canada post's
carriers that care

An experience design project focusing on supporting socially
isolated seniors through Canada Post.

Roles

Team

Project Scope

Tools

UX Research, Strategy, Product Design

Hugo Duran, Erika Wang, Jasper Precilla,
Tristan Turisno, Samaila Newaz

5 week project 2023

Figma

brief

For a 6 week class project, my team was tasked with providing an
experience design intervention for a researched client. After 2
weeks of research, we solidified the need for an intervention
for Canada Post.

the client

In their 2022 financial report, Canada Post revealed that letter
delivery has been on the decline for the past 17 years. In the
parcel delivery space, they’ve been losing market share to faster,
cheaper competitors such as FedEx or UPS. As a response, the
crown corporation seeks to extend its offerings beyond traditional
postage services.

proposal

Carriers that Care is a service focused on delivering
companionship to socially isolated seniors through a subscription
based check-in, utilizing the existing Canada Post network and
infrastructure. Our goal is to support Canadian seniors who
desire to live independently, update long-distance families, and
extend the Canada Post services beyond mail delivery.
Canada Post’s status as one of the most trusted services for
Canadians served as a great leverage for our proposed service.

opportunity

After cross referencing successful programs within other
countries’ postal services, we found out that the Canadian
Union of Postal Workers (CUPW), has been advocating for the
introduction of this service since 2016.

We wanted to take the success of these already stablished programs
and test them within the high aging Canadian population.

framing

user research

Through a 3 day sprint session, we aimed to get a better
understanding of our company’s goals, services and challenges
dealing with all the stakeholders.

Our sprint was comprised of activities such as HMW’s, golden
path explorations, and competitor analyses, we found ourselves
battling with establishing trust from the elder’s families,
gaining consent, and building rapport with the elders.

user interviews

We soon after did 2-3 user interviews each, to verify that our
concerns were in line with our users. We had to make sure that
we were interviewing people who lived away from their parents,
who cared about their parents independence.

Our main critique dealt with medical ethics and the service
feeling impersonal. We also received a common critique which
said “I feel like my parents would just ask why are you not
coming? Why is the mail person coming for you”

With these new found concerns, we had to redefine our service value
further. We consulted the Canadian National Institute of Ageing
framework for supporting older adults ageing in their homes.

As we saw friction with the idea of having a postal worker being in a
position of power with the elderly, we shifted our focus to improving
social connections to reduce loneliness and social isolation.

carrier's that care - final prototype

To explain our service design proposal, we decided to separate our
touchpoints into 3 separatee phases. Phase 1, Canada Post product
page. Phase 2, Postal Worker App. Phase 3, Text and Email Updates.

Carriers that Care begins in the Canada Post website. The homepage
provides clear information for seniors and families registering loved ones,
emphasizing transparency on service logistics, limitations, and expectations. ​

Once the service is set up, the Mail Carrier App gives the carrier
access to resources that may be needed during a visit, and the reports
necessary to complete the visit. Once the visit is done, and the report filed, the families are notified
through text or email notifications, both leading to the Carriers that
Care Dashboard.

canada post subdomain

The Carriers that Care homepage provides clear information for
seniors and families registering loved ones, emphasizing transparency
on service logistics, limitations, and expectations. The onboarding assumes users have a pre-existing Canada Post
account. It follows a standard sign-up process, collecting recipient
information, visitation availability, specific visit questions, optional
details about the recipient, and payment preferences. Users choose
notification preferences (text or email) and are informed that service
starts after recipient confirmation.

mail carrier app

While on route, the mail carrier will have a list of recipients to visit.
They can give a call to inform the recipient, they are on their way for a
20-30 minute visit. Upon visit, the two would have a conversation
with the recipient and assist with small tasks. Post-visit, they will be
prompted to complete a report the details of their visitation, formatted to be
short and easy to reduce the cognitive overhead for the busy postal worker. ​

The mail carrier also has access to resources for managing unforeseen
situations and can quickly connect with emergency services for urgent issues.

post visit updates

Subscribers will receive visitation updates via text or email and
redirected to the Canada Post dashboard for further details. Here,
users will be able to update their account information, edit visitation
details and manage family members on the plan. As well, get to know
the mail carrier visiting their loved one and be informed of any changes. ​

Send a Gift, is an extension of Carrier that Care which leverages
Canada Post existing service to purchase gift through Canada Shop to
promote Canadian-owned businesses. The recipients’ family can
purchase a gift through Canada Post and have it hand-delivered
during Carrier that Care visits.

discovery

It was important to us to consider the discovery process, as we
wanted to appeal to a mass audience, and needed to make sure we
were as seen as possible. During our second sprint, I came up with the
idea of a package sticker, that would be put on every package that
was dealt by Canada Post. The primary way we expect customers to
discover the service is through word of mouth or online advertisements,
however these stickers offer an opportunity to invite existing
customers to learn about the service, while staying true to the brand assets.

addressing user concenrns

Throughout our user interviews, the most common concern dealt with
building personal connections with seniors and their safety. To avoid
feeling impersonal, we included a section for the families signing up
their senior relatives to fill, in which they can include their hobbies and
interests. By doing so, there are opportunities for the carriers to have
a personal point of connection with the seniors, or just use them as a
conversation starter.

Part of the discovery experience is learning about the
service, the potential safety concerns and how the services interact with each
other. For this, we created different touchpoints, through the website
and a pamphlet. Through the subdomain we treated it as a safeguard
to make sure that the families are discussing the service with their
loved ones. This is because consent is the highest priority for the
service, and we want to make sure that the service does not
commence until consent has been given.

brand redesign

To address concerns from initial user testing where people were
confused about how Carriers that Care differentiates from
Canada Post’s letter and parcel delivery services, I created a
dedicated design system for the service, where I focused on the
components, color and type. ​

This new illustration style is used to guide our branding towards a
more approachable and familiar feeling. These also help us guide
our interactions, or if there is a lot of information to digest.