Research Overview
Strengthening rural elderly care with community engagement
2024
User Research
Co-creation Workshops
UI/UX Design
Project
Snap & Go
This report documents the design process of the "Snap & Go" platform, addressing the pressing challenges faced by elderly individuals and their carers in Sai Kung's rural villages. Sai Kung's geography, characterized by remote locations and limited transportation, creates significant barriers for elderly residents to access services and support.
Recognizing these challenges, the Jockey Club Design Institute for Social Innovation of The Hong Kong Polytechnic University (J.C.DISI), in collaboration with The Hong Kong Council of Social Service (HKCSS), launched the 13th seasonal innovation theme, “Community Support for Carers,” under the “PolyU Jockey Club Operation SoInno” initiative in 2022. This program invited NGOs to propose innovative ideas for fostering community-based solutions to support carers, leading to the inception of the Snap & Go project.
Through extensive research conducted between 2022 and 2024, this report explores how technology can facilitate timely care, alleviate caregiver stress, and mobilize neighborhood support networks to foster stronger community bonds. "Snap & Go" serves as a model for integrating digital tools into caregiving frameworks, offering a scalable and impactful solution for isolated communities.
Introduction
The urgency of community-based elderly support
In Sai Kung’s rural villages, elderly residents and their carers face significant challenges, including isolation, limited public services, and transportation barriers. Many carers, often elderly themselves, struggle with physical and emotional strain, making it difficult to manage caregiving responsibilities effectively.
Snap & Go bridges this gap by connecting elderly individuals and their carers with local volunteers who can assist with a variety of tasks requested through the app. Managed by the Sai Kung District Community Centre (SKDCC), the platform ensures seamless coordination between volunteers and the community, providing much-needed support and fostering a stronger, interconnected network of care.
Snap & Go
Simplifying volunteer assistance
Snap & Go is an intuitive mobile platform that enables elderly residents and their carers to request assistance from local volunteers for a variety of tasks. Designed with ease of use in mind, the app simplifies the process of finding and coordinating help for daily activities, from running errands to providing companionship.
Managed by the Sai Kung District Community Centre (SKDCC), the app ensures that volunteer efforts are effectively organized and responsive to the community’s needs. By streamlining communication and task management, Snap & Go strengthens community connections while promoting a more supportive environment for both carers and elderly individuals.
Design Objectives
Streamlining community collaboration and care management
The design of Snap & Go centered on addressing the unique challenges faced by elderly individuals, carers, and volunteers in Sai Kung. The primary goal was to create a user-friendly platform that simplifies the process of requesting and offering assistance while fostering a sense of community collaboration.
A key focus was ensuring accessibility for all users, particularly elderly individuals with varying levels of technological literacy, while also meeting the operational needs of carers and volunteers. The platform incorporates role-specific dashboards tailored to each user group, optimizing interactions for elderly users, carers, volunteers, and administrators. Snap & Go also enhances communication between volunteers and SKDCC staff, ensuring seamless coordination while reducing administrative workload. This allows staff to dedicate more time to organizing and supporting volunteers, ultimately improving service delivery.
By streamlining task matching, enabling carers and elderly individuals to request help easily, and equipping SKDCC staff with tools to oversee and monitor operations effectively, Snap & Go provides a scalable model that supports rural caregiving while strengthening community bonds.
Workshops aimed to refine the design brief, identify real-world challenges, and develop user-friendly features, ensuring the platform’s adaptability, sustainability, and potential for widespread usage.
Further Potential
Scaling impact for broader communities
While "Snap & Go" was developed to address the unique challenges of Sai Kung, its flexible framework has the potential to inspire similar solutions in other rural and urban settings. By leveraging neighborhood networks and digital tools, the project offers a blueprint for scalable caregiving systems that can adapt to diverse contexts.
Beyond caregiving, the platform’s principles of fostering community engagement and promoting mutual aid can be applied to other social challenges, from disaster response to neighborhood revitalization. This report underscores the transformative potential of combining technology with local insights to create sustainable, people-centered solutions.
CHAPTER LIST
Chapter 1
Project Background
Chapter 2
Current State of the Sai Kung Residence
Chapter 3
Stages of Product Development
Chapter 4
Product Development
Chapter 5
Design Principles
Chapter 6
Design Principles Implementation
Dive into the SKDCC Snap & Go project case study
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