Addressing accessibility
Challenge
Conceptualize solutions that can address the needs of specially-abled people with different cognitive and physical abilities.
My Role: UX Designer — Research, Data Synthesis, Interviews, Sketches & Wireframes, UI Design, Prototyping
Time frame: 5 hours
Tools: Figma
🔎 Defining the scope
Other problem spaces that were tackled during this hackathon included unconscious bias and access to opportunities. My team concentrated our focus on accessibility. Being based in New York City, we addressed the ongoing issue regarding accessibility on the NYC subway system. While swapping stories, one of our team members shared,
“The other day I was at Roosevelt Island [Station] and saw a person who was blind struggling to find the escalator with their white cane”.
Often times the escalators and elevators are closed for “repairs”. This service disruption is not only inconvenient for able-bodied commuters but a potential danger for those with physical impairments.
“In New York more than 2% of people suffer from visual impairment—not including the millions of tourists with disabilities that visit the city.”
👥 User Interviews
To support our assumptions, the team and I took a visit around the corner to Selis Manor, housing for a population that is blind and physically disabled.
There, we asked permission to survey the lobby and interview the residents with visual impairments about their experience navigating the subway.
Results:
Out of 4 people we were able to interview
1/2 had other impairments aside from vision
3/4 used a private car service
4/4 were discouraged to use the subway due to safety concerns
Pain Points:
Lack of clear and consistent announcements
Large stations with multiple hallways
Navigating during rush hour
🎯 Defining the problem
Brian is a middle aged man, partially blind, and residing in Midtown. He decides to visit his family in Forest Hills and needs to take the subway from 34th St. - Herald Square station. Entering the station through 6th Ave and 32nd St. the complex layout of the station leaves Brian disoriented for a moment.
How might we make navigating subway stations safer and more efficient for people with visual impairment?
✏️ Design
Ideation
Our solution is a mobile app. Conceptually, the app can utilize available WiFi within the stations and pull real-time train schedules. We considered existing smartphone capabilities such as haptic feedback, text-to-speech, and turn-by-turn navigation. By implementing haptics the app can communicate different cues to the user when navigating the space of a train station. For example, when a turn is approaching, the phone will send a strong vibration notifying the user of a directional cue. Once it’s time to make the turn, the haptic feedback pattern will change to signal that an action needs to be taken immediately, such as make this turn now.
Wireframes
We took into consideration the primary user as well as any secondary user that may be assisting a person with visual impairment.
People with Visual Impairments will frequently encounter able-bodied commuters with good intentions to led a helping hand.
Unfortunately, due to possible lack of experience in PVI care, the assistance may not be effective.
With that in mind, we wanted the UI to be big and bold while avoiding distracting patterns. For presentation purposes, the interface displays interactions such as voice assistance and the differing haptic patterns. Large iconography and font size is used for those with partial visual impairment and any station worker or good samaritans helping out along the way. To give users a sense of independence from additional assistance, verbal guidance is also implemented and kept conversational and easy to understand.
⏩ Next steps
🧑🦯
More in-depth research and collaboration with PVI community
📋
Usability testing with target audience
🏆 Achievements
Out of 19 teams:
🏅 Top Prize for Sustainability—Consideration of business value and how the solution might work IRL
🏅 Honorable Mention for Research—Research-driven decisions and flexibility to pivot with new information