Project Overview

BACKGROUND

The River Canoe Club (RCC) is one of the oldest canoe and kayak clubs in Australia. Located in Sydney NSW, the club caters to beginners, families, and skilled kayakers through various leisure paddling activities and events.

With an objective to encourage respect for our environment, waterways and wild places, RCC actively partners with PaddleNSW and Australian Canoeing in conducting various community initiatives such as safe paddling events, clean-up and litter prevention drives. They are keen to promote different ways in which the community can interact with the environment and support the conservation of our waterways.

MY ROLE

Conduct Stakeholder Interview
Conduct Survey & User Interviews
Analyse Competitors & Comparators
Synthesise Research Data
Designing Service Blueprint
Prioritising Features & Mapping MVP
Wireframing & Figma Prototyping
Present Solution to Clients

THE PROBLEM

Due to the pollution and abuse brought on by extensive urbanisation, the Cooks river has a bad reputation and perception in the neighbourhood. It is challenging to motivate people to care for the river or accept responsibility for its preservation.
The Cooks River Paddle Trail offers a chance to enjoy the positive aspect, although there isn't enough community awareness, solid infrastructure, or government support to enable this. The client needed our help to find ways in which we could involve the community with the Paddle trail and bring it to life.

TOOLS

Google Forms
Figma
Canva
Miro

How might we engage the community in the Cooks River
Paddle Trail?

TIMELINE

3 weeks (Aug-Sep 2022)

GOAL

  • Shift community perceptions

  • Engage the community

  • Receive government funding

THE FINAL OUTCOME

  • Service Blueprint - Informs digital and non-digital touchpoints to provide a holistic perspective.

  • A mobile responsive website design that becomes the destination to get all information and raises awareness about the Cooks River Paddle Trail

There is a negative perception about the Cooks river within the community, making it challenging to engage residents and pique their interest to care for or interact with the river.

TEAM

Anastasia Ovsayannikova
Meg Darmody
Reshma Shenoy

Design Approach

1.Research

Our initial kick-off meeting and stakeholder interviews helped us understand the brief and establish the project expectations, current challenges and goals from the River Canoe Club's perspective. For a closer look at the actual landscape, we visited the Cooks River along with our client and observed the surroundings and existing infrastructure from a local community member’s perspective.

39

Survey Responses

8

Interviews

KEY FINDINGS

After compiling data from the survey, interviews and observational study we identified common trends and themes leading us to the main insights and opportunities, which served as the cornerstones of our suggested solution. At this stage, we presented the most crucial elements for the users and the business were prioritised after discussion with the stakeholder.

To understand the Inner west community perspective further we conducted :
1. Survey - To explore individual motivation towards outdoor activities and their perceptions towards the Cooks river.
2. Interviews - To delve even deeper into individual experiences, we spoke to inner west community residents, paddle enthusiasts, club volunteers, local kayak business owners and members of RCC partners associations.

CHALLENGES

UNDERSTANDING WHAT EXISTS

  • No signage or Paddle Trail routes information.

  • Insufficient access points for locals to enter the river.

  • Concerns about safety at certain access points.

  • Minimum knowledge about the Paddle Trail amongst locals.

OPPORTUNITY

  • There are few established access points, parks, playgrounds, walking and bike path with parking, cafes, kayak hire shops and toilet facilities.

  • Aboriginal artworks and history poles exist along the walking path.

  • Easy access to public transport and multiple entry points.

Currently, the River Canoe Club has a page on their website (image on right) which provides information about the Paddle Trail. However, it has limited reach and access to the club website visitors and club members.

SEEKING INSPIRATION

We looked at websites around the world and within Australia related to paddle trails, outdoor activities, travel & adventure to get inspiration on how they are delivering information, services, and key features when it comes to arranging outdoor activities. It helped us think about ideas and features that would be relevant to our context and great the biggest impact.Some of the common features observed :

  • Maps/Routes/Guides

  • Logistical Information - time, skill level, cost, weather, transport.

  • Equipment & Safety Gear

  • Things to Explore/Activities

  • User Generated Content - photos, reviews, blogs.

2.Define

Through our research data, we identified common characteristics in terms of behaviours and preferences for a community member that helped us clearly define a primary user archetype for our scenario. They are open-minded about trying new activities and more inclined to participate in these outdoor activities with their friends and family. This target segment is most likely to interact with the Paddle trail and would have the biggest influence on consideration.

Who are we designing for?

How will the Sociable Explorer interact with the Paddle Trail?

From the research, we understood it's important to address the Cooks River Paddle Trail from a service design point of view and visualise the holistic approach. The service blueprint helped us outline the end-to-end experience of the Sociable explorer while engaging with the Cooks River Paddle Trail. It described the physical and digital touchpoints, dependencies, integrations and interactions to enable this community experience. It also helped us outline a proposed business model for the Paddle trail highlighting the key parameters associated with this initiative.

Image shows infographic version of the service blueprint shown above

Image shows business model canvas outlined using Miro

3.Ideate

With all the information from the blueprint, we were able to pull out key opportunity areas and ideated on them for different digital and non-digital ideas that would address the needs and goals of the Social explorer. We then prioritised ideas considering the level of impact and effort it would take to put these into action for our MVP solution.

Image shows the key opportunity areas and HMW statements we ideated.

Image shows the feature prioritisation matrix, the orange post-it indicates ideas considered for the MVP solution.

4.Design

OUR MVP SOLUTION

We chose to concentrate on the digital solution based on the user needs, business objectives, time limits, and the degree of impact. The MVP solution is a mobile responsive website for the Cooks River Paddle Trail. With the mobile-first design approach and understanding that Sociable Explorer is always on the go exploring, the mobile screen designs were prioritised for the scope of the design phase. Based on the information architecture and user flow, we designed a digital prototype using Figma.

The website consists of the following screens which tie back to our research findings and opportunities.

  • Home- Provides an overview and access to the different features and sections.

  • Plan your paddle- Provides suggested routes, maps, paddle equipment hiring information and spots along the way.

  • Explore the cooks- Informs the community of the history and the environmental aspects of the river.

  • Things to do- Recommends the different activities to do around the river.

FIGMA PROTOTYPE

5.Deliver

While my team member was creating the high-fidelity visual design and style guide for the Home Page, I conducted some guerilla testing sessions on our prototype with peers, stakeholders and incorporated feedback related to the content, page navigation and section titles. We presented our final solution with a detailed handover document and annotations for further project purposes.

“This is really impressive! It was amazing to see how your Paddle Trail website solution can be a front end in bringing out fascinating spaces of leisure, education and environment for the Cooks River.”
- Cooks River Alliance Stakeholder

“You have done great work in 3 weeks time and this comes at the perfect time to showcase the Cooks River Paddle Trail potential for seeking the government funding.“
- President River Canoe Club

OUR IMPACT

Reflection

VALUE OF CRITICAL FEEDBACK

In order to communicate progress, and prevent any last-minute surprises, regular customer meetings were essential. However, we received limited critical input on our deliverables, making it challenging to recognise areas of improvement. Instead, we frequently got feedback from our peers and coworkers and came to understand the importance of establishing feedback expectations upfront.

TEAM WORK MAKES THE DREAM WORK

DESIGN DECISION FEASIBILITY

Post research, we realised the big picture for the Paddle Trail and found it difficult to narrow down our scope and focus areas. The project objectives, key results, target archetype, scenario helped us arrive at our MVP solution. It is essential to think about the research insights and business goals at every step to then tie it back to how it meets the sweet spot.

A solution that we could all be proud of resulted from being flexible with the team and establishing a collaborative environment where everyone can express their ideas. Our kickoff team charter discussion helped us play to our strengths and complement each other at every step.

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