Exploration
Building up our knowledge on the topics of disability and mobility situations
A first piece of desk research lets us dive into the topics and start to adapt our approach.
We round out our research by speaking directly with associations specialised in the field of disability. Further discussions are held with professionals (researchers and designers) who have carried out studies on the specific needs of populations with disabilities, particularly in connection with mobility.
Immersion
Taking the full measure of the daily challenges
Thanks to the associations we approached, we organise meetings with several volunteer users. We accompany them on trips by public transport and then at the station, where they share with us, on the ground, the obstacles they face in these situations (moving around, using the kiosks and automatic machines, calling on specific assistance, etc.).
Recruiting a panel
Recruiting 20 travellers with a visual or hearing impairment
More than ever for a project like this, we are keen to capture as broad a diversity of uses and situations as possible.
With the client, we identify suitable recruitment criteria: degree of impairment, area of residence, travel habits, assistive equipment.
The panel is recruited across the whole of France to include varied environments (types of infrastructure, modes of transport and network accessibility levels).
Initial interviews
Understanding travel practices and contextualising individual situations
An initial conversation is held with participants to better understand their mobility habits, the difficulties they run into, and the compensation (or avoidance) strategies they put in place during their journeys.
This time also gives us the opportunity to introduce the objectives and the way the longitudinal follow-up phase will work, carried out with a digital diary.
Longitudinal follow-up with a digital diary
Following the daily lives of partially sighted, hard-of-hearing, blind and profoundly deaf travellers
Every evening for 10 days including 2 weekends, the participants are asked for an in-the-moment recap of their day’s journeys. We use instant messaging through which travellers send us their answers, either in writing or via voice message, as they prefer.
Each morning, we collect the previous day’s data and adapt the next steps of the follow-up based on the journeys the users have planned. The situations they run into are logged in a tracking spreadsheet to be explored further during the closing interview.
Closing interviews
Rounding out individual feedback based on the follow-up period and the panel's feedback
We interview the travellers in the panel again at the end of the follow-up period.
The aim is to come back to certain situations that arose during this period, but also to deepen our knowledge of other notable situations that hadn’t been brought up before then.
Finally, we also discuss some improvement directions identified during the study in this interview, in an exploratory discussion.
Co-analysis workshop
Aligning and enriching our analysis with the project team and the operational reference frameworks
First, the data analysis brings out mobility habits, the associated needs and barriers, to map out the situation. The compensation strategies that have been put in place are a very rich source of opportunities that different levers could help support. That’s what we discuss with the project team during this workshop.
After presenting the findings from the study, we invite the participants to develop a theme of their choice. The aim is to start defining strategic elements to embed in the roadmap. Representatives of user associations are present alongside the group’s business teams to co-build the first directions in response to the issues that have been raised.
Research repository
Centralising user knowledge in a format the teams can use
We centralise all the material gathered during the different sessions with the travellers involved in the project into a database. From a single entry point, the project team can access the raw data (interview recordings, audio or written answers during the follow-up). A short summary highlights the key insights surfaced during the exchange. A wealth of information for future projects related to the topic. The service-design team plans, in particular, to use this knowledge base to create personas and lay out journeys specific to the disability situations studied.
