Roue
Built app concept and prototype in 24 hours dedicated to improving equitable access to live experiences.
ROLE
Product designer
TIMELINE
April 2024
SKILLS
User Research, Wireframing, Prototyping, Interaction Design
BACKGROUND
Roue was my team’s submission to the 2024 CreateSC Designathon, an annual design competition hosted by the University of Southern California geared towards increasing diversity, equity, and inclusion in the realm of digital product design. Teams were given 24 hours to develop a digital solution to an ongoing issue in a designated problem space.
The ask?
Develop a mobile application platform aimed at enhancing accessibility and enriching the entertainment experience for individuals needing medical accommodations.
We began our preliminary research online, where we felt we could grasp both a broader and deeper understanding of what accessibility issues in entertainment existed through various qualitative and quantitative sources such as personal blogs, statistical research, and current ADA policies. A prevalent, yet unresolved problem we noticed was this:
Problem Statement:
Disabled consumers face accessibility issues at live events, during anywhere from the ticket purchasing process to assistance throughout the duration of the event.
The first issue was the lack of information about venue accessibility, which created a hindrance to disabled visitors prior to even purchasing the ticket.
“Two in five [disabled consumers who] had booking issues said they weren't given clear information about access at the venue (43.4%) or about accessible parking (40.6%).”
Source: Which? and the Research Institute for Disabled Consumers
“It’s always difficult to find out how accessible a venue is. You need to search a few pages before you can find out this type of information… More often than not I end up phoning specific venues to get these details.”
Source: Which? and the Research Institute for Disabled Consumers
These inputs led to our first insight:
RESEARCH INSIGHT 1:
Disabled consumers need a clear and reliable method to gather detailed information about a venue’s accessibility to inform their purchase decisions.
Furthermore, we found that assistive services throughout the event duration itself were also lacking. Several venues listed on their official website that only entry and exit assistive services were available, with no formal assistive services to accommodate those during the event itself.
Lack of in-event assistance at the LA Memorial Coliseum.
Lack of in-event assistance at Sofi Stadium.
Moreover, in addition to the lack of assistive services, difficulties navigating accessible paths towards essential locations like restrooms, elevators, and concession stands makes it significantly more difficult for disabled visitors to exercise independence, thereby preventing them from enjoying the live event experience to its full potential.
“I rarely drink beverages while at a ball game in fear of not being able to find a functional, accessible restroom.”
Source: Byrne, Sheri. “People with disabilities and sports.”
“When I arrived at the venue there was confusion about how I should enter and one member of staff was completely dismissive,’ said one survey participant...The disabled toilet was far away from seating and involved trying to get past the queue for the bar.”
Source: Which? and the Research Institute for Disabled Consumers
“Many stores try to corral crowds in tight, coiled velvet ropes which are next to impossible to negotiate in a wheelchair without asking for help.”
Source: Byrne, Sheri. “People with disabilities and sports.”
“People with disabilities need to be included in all mainstream sports as both spectators and participants. Representation matters. Independence matters.”
Source: Byrne, Sheri. “People with disabilities and sports.”
This lead to our second insight:
RESEARCH INSIGHT 2:
The quality of assistive services and navigational resources (which affects a visitor’s ability to exercise independence) dictates their overall event experience.
Based upon our research and subsequent insights, we developed the following question to guide our work.
Leading Question:
How might we create a more equitable and enriching live event experience for disabled visitors?
SOLUTION
Introducing Roue, an entertainment management tool that combines a user-based venue review web extension with an all-in-one ticketing and services platform to increase equitable access to live experiences.
A STEP-BY-STEP:
Register with the appropriate disability identification to store your tickets in the in-app ticket wallet.
Activate your ticket at the door to access in-venue services and resources.
Save hassle by mapping live, accessible routes to your destination.
Avoid inaccessible, crowded lines that draw your focus away from the event by ordering concessions and merchandise directly to your seat.
Review your experience with the venue after the event, which then gets pushed to the Roue extension to help guide future visitors.
NOTE: Due to time constraints, we were only able to wireframe the app platform portion. The role of the app platform in the full Roue ecosystem is illustrated below.
In short:
Roue enriches the overall event experience for mobility-impaired individuals by facilitating a cycle of accessibility-friendly venue discovery and feedback, which further incentivizes venues to not just provide for, but to prioritize its disabled guests.
PROCESS
Based upon our collected insights, we plotted a user flow with digital features that targeted each of the pain points mentioned during the research phase.
Once we had finished the user flow, we identified an opportunity to circumvent its linear nature by introducing another experience touchpoint that would connect the end of the flow to the start––namely, an extension for user reviews so that positive venue experiences could go on to generate ticket sales.
Though we did not wireframe the actual extension, the two-part component of our product became our major selling point when it came time to submit our work.
After solidifying our user flow, we began wire-framing low-fidelity prototypes to test out our ideas.
Low fidelity and high fidelity version of unactivated
ticket screen.
Low fidelity and high fidelity version of path-mapping screen.
Low fidelity and high fidelity version of the
delivery services screen.
DESIGN
COLOR PALETTE
TYPOGRAPHY
LOGOS
Since the core tenet of Roue was accessibility, we wanted the design system to be more simple in order to convey the product’s ease-of-use and to establish trust. For this reason, we chose fewer colors and typefaces in order to make a consistent, yet strong visual identity.
REFLECTIONS
Here were some of my greatest takeaways from the process:
External touchpoints can be really cool!
I believe that what made Roue more than just an ordinary app and instead something truly special was our additional touchpoint––by connecting the app user flow to ticket purchases through a web extension, we created a feedback loop that 1) allowed for disabled visitors to connect with one another and 2) encouraged venues to prioritize disabled visitors more as genuine customers.
Get to the root.
Ableism within live event spaces is not an isolated, pin-pointed issue but rather a series of systemic injustices rooted deeply everywhere from how tickets are sold to how venues are run. Learning more about the sources and then tackling them directly made for a much more fulfilling end product.
Roue ended up placing 3rd out of over 20 team submissions! This was my first in-person design competition, and the experience overall really taught me a lot about how to organize a team and lead a design process while also saving space for fun :) Special thank you to my teammates Aaron and Lauryn, without whom this project would not have been possible.