UI&UX RESEARCHACCESSIBLE DESIGN

Ambler: Navigating Inclusively

Design Challenge

Ambler is a mobile application that makes the practical navigation of public spaces trouble-free for people of all abilities. By tailoring a person's navigation to their specific accessibility needs, Ambler helps its users get to their destinations safely, successfully, and on time.

Problem

In metropolitan areas, sidewalks and other pedestrian pathways are not always accessible to everyone. Permanent and temporary obstacles such as sidewalk elevation, sidewalk width, construction, weather conditions, and crowds can affect the ability of those with specific accessibility needs to get to their destinations safely and successfully.

Currently, there are little to no available resources to determine the accessibility of different metropolitan pedestrian routes. Accessibility considerations that are provided often lack thoroughness and are determined by the able-bodied. This lack of information causes many people to rely on accessible transit and other members of their persona network for transportation, ultimately restricting their independence.

GOAL

To ease the difficulty of practical navigation within metropolitan areas by providing pedestrian navigation tailored to those with specific accessibility needs.

SOLUTIONS

A mobile application that makes the practical navigation of public spaces trouble-free for people of all abilities by providing access to necessary accessibility information.

Ambler branding including light and dark logo variations, typography, and colour palette, all designed with accessibility in mind.

Accessible Design

Ambler’s visual identity was designed with consideration for visual impairments. The colour scheme and typographical application are WCAG-compliant to allow it to be used by the greatest number of people. In order to ensure that the user does not have to rely on colour alone to distinguish between elements, descriptive visuals are used throughout the design. If this app were to be fully developed for mobile use, we would expand on these considerations by ensuring that the application is able to be read by a screen reader and that any images include alternative text.

"Report an Obstacle"

Community Sourced

Ambler knows that accessibility isn’t “one size fits all.” Its community editing feature allows travellers to warn others about unique or temporary hazards such as closed sidewalks, large crowds, or ice.

"On-Route Navigation"

Tailored to Your Needs

Robust pedestrian settings allow users to customize their navigation to their specific accessibility needs, without the use of dehumanizing labels.

Experience Focused

Ambler isn’t just about getting from Point A to Point B, but about enhancing the pedestrian experience along the way. With Ambler, pedestrians can identify and mark the locations of seating areas and accessible restaurants along routes to support others during their navigation.

Process TL,DR:)

Client: Ambler was created for the Design Exchange and Government of Ontario’s 7th annual post-secondary design challenge, Boundless. This provincial, post-secondary design challenge seeks to explore design that is accessible to the greatest number of people, to the largest extent possible, regardless of age and ability.

Goals & Objective:
To ensure that we fully met the intentions of the design challenge, our team started the project by setting goals and objectives that would guide our design, from start to finish. These goals were to:

• Gain a deep, qualitative understanding of the pedestrian experience, with a specific focus on those with accessibility needs.
• Conceptualize a solution that make pedestrian pathways accessible to the greatest number of people.
• Consider the Design of Public Spaces Standard and the 7 Universal Design Principles in informing our solution.
• Prototype and test a solution that best addresses pedestrian accessibility needs.

Problem Space:
At the beginning of the project, we were immediately interested in the problem space of navigation. Our first discussions and concepts surrounded the idea of recreational pathways such as trails and bike paths. However, upon further consideration, we decided that moving to the parallel problem of practical navigation within cities would be more impactful, as it would allow us to help people in their day-to-day lives, rather than just in their recreational activities.

Initial Research:
We validated the significance of this problem through research. In addition to reading articles and blog posts online, we spoke to someone in the persona network of someone with Osteogenesis Imperfecta, whose medical condition affects their ability to travel as a pedestrian. Through this research, we learned about some of the challenges that those with specific accessibility needs face in their day-to-day lives.

Research Findings:
While able-bodied people may overlook obstacles like the lack of a curb ramp or an interrupted sidewalk, these seemingly-small obstacles can severely impact the travel of pedestrians with accessibility needs. However, there does not currently exist a way to be informed of these obstacles, making them come as a surprise that could cause major disruption or even injury.

Root of the Problem:
To get to the root of the problem, we engaged in the “5 Whys” activity from the Google Design Sprint Kit. By repeatedly asking “why,” we were able to dive deeper into the problem space to determine the true problem that needed our help.

Results of the "5 Whys" exercise

The true problem that we found and wanted to solve was that not all sidewalks and intersections meet or need to meet the accessibility guidelines. However, bringing all pedestrian routes up to accessible standards is a costly and time-consuming process. We wanted to find a solution that could work in the interim to provide relief and support to the people whom this impacts on a regular basis.

Coming Up with the Solution:
It was at this point that we decided to create a tool that would help pedestrians with accessibility needs become informed of obstacles they may face along their routes of travel. After much deliberation, it seemed that a mobile app would be the best medium for this, as it is portable, can easily be made accessible, and can support dynamically-changing information.

Competitive Analysis:
While many pedestrian navigation apps exist, none focus specifically on pedestrian navigation. We conducted a competitive analysis to validate this and to see how Ambler can differentiate itself from the competition, what its value-add is, and whether it would be able to successfully compete in the market.

Competitive analysis comparing our concept to existing apps

Design Research:
To better understand the challenges our target audience faces and potential design requirements of our solution, we conducted research that sought to answer the following questions:

1. How does city life affect those with accessibility needs?

2. What are the major recurring pain points our users face?

3. How does the user journey change based on accessibility needs?

4. How can Ambler use this information to enhance user experience?

These questions were explored through primary and secondary research, including a popular media search and social media ethnography, and considered the experiences of people with varying accessibility needs. The key insights from this research are visualized below.

Competitive analysis comparing our concept to existing apps

Through this research, a number of specific obstacles were also identified. These obstacles can be divided into two categories: permanent and temporary.

Emotional Experience Mapping:

To gain better insight into users’ emotions over time, two types of travel were investigated: (1) interrupted routes and (2) uninterrupted routes. Throughout this research, users’ emotions and dignity throughout their navigation and travel experiences were specifically considered. An emotional experience map was created to help visualize this research.

Emotional experience map comparing interrupted and uninterrupted travel

Usability Testing:

Through usability testing, insights were found in four main areas:

1. Onboarding: The onboarding did little to inform users about the purpose of the app and its core benefits. It also used language that is not inclusive. This was remedied by removing onboarding and replacing it with pedestrian settings, similar to those in Google Maps. This way, the information gathered is about the route requirements and obstacles rather than the individual’s abilities.

2.Rating System: Users of the app found the trip rating system to be unclear and some users confused it with a “rate the app” popup. This feature was removed entirely, as rating the trip did not contribute to the core functionality of the app and added an unnecessary step for users.

3. Iconography: Usability testing indicated that icons seen in the app’s onboarding should be used in the navigation screens as well to indicate obstacles. This would help to ensure both consistency as well as “at-a-glance” information. In the refined prototype, iconography was applied more intentionally to provide a clearer understanding of the information presented.

4. Obstacles: Users should be able to view detailed information about the obstacles and to dismiss obstacles that do not apply to them. In the refined prototype, enabling users to customize which obstacles they wish to avoid in their pedestrian settings eliminated the need to dismiss obstacles. However, more obstacle details were implemented in to the final design.

🧍‍♀️🧍🧍‍♂️Team
Ahmed Islaih
Yael Hubert
Sarah Pawlett

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