STEP PRODUCT REPORT
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Programme: Master in Service Systems Design
ABSTRACT
Semester: 1st semester
A lot of elderly people who do not live in the city have difficulties to access to public transportation. They usually do not have any train or bus stop near their houses and they have to walk a few kilometres to get to the closest one. There are some existing alternatives to public transportation, but they do not cover all the areas or ask for special requirements in order to be used. This lack of accessibility to transportation leads to social isolation amongst elderly people, who became totally dependent on external help in order to continue with their everyday lives. This situation can result in depression, loneliness or strong feelings of apathy, which some of the senior citizens are sadly resigned to accept.
Title: STEP - Social transportation for elderly people Project period: 01.09.2014 - 22.12.2014 Semesther theme: The system around the product Supervisors: Amalia de Götzen Nicola Morelli
This project is called STEP, a solution to prevent everyday life isolation. A social transportation service that will make the elderly feel more independent and integrated in their community by connecting them to local activities and events in their area.
Project group no. 5 Group members: Begüm Becermen
Camilla Liv Cramer- Nielsen
María Crucera Vasco
Keywords: Transportation, elderly, isolation, accessibility, social, active, everyday life.
Copies: 3 Pages: 23 Finished: 19.12.2014
Copyright © This report and/or appended material may not be partly or completely published or copied without prior written approval from the authors. Neither may the contents be used for commercial purposes without this written approval.
TABLE OF CONTENT INTRODUCTION................................................................................................................................................5 THE SERVICE
WHAT? ................................................................................................................................................7 STORYBOARD.......................................................................................................................8 WHY? ................................................................................................................................................10
WHO?
TARGET GROUP / PERSONA...........................................................................................11 STAKEHOLDER MAP..........................................................................................................12 HOW? CUSTOMER JOURNEY.......................................................................................................13 FLOWCHART.........................................................................................................................15 BLUEPRINT............................................................................................................................16 MOTIVATION MATRIX.......................................................................................................21 CONCLUSION...................................................................................................................................................22 FUTURE CONSIDERATIONS.........................................................................................................................23
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INTRODUCTION This product report presents the outcome of the design process followed during the first semester project of the Service Systems Design Master at Aalborg University Copenhagen. The project theme for the semester was ‘transportation’. The product presented in this report is STEP, a social transportation system for elderly people. The service has been developed with help from the elderly from the activity centre ‘Paraplyen’, located in Halsnæs, who have collaborated throughout the entire design process. The design process is explained in the process report. This report should be seen as a document for further development and implementation of the service. This project has been conducted by three students with different nationalities (Denmark, Spain, Turkey) and with a background in industrial and product design, but with different and complementary skills and experiences.
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STEP O C I A L
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R A N S P O R T A T I O N
L D E R L Y
E O P L E
WHAT? WHAT IS STEP? STEP means Social Transportation for Elderly People. This service aims to prevent social isolation among elderly citizens who do not live in the city and have difficulties to access to public transportation. By providing transportation from their houses to local activities in the area, STEP proposes a way of stopping their lonely routines and making them feel more integrated in their community. STEP offers the elderly a variety of activities and events without them having to worry about how to get there or how to return home afterwards. HOW DOES STEP WORK? STEP contacts activities taking place in the local area, and organizes them into a weekly schedule that is distributed with the local newspaper. The elderly interested in any of the activities have the opportunity to sign up for the service. The instructions and contact details are included in the schedule, and there is a possibility of signing up on the phone (for those citizens who do not feel very comfortable using technology) or online (on the website or with a mobile application). Moreover, attached to the weekly schedule in the newspaper, there is a set of stickers with the name and time of each activity that can be easily attached to a calendar, agenda, or any other physical reminder that people use to keep track of their time and events. The day of the activity, the elderly could be picked up anytime within an hour before the activity starts. This depends on how many people decide to enroll each activity, and where they live. According to this, STEP creates a route that the bus driver has to follow in order to pick up all the participants. The bus driver also has a system where he can easily check and monitor who is being picked up every day. Ten minutes before the bus arrives to their place, the elderly receive a phone call from the bus driver, so they know exactly when they have to be prepared. Besides the elderly, STEP could arouse interests of other groups and stakeholders. For example, the municipalities, transportation companies, and of course, the activities participating in the service. Depending on who and how much these groups were involved, the STEP back office would be organized one way or another.
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WHAT? | STORYBOARD Somewhere in the north of SjĂŚlland...
Gerda is 85. She lives in the outskirts of Denmark, where there is a lack of transportation possibilities. There are 2 km to the closest bus stop, but she doesn’t have the courage to go that far away by herself.
She has accepted the routine of living alone, and feels more comfortable in her usual surroundings. Her family lives far away, but she loves when they have time to visit her. She tracks the time with a calendar in the kitchen where she crosses out the days. This way she knows how many days are left until the next visit.
But even though she is resigned to have this lifestyle, sometimes she missess the times when she was independent and did not have to spend all her time sitting at home.
But one day...
She receives a letter from the municipality, with information about a new transportation service called STEP.
Attached with the local newspaper, she finds a schedule with activities taking place during the following week, and a set of stickers with the same activities.
She finds it interesting, and decides to give it a chance and sign up for one of the activities.
But she is not the only one. At the same time, only a couple of kilometres away, Hans is using his smartphone to sign up for the same activity.
8am, a few days later...
In order not to forget about it, she places the corresponding sticker in the calendar she has in the kitchen.
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And Hans adds the activiy in his mobile calendar.
Gerda checks her calendar when she wakes up, and remembers that today she is going to the activity centre. She feels curious and excited about it.
At the same time, Hans gets a notification on his smartphone to remind him about the activity.
WHAT? | STORYBOARD 9.20am, the telephone rings.
9.30am
Hi Gerda, this is Anders, from STEP. Get ready to go out, we’ll pick you up in 10 min!
Good morning Gerda!
Gerda gets her coat and her purse. She is ready to go to the activity centre!
When the bus arrives to Gerda’s house, the driver honks the horn to let her know that they are there. Gerda, who is already prepared, immediately leaves her house and gets into the bus.
When she gets into the bus, Anders, the bus driver, greets her and checks her name in the system.
10am
In the bus, Gerda sits down and meets Hans, who lives just a few kilometres away but they have never seen each other before. Since both of them are going to participate in the same activity, they start chatting during the journey.
When the activity is over, the STEP bus is already waiting for the participants in front of the door. The bus drives all the way back and brings everyone back home.
At the expected time, the bus stops right in front of the door of the activity centre, and all the passengers go inside.
At the activity centre, Gerda participates actively in the workshop. She meets some new people who also go there regularly, and they all have some laughs together.
Because Gerda enjoyed the workshop so much, she decides to keep using STEP and join more activities. She also keeps in touch with the other people that she met at the activity centre, who are also participating in a lot of the scheduled activities.
Now her weeks are filled with activities that break her routine, and she does not have to stay at home all the time.
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WHY? This service was developed in order to solve the problem stated: COUNTRYSIDE
NOT NEXT TO BUS STOP AND TRAIN STATION
How to make a service to prevent elderly from social isolation caused by the lack of accessibility to transportation in their daily life?
There is a lack of public transportation in the outskirts of Denmark. For elderly people living in the countryside, this presents a lot of difficulties in their everyday life. There are a lot of elderly people who do not have any train or bus stop near their houses, and they have to walk a few kilometres to get to the closest one. The existing transportation services map the current situation. The ‘active elderly’ who are still fresh and able to walk or bike long distance are able to access to the stations. The ‘non-active elderly’ who have poor health condition, only have more expensive alternatives. This chart illustrates the gap in the upper left corner, where the project target is located.
FOCUS AREA: NON ACTIVE ELDERLY IN THE COUNTRYSIDE. CHEAPER THAN FLEXTUR, AND EASY TO USE
NON ACTIVE ELDERLY (OLD ELDERLY)
This lack of accessibility to transportation leads to social isolation among elderly people. Because even if they are visited every weekend by their families, their everyday life might become lonely and boring, and just the simple fact of depending on somebody else to continue with their everyday lives might lead to depression, loneliness and a strong feeling of apathy (SCIE, 2012).
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ACTIVE ELDERLY (YOUNG ELDERLY)
CITY CENTER
If nothing is done to change this situation, the problem just keeps growing. When elderly people are lonely, they get more sick and less able to recover from diseases, and therefore more dependent, which again leads to more depression (Jyllands-posten.dk, 29.03.11).
WHO? | TARGET GROUP DESCRIBED BY PERSONA
Gerda female 85 years old
Gerda lives alone in a house in the countryside next to Auderoed, which is a small village in the north of Sjaelland. She used to go to the activity center in Frederiksvaerk, which is 3.5 km far from her house. Her health condition started to decline a few years ago, so she’s not able to bike or walk long distances anymore and the bus route that she used to take shut down last year, so she cannot go to the center on her own. She misses the time when she was able to meet with her friends, but she accepted this life condition because she feels too old to start all over: new house, new city, etc.., even though her family keeps telling her to move to the city. They live two hours away and she would love being able to visit them very often. They are very busy but they visit her every second Sunday, so she is always counting down the days to see them. She prepares their favourite dishes and she enjoys knitting socks for her grandchildren. She likes cooking but due to her health condition she’s not able to go to the grocery store and buy food herself. She calls every Monday to the closest grocery store and they deliver her what she orders. When she has to go to the doctor she uses the patient transport, which she orders on the phone.
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WHO? | STAKEHOLDERS STAKEHOLDER MAP The service provider can both organise and provide transportation or the transportation can be outsourced.
NEWSPAPER
SERVICE PROVIDER
MUNICIPALITY
TRANSPORTATION COMPANY TR
PAR T
T
ICIPA
OR
NTS
SP
AN
BENEFITS
LIZATION
ELDERLY
FUN / SOCIA
ACTIVITIES TION ICIPA
T PAR
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EXTERNAL INTERNAL
HOW? | CUSTOMER JOURNEY NON-DIGITAL Receive letter about STEP
Call to sign up for STEP
Give info to sign up
Become member of STEP and confirmation
Receive local newspaper and schedule
Check activities on schedule
Call to sign up for activities and voice confirmation
Put schedule on the fridge, or stickers in own agenda
Remind activity day, when looking at fridge
Touchpoints
Some days later
Get ready 1 hour before activity
Get a call 10 min. before pick up
Bus comes to pick up at home. Name validation
Arrive to activity with a lot of people
waiting for activityday
Return home with the bus
Some elderly start to see each other outside the activities as well
Touchpoints
During the activity
After using STEP for a while
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HOW? | CUSTOMER JOURNEY DIGITAL Receive letter about STEP
Use QR-code
Sign up for STEP with app
Become a member of STEP and confirmation
Receive local newspaper and schedule
Use QR-code, enter directly to schedule without login
Check activities and add to sign up
Touchpoints
Some days later
Get ready 1 hour before activity Get ready 1 hour before activity
Get a call 10 min. before pick up
Bus comes to pick up at home. Name validation
Arrive to activity with a lot of people
Return home with the bus
Some elderly start to see each other outside the activities as well
Touchpoints
During the activity
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After using STEP for a while
Confirmation and add directly to mobile calendar to remind
Confirmation and add directly to mobile calendar to remind
HOW? | FLOWCHART REMINDER LOOK AT NEWSPAPER AND SCHEDULE MOBILE CALENDAR
LOOK AT NEWSPAPER AND SCHEDULE
QR CODE DOWNLOAD APP
GO TO WEBPAGE ON COMPUTER
QR CODE ON SMARTPHONE
WEBPAGE ON COMPUTER
BRING PAPER SCHEDULE
LOGIN
MAKE A CALL
CALL THE SERVICE
ONLINE SCHEDULE
CREATE AN ACCOUNT/ PROFILE
SCREEN CONFIRM
SELECT ACTIVITY GIVE INFO FOR PROFILE
SCREEN CONFIRM
WEBPAGE CALENDAR
GIVE INFO
CALL 10 MIN BEFORE BUS ARRIVES
TELL ACTIVITIES
BUS ARIVES/ GET INTO BUS
VOICE CONFIRM
VERIFICATION (BUS DRIVER ASK FOR NAME)
LOOK AT PAPER SCHEDULE
DRIVE/ BUS JOURNEY
VOICE CONFIRM
ONLINE REMINDER
NO
YES
GET OUT OF BUS AND GO TO ACTIVITY
ADD MOBILE CALENDAR
YES
ADD COMPUTER CALENDAR
ADD MORE ACTIVITIES?
NO
BUS ARIVES/ GET IN BUS
PUT ON THE FRIDGE
USE PAPER SCHEDULE/ STICKERS NO
YES-
HOW TO USE?
USE STICKERS IN OWN AGENDA OR CALENDAR
VERIFICATION (BUS DRIVER ASK FOR NAME) DRIVE HOME AND STOP AT THE FRONT DOOR
DECISIONS OTHER PROCESS
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HOW? | BLUEPRINT Service blueprint of STEP consists of four use cases respectively; sign up for the service for the first time, creating schedule, sign up for the activities, journey between home and activities.
USE CASES
Blueprint consists of four different use cases;
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1. BEFORE THE SERVICE USE CASE SIGN UP FOR SERVICE FOR THE FIRST TIME
CHANNELS
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3. DURING THE SERVICE USE CASE SIGN UP FOR ACTIVITIES
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4. DURING THE SERVICE USE CASE JOURNEY BETWEEN HOME AND ACTIVITIES
Five different channels were demonstrated in the blueprint; PAPER schedule, stickers newspaper, agenda calendar, poster letter from municipality
FLOWS
2. BEFORE THE SERVICE USE CASE CREATING SCHEDULE
PHONE telephone call
APPLICATION smartphone, tablet
WEBSITE computer, laptop
PERSON a tangible person (exp. bus driver)
Information flow
One sided flow
Sequencing events
Journey
Two sided flow
Variable time
Material Flow
COLOUR CODING
USER JOURNEY WHITE BACKGROUND FOR VISIBLES
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CHANNELS
ACTORS
SUPPORT
LIGHT GRAY BACKGROUND FOR INVISIBLES
HOW? | BLUEPRINT - 1. USE CASE - SIGN UP TO SERVICE BEFORE THE SERVICE - SIGN UP TO SERVICE FOR THE FIRST TIME USER JOURNEY PAPER
GET INFO ABOUT THE SERVICE
CREATE A PROFILE
CONFIRM
RECEIVE LETTER / NEWSPAPER /POSTER
PHONE CHANNELS
CONTACT WITH THE SERVICE
APPLICATION WEBSITE
CALL THE SERVICE
GIVE INFO
VOICE CONFIRMATION
DOWNLOAD APPLICATION
CREATE ACCOUNT / PROFILE
SCREEN CONFIRMATION
GO TO WEBSITE
CREATE ACCOUNT / PROFILE
SCREEN CONFIRMATION
PERSON line of interaction
BUS DRIVER
ACTORS
line of visibility ANSWER PHONE
CALL CENTRE OPERATOR ORGANIZER / MANAGER
ACCESS DATABASE
CONFIRM
ADD INTO DATABSE
SEND LETTER / POSTER
ACTIVITY ORGANIZER
SUPPORT
line of internal interactions SHOW DATABASE
DATABASE NEWSPAPER
STORE INFO OF NEW PROFILE
SEND NEWSPAPER
NEXT PHASE: CREATING SCHEDULE
>
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HOW? | BLUEPRINT - 2. USE CASE - CREATING SCHEDULE BEFORE THE SERVICE - CREATING SCHEDULE RECEIVE THE NEWSPAPER
USER JOURNEY
GET STICKERS & SCHEDULE
PAPER
CHANNELS
PHONE APPLICATION WEBSITE PERSON line of interaction
BUS DRIVER
ACTORS
line of visibility
CALL CENTRE OPERATOR ORGANIZER / MANAGER ACTIVITY ORGANIZER
SELECT ACTIVITIES INFO ABOUT ACTIVITIES
CREATE SCHEDULE
SEND INFO OF SCHEDULE RECEIVE SCHEDULE
SUPPORT
line of internal interactions
DATABASE NEWSPAPER
RECEIVE SCHEDULE
PRINT SCHEDULE & STICKERS
SEND THE NEWSPAPER
NEXT PHASE: SIGN UP FOR ACTIVITIES 18
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HOW? | BLUEPRINT - 3. USE CASE - SIGN UP FOR ACTIVITIES BEFORE THE SERVICE - CREATING SCHEDULE USER JOURNEY PAPER
CHECK ACTIVITIES
CHANNELS
WEBSITE
LOG IN
SELECT ACTIVITIES
CONFIRM
CHECK SCHEDULE
CREATE A REMINDER SCHEDULE STICKERS
CALL THE SERVICE
PHONE APPLICATION
CHOOSE MEDIA
QR CODE / CHECK APP
OPEN APPLICATION
CHECK ONLINE SCHEDULE
WEBSITE
GIVE INFO
USERNAME & PASSWORD
TELL ACTIVITIES
VOICE CONFIRMATION
CLICK ON ACTIVITIES
SCREEN CONFIRMATION
CLICK ON ACTIVITIES
SCREEN CONFIRMATION
ADD TO MOBILE CALENDAR ADD TO COMPUTER CALENDAR
PERSON line of interaction
BUS DRIVER
ACTORS
line of visibility
CALL CENTRE OPERATOR ORGANIZER / MANAGER
ANSWER PHONE
ACCESS DATABASE
CONFIRM
ADD INTO DATABSE
GET INFO OF PARTICIPANTS GET INFO OF PARTICIPANTS
ACTIVITY ORGANIZER
SUPPORT
line of internal interactions
DATABASE
SHOW DATABASE
STORE & ADD ONLINE SCHEDULE
NEWSPAPER
NEXT PHASE: JOURNEY BETWEEN HOME AND ACTIVITIES
>
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HOW? | BLUEPRINT - 4. USE CASE - JOURNEY BETWEEN HOME AND ACTIVITIES DURING THE SERVICE - JOURNEY BETWEEN HOME AND ACTIVITIES USER JOURNEY PAPER
CHECK REMINDER
GET READY
SIT DOWN GET OFF IN THE BUS THE BUS
APP / SMARTPHONE
MOBILE CALENDAR
WEBSITE /COMPUTER
COMPUTER CALENDAR SAY NAME
line of interaction RECEIVE ROUTE
BUS DRIVER
ACTORS
line of visibility
PARTICIPATE TO ACTIVITY
SAY NAME
START DRIVING
CALL USER
ASK NAME / VALIDATION
ASK NAME / VALIDATION
DRIVE
CALL CENTRE OPERATOR ORGANIZER / MANAGER ACTIVITY ORGANIZER line of internal interactions
SUPPORT
GET INTO BUS
DATABASE NEWSPAPER
SIT DOWN GET OFF IN THE BUS THE BUS
RECEIVE CALL FROM DRIVER
PERSON
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GO TO ACTIVITY
SCHEDULE STICKERS
PHONE CHANNELS
GET INTO BUS
CREATE & SEND ROUTE TO THE BUS DRIVER RECEIVE PARTICIPANTS
DRIVE
GET HOME
HOW? | MOTIVATION MATRIX
Gives to
STEP
Transportation Activities
Elderly
Newspaper
Municipality
Money
More participation
Possibility to have a social and active life Not dependent on family and friends
Money More readers
Healthy and active citizens More reputation and PR More involvement to municipality
More participation
Transport the elderly to activities Mobility
STEP Transportation
Transportate the elderly so the service works
Activities
Reason for existence
Reason for existence
Elderly
Reason for existence More participation
Reason for existence Money
Newspaper
Schedule/stickers Regularly publicity
Municipality
Money Credibility and reliability
Social Life, fun, joy, get out of their home
Mobile elderly citizens
Reason for schedule
Healthy and active citizens Forces the local community
More participation Money (if paying for activities)
Socializing
If active elderly, less spending on healthcare
PR and publicity
Information about STEP Regularly publicity of schedule
Informed citizens
Cheaper transport
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CONCLUSION The project’s main focus is to prevent social isolation among elderly who live in the outskirts of Denmark and have difficulties to access to public transportation. STEP is social transportation for elderly people. It is an easy and low-priced service, that should be available for all the elderly who need it. No one has to sit stuck at home anymore, because STEP now provides transportation from their frontdoors to local activities and events in the area. STEP offers the elderly the possibility to maintain an active life without depending on their family and friends to get out of their houses. STEP has been designed with a user-centered approach. From the very beginning, the potential target group has been involved in the project. Collaboration with the users has been made in different ways. It has been highly prioritized that the users involved felt motivated, in order to get sincere and honest feedback. The users that participated in interviews, workshops or tests were engaged with the topic, since a lot of them could relate to transportation problems. It is still at a very conceptual level, and therefore further development has to be made in order to implement the service. To make STEP as affordable as possible, it is desirable to have a stakeholder with interest and motivation to pay for this service, so the elderly would only need to pay a symbolic amount of money. To involve possible partners during the implementation phase, it has to be clearly stated which benefits they would get by being a part of STEP. With the current knowledge it is not possible to define the internal structure of the service, because depending on who is involved there would be a lot of different possibilities.
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FUTURE CONSIDERATIONS To talk about further development, the next steps would be making in-depth research, analysis and prototypes that would lead to the service implementation. First of all, for the future steps it would be beneficial to remain in contact with the activity centre ‘Paraplyen’, since they have been involved in the project and engaged with the transportation topic from the very beginning. This elderly speak from the heart, they share their opinions and critics straightforwardly. In addition to this, there is a very diverse group of elderly which would provide more versatile data. The development of the touchpoints will be the next natural step to take the project from the conceptual level to the implementation phase. Flex Trafik already collaborates with the municipality. Therefore, information about the service - and internal organisation structure would be necessary to consider them as a service provider. in this way a lot of resources could be saved, since the service already exists. The same applies to Kultunaut, who could be also considered as a service provider. These two companies already have a reputation in different areas; Flex Trafik in transportation and Kultunaut with the activities. In case companies like this were interested, it would be necessary to develop a financial analysis, including a business model and clarify motivations for the collaborators. Right now the project focus has been in Halsnæs, but theoretically STEP could be expanded to all the places in the outskirts of Denmark.
REFERENCES Jyllands-posten.dk, statement: direktør i Ensomme Gamles Værn, Christine Swane, 29.03.11 [online] Available from: http://jyllands-posten.dk/livsstil/sundhed/ ECE4508535/flere-aeldre-er-ensomme/ [Accessed: 10.10.14] SCIE (2012) At a glance 60: Preventing loneliness and social isolation among older people. [Online] Available from: http://www.scie.org.uk/publications/ataglance/ ataglance60.asp [Accessed: 17.11.14] 23