ERIKA WANG


Canada Post: Carriers that Care

Canada Post has, for the last 17 years, been seeing a decline in their profits as letter delivery becomes replaces by the internet, while faster, cheaper competitors such as UPS and FedEx have been growing their shares in the parcel delivery market.

Carriers that Care is  an expansion on an idea proposed by the Canadian Union of Postal Workers as one way to expand Canada Post’s offerings.

I lead the identification of the necessary digital touchpoints, which lead the team and I to design a website, app, and dashboard to support postal workers and customers of Canada Post.
DurationOct 2023 - Dec 2023TeamJasper Precilla
Samaila Newaz
Tristan Turisno
Hugo DuranMy RolesDesign Strategy
UX/UI Design
UX Research
Content Design

context

Canadian seniors desire to age in their own homes, while their children live far away.

40% of Canadians aged 55+ reported experiencing a lack of companionship and regular social connections with other people.- National Institute on Aging (2020)

67% of Canadians reported believing that a lack of social connection negatively impacts their overall health and wellbeing.-  Telus Health (2020)

Children would move out and start families on their own, and while they would stay in contact, sometimes there are events that senior parents would not think to communicate as they did not think of them as significant. 

There are limitations on what seniors and their families can communicate over long distances, that are already being addressed by postal companies in other countries.

Source: https://www.deliveringcommunitypower.ca/our_plan

The Canadian Union of Postal Workers have been advocating for a senior check-in service since 2016.

The 'Delivering Community Power' initiative, created by the Canadian Union of Postal Workers (CUPW), are a set of proposals inspired by a sense of need for Canada Post to innovate - one of which include a proposal for a senior check-in service, which their earliest version dates back to 2016.Postal services are in a unique position to leverage their door-to-door network, so they can meet the emerging needs of seniors living independently.

Countries like Japan and France have already established successful senior check-in programs.

In Canada, letter carriers are one of the most trusted professionals.

Adapting the senior check-in service model for Canada Post’s customers

Carriers that Care is a service intended to be conducted largely in-person; however, processes such as sign-ups, check-in reporting by postal workers, and account viewing would best be conducted digitally - these are the interfaces that were designed for this project.



At first, we tried to emulate Japan Post.

Japan post check-in walkthrough

Our initial user flow for Canada Post


At first, my take on the project was to investigate Japan Post and France Post’s check-in modesl to see what our team could lift and fit within Canada Post. Between the two countries, there were 3 steps to the process: a pre-visit stage,  the visit, and the post-visit stage. We created a user flow to identify stakeholders involved at each of the phases.





In copying the Japan Post model, the only hints we had on what check-ins ACTUALLY looked like in Japan were these pdfs we found on their website, which included a list of questions that could be asked during the check-ins.

This left the team and I with some big questions: 

What were the surveys going to look like?

What were Canada Post carriers going to focus on during check-ins?

Japan Post’s questionnaire


A mockup for Canada Post with questions referenced from Japan Post.



We went to potential customers for feedback.

User interviews
We created a landing page to communicate the values of the service and to establish trust amongst potential customers. We then presented these to 7 users for feedback. 7 User interviews with those who lived independently from their parents Age range: 20 - 50
30-40 minutes

"Looks great, but it's not for me"

4 Key areas of concern7 of 7 user testers answered “no” when asked at the end if they would sign up for the service. By making “reporting on senior wellbeing” the primary purpose of the service, like Japan Post, users trusted the service less because it put the mail carrier in a position of authority without the necessary training of medical professionals.

Focusing the service on social isolation & loneliness

DESIGN SPRINT RESULTS

How might we address the social aspect of the health and wellbeing of seniors through Canada Post?


Following user interviews, we conducted further research into "aging at home", hoping to find an area that postal workers could comfortably intervene in.

Secondary research sourced from the National Institute of Ageing (NIA) - particularly, their "Ageing in the Right Place" report, defines four fundamental pillars that are essential in enabling older adults to age in the most appropriate setting where their personal preferences, circumstances, and care needs are met.

This framework helped my team and I scope down our service focus to the fourth pillar, improving social connections to reduce loneliness and social isolation. I felt that this focus would be essential in keeping the trust of Carriers that Care, as I feel that postal workers would not have the capacity to reasonably support the other three pillars without fundamental changes to their jobs.
Four fundamental pillars for enabling "Aging in the Right Place”
1. Promoting Preventive Health and Better Chronic Disease Management

3. Developing More Accessible and Safer Living Environments
2. Strengthening Home and Community Based Care & Supports for Unpaid Caregivers

4. Improving Social Connections to Reduce Loneliness and Social Isolation

How might we utilize the existing infrastructure of Canada Post to support socially isolated seniors?

Walkthrough The service comes in 3 steps. Each point involves different stakeholders and various touchpoints.

1. SIGN-UPS

Canadians can sign up for the service for themselves, or for their loved ones.
Anticipating cases where families will be signing up their senior parents without warning, multiple callouts will included throughout the process.


Additionally, Canada Post will not begin delivery of the service until the company receives vocal consent from the recipient. The progress of this consent process will be visible through the dedicated Carriers that Care dashboard, which will be accessible through the web portal or through logging into Canada Post's website.