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"I do find it really helpful, you need both sides of the conversation, after all. It really complements your own thoughts."
Product-service design
01 De Stijl van
mijn Stap
Partner/Client Ineke
Role Allround designer
Academic literature and interviews revealed that feelings of stigma, loss of independence, and identity outweighed concerns about functionality. These psychological barriers reframed the redesign, shifting its focus from improving the walker itself to supporting its adoption.
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Through interviews, observations, and additional research, I narrowed the target group to older women who require a walker due to age-related mobility decline.
Through first-person perspective studies, expert feedback, and user testing with AI-generated visualisations, a key insight emerged: redesigning the walker itself would not sufficiently increase adoption. Instead, the findings suggested that involving users in the design of their own walker could increase emotional ownership. This hypothesis became the starting point for exploring how the adoption process itself could be redesigned.
The largest opportunity lies between recommendation and adoption, where psychological barriers emerge during the contemplation phase. Behaviour change theory identified this as the ideal moment to redesign the onboarding process. A physiotherapist was selected as the implementation partner due to feasibility, credibility and the existing collaboration.
Ideation and maybe eises
Process
Inspired by my grandmother's experiences with her walker, I spoke with a physiotherapist and several older adults to better understand the challenges surrounding walker use. These conversations initially directed the project towards increasing safety by redesigning the walker. However, continued research, conversation and reflection revealed that improving the walker itself would have little impact if people were reluctant to use it in the first place.
Adoption over safety
Ideation
Research findings informed an extensive exploration of concepts aimed at increasing walker adoption.
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Turning point
Onboarding proces
Experience prototype insights
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Experience prototype
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Concept development
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"De Stijl van mijn Stap" is a co-creation toolkit integrated into the onboarding process of adopting a walker. Rather than simply providing a mobility aid, the toolkit guides users through customising and personalising a walker through out loud reflection with a companion, helping them build a positive emotional connection before adopting one.
Throughout the project, ideas were continuously generated, prototyped, tested, and refined with users and stakeholders. The final visual identity reflects the needs of the target group through high-contrast graphics, soft colours, and clear typography, creating an experience that feels both accessible and welcoming.
Design evaluation
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"De Stijl van mijn Stap"
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To investigate whether combining customisation and reflection could increase emotional involvement during walker adoption, a mixed-methods prototype was developed to evaluate the hypothesis and inform the next design iteration.
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Based on the insights from the experience prototype, ideation was conducted and one concept was selected. The resulting phygital toolkit guides older women through a co-creation activity, enabling them to explore and customise a walker that reflects their personal preferences and lifestyle. These insights also informed key design decisions, including a compact and lightweight toolkit, a simplified tablet interface, and the use of physical question cards to reduce screen complexity while encouraging reflection.
"Yes then I would use it, because I would be the only one/first one having it."
A phygital toolkit supporting a shared activity for elderly woman, to explore, feel, and put together their own personal walker to overcome psychological barriers towards walker adoption. A key design decision was connecting the activity cards with binder rings, preventing loss while becoming an integral part of the interaction.
The toolkit is an interconnected system, which means all interactions influence one another. The cards control the pace and order, by flipping the cards the interface moves to the next step. If you would like to go back and change your decision, this would also be done with the cards by finding the tab you want to go back to and flipping it back.
The kit consists of 25 cards, whereof fourteen of them are questions to be discussed with the companion to encourage verbal reflection and so the tablet as the design assistant can give informed advice by turning one of the options blue.
Each part ends with a card indicating leaving and instructing to confirm their choice on the screen . All cards have to be flipped to fulfill the activity, however users should not feel restricted by them.
Experience prototype
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Experience prototype
Walkthrough of prototype
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Click through front page
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Step 1-6 Top two options
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Click through the material options
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Square next to backrest to alter color
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Explore red, brown & yellow but choose red
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Square next to bag
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Make it red too
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Click through the naming
All other elements represent the intended final experience.
This is the digital part of the experience prototype, so without the reflective question cards. Every click that is not decision making is a card that you flip in the real design interaction.
The evaluation identified several design improvements while reinforcing the importance of completing the activity with a loved one, supported by professional guidance.
The participant's insights suggest that the concept can positively support walker adoption. The presence of a companion and the cards facilitated meaningful reflection, while the toolkit supported exploration. Customization increased acceptance of the walker, and personalization created a sense of ownership, making it feel like it already belonged to her. Together, these
"You actually feel embarrassed because of what certain people might think, even though I don't do that myself"
"It’s changed how I see it, it feels not as old-fashioned. The color and the design help with that. It gives me more acceptance, and the confidence just follows."
"Then I would take this one, because it already feels a bit like it’s mine. I can’t really explain it ,it’s more of a feeling."
This concept was developed under the assumption that all walker components would be modular, enabling full customization. As this project focused on the design concept rather than product development, the customizable components were not produced. Future work would involve validating the final design through further testing and developing these modular parts for manufacturing, allowing users to assemble and purchase a personalized walker.
Future potential
Positive social influence
Stimulates reflection
Changed perception
Bridging adoption gap
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Implementation of De Stijl van mijn Stap
Individual
Bachelor graduation project
"What if we were to design a walker together with everything you want and need, would you want it then?