ForWheelz
A user-friendly approach to a traditional wheelchair ordering process
Timeline
May, 22 to Continue
Team Members
Nick Parker
Taimi
My Responsibilities
Secondary Research
Interaction Design
Visual Design
The Challenge
For someone who is trying to buy a new wheelchair, they need to do intensive research full of back and forth mischief manoeuvring to be able to finalize a wheelchair. And the process to customize a wheelchair to fit their needs is a whole different thing in itself.
Customizing an active wheelchair requires one to fill out a lengthy form, which is quite confusing in itself to comprehend and understand. There is constantly referring back to another brochure to be able to fill the customization form.
The current ordering process is designed for the dealers in mind not the users
The process is complicated because the measurements are involved and there are too many moving parts in a wheelchair that need to be addressed in order to properly make a wheelchair fit for an individual’s body.
Existing Landscape
Based on our research, we discovered that customers are experiencing the same issues regardless of their manufacturers.
All the custom wheelchair manufacturers have an order form which is quite confusing and tedious to fill, let alone the order processing and manufacturing time.
To be able to successfully fill out the form, users need to refer back and forth to the wheelchair brouchers to have an idea of the kind of accessory they need.
And, there’s a huge backlash from the customers who have been through the process themselves!
For first time buyers
People who are in a need to buy a custom wheelchair for the first time usually have bare-minimum information on what wheelchair fits them perfectly. They have never measured themselves, nor they are aware of the accessories or the type of wheelchair they might need.
For that reason, they need a dealer or someone who already has experience with purchasing a custom wheelchair to help them make decisions because once the order is placed it’s not likely to be changed or altered. So, everything needs to be point-accurate before placing the order.
For a regular buyer
Regular customers, who already have experience ordering wheelchairs, are well aware of their body proportions and the type of wheelchairs they need.
Dealers find it comparatively much easier to go through the process of ordering a wheelchair for them, than someone who is ordering it for the first time.
Personas
From the research we conducted, we came up with 4 persona groups based on common traits and created an ideal journey for these groups.
Primary User
Simon
24 years old | Paraplegic
Primary User
Father | Parent of a 15 year old quadriplegic
Secondary User
Sam
Motion | Wheelchair sales person
Secondary User
Bob
Business Owner | Head of Manufacturing
Problem Statement
A new wheelchair user who wants to buy a custom wheelchair needs an alternative user-friendly ordering process which helps them make informed choices because the current way of ordering a custom wheelchair is quite a tedious and confusing task to do.
Assumptions
• Would manufacturers be open to a change?
• Do wheelchair users even need an online interface to order their wheelchairs
• Our product would benefit ‘Motion’ in their business
• It would help reduce dealers’ involvement in the ordering process
• How are we gonna consider the possibility of a user measuring the wheelchair by themselves?
Opportunities - HMWs
Gathering the user insights helped us to come up with opportunities for a potential solution.
Framing questions such as ‘How Might We’ statements helped our team to collaboratively work to find solution opportunities driven by the user insights
Hypothesis
We believe that providing new wheelchair users with user-friendly wheelchair customization options which they can preview would result in a more usable, delightful and personalized user experience.
A user-friendly tool for wheelchair dealerships to integrate with their existing websites, where users could customize their wheelchairs and place orders.
We used card sorting to sort the information of our content into intuitive themes to help users easily find things they need to customise their wheelchairs
Ideal Task Flow
Task flow diagrams help to define a series of tasks a user would need to complete a particular task
Quick testable wireframe prototypes
1. Budget & Manufacturer Sorting
Through this a user is narrowing their search focus to fit their budget and the manufacturers which are available for that budget
2. Pre-built options
This area would get populated with pre-built wheelchairs for the price and manufacturer that a user would specify.
This acts as a secondary option for them to choose.
1. Process
The top section will have a list of items that need to be completed in order to successfully order a wheelchair
3. Instruction blueprint & Video
An instruction blueprint & a video would help them measure their body dimensions by themselves without relying on any external help.
2. Measurement Types
There are different kinds of measurements for a wheelchair that a user needs to customize the chair with their body type.
4. Pick an option & Summary
For each item category and their sub-category there would a list of options for a user to choose from.
1. 360 View
Users would be able to see a real-time rendering of their wheelchair, as they start selecting multiple options to customize their wheelchair.
2. Save Progress
By saving the current item progress would lead them to move to the next item in the process. Same goes for the next ones too.