining alignment with the brand's assets.
Reflection
This was a fun project to challenge myself with over the course of four weeks - I found myself learning many new things about UX research, empathizing with personas and creating a consistent design system across the interface. Prior to this project, I hadn't had the opportunity to exercise my UX skills on a solo project of this magnitude, so I was glad to continue and self-direct my learning this way. With this project, I feel as if I found a stronger passion for UX, being the first non-academic project I had completed. By working alone for the first time, I became aware of a variety of potential pitfalls that come from work without a team present such as sole responsibility, overworking, and personal bias.
As I didn't have a team to rely on this time, it was up to me to complete my deliverables and not cut any corners to ensure a steady workflow throughout the project. With this, I found that I would work late nights given the odd 4 A.M. burst of inspiration or to guarantee I can get all of my ideas out. Most importantly, I found personal bias to be a major issue as I didn't have anyone to challenge my decisions (ie. determining a solution to my original problem, choosing a colour palette, visual style, and features to add to this project). As a result, I focused a lot on my initial user interviews to get a sense of where the target audience may be and what their needs are.
In addition, I also found it challenging to offer a social aspect without making this application into an entirely new social media platform. To combat this, I had to figure out the fundamental needs of the audience and the features of a social media application that could meet these desires. With this, I ultimately decided that features such as private messaging and commenting would go against my goals to promote less clothing consumption. If I were able to do this project again, I would focus more on user-testing to better understand the gaps in my interaction features, design, and most importantly my perception of the user's primary needs. I would also focus more on researching existing UIs and what makes their designs able to meet the needs of their audience rather than copying the fundamentals of their design for the sake of aesthetics.
