Challenge
"How might we position Wheel the World as the leader in the accessibility industry to enhance their awareness?"
Solution
An Organizational Change Strategy with an Expert Department to shape Wheel the World as the pioneer of the industry.
Project Brief
As an accessible travel agency, Wheel the World (known as “WTW”) has various expertises relevant to accessibility and large offerings of accessible travel options, making it a great solution for accessible travel experience. Currently, WTW wants to position itself as the leader in accessible travel. They require a global communication strategy to make society aware that accessibility is a priority and a right for all human beings. How can WTW position itself within the US and around the world at the forefront of thought leadership and change?
This is a comprehensive strategy design plan for the mentioned challenge. While developing a corporate strategy, Vision & Goal (Mental Model), Organizational Change, Service & Products, User Experience and Visual Identity are five layers in a pyramid model(refer to the following chart) which a Design Strategist should consider. This project mainly tackle the Organizational Change and User Experience layers in the pyramid model. After making various analyses, It plans to set up an Expert Department within WTW to offer various professional guidelines, training programs and ranking criterions in the accessibility industry. It also plans to upgrade WTW's brand to a more inclusive figure and create merchandise to help WTW reach more target consumers. These actions would emphasize the professional WTW’s status and enhance its authority, helping them to build their leadership in accessible travel and pave the way for their future cooperation with various partners.
Project Info
Project Type: Organization Change Strategy, Service Design, Brand Strategy + Brand Identity Design
Client: Wheel the World
Status: Done in Mar, 2023
Project Team
Team of Four:
Crystal Chen, Jessica Li, Kshitij Palresha, Napasorn Kijjarouk
My Part:
Design Research (Quan - Data Analytics + Qual - Stakeholder Interview), Information Synthesis, Organization Design, Ideation + Prototype, Brand Identity Design, Visualization
Research & Design Process
Desk Research
30+
Focus Group Observation
3
Individual Interview
12
Information Synthesis
Prototype & Test
4
01 Context & Brief
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Wheel the World (WTW) is an online travel agency dedicated to offering accessible travel experiences for disabilities.
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The founders are disabilities, they can relate and understand disabilities' pain points during travel, and have the expertise to offer helps for them.
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They are suffering from exposing their brand, and we were hired to enhance their brand awareness.
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We offer organizational strategy combined with brand strategy to help WTW build up its professional figure and leadership position in the online travel industry.
02 The Research
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We conducted 30+ market research to understand the current landscape of the accessibility travel industry, and WTW's key strengths compared to competitors.
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I gathered the informations and summarized them into key data numbers.
Current Landscape
WTW & Competitor Pool
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I visualized WTW's strengths compared to the competitors with Radar Map to make it easier to understand.
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I mapped out the stakeholders relevant to WTW, and conducted 12 interviews to understand their user journey and the needs behind the user journey.
Interview
Stakeholder Map
Journey Map
03 The Findings
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I categorized the stakeholders into 3 groups, with priority of the key stakeholders.
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I extract, summarize, and synthesize information to turn demands of different stakeholders into actionable design direction.
Stakeholder Priority
1st Priority Target
2nd Priority Target
3rd Priority Target
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The whole process has been through the following steps:
1. Extract key words from the interviews(shown last page;
2. Find out commonalities then categorize them based on different keywords;
3. Find out connections and relations between different categories;
4. List out findings and turn them into solution direction.
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I concluded 3 findings after the synthesis process and refined the challenge definition based on the findings.
Finding 1
Assessment Profile Matching, Accessibility Mapping, Expertise Support, and Accessible Product Rental are WTW’s distinct functions.
Finding 2
Target customer are not aware of WTW’s advantage, WTW’s brand awareness is low across all platforms.
Finding 3
Both customers and suppliers demand professional, comprehensive, and affordable support to guide, advocate, and accredit their navigation in the accessibility ecosystem.
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Challenge Refinement
How might we...
How might we leverage WTW’s distinct functions to enhance their awareness and build the brand as a leader / expertise in the accessibility industry?
04 The Solution / Strategy
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Based on our research, WTW has the capability and expertise to offer comprehensive guidance and help to both customers and suppliers, but people are not aware of their brand.
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We suggest them to improve their brand awareness from the foundation of their organizational structure.
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I first researched and elaborated on the Organizational Model.
Organization Strategy Model divides organization strategy into five layers. Leverage increases when the layer goes closer to the bottom.
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We then came up with a Strategy Structure based on the layers of the organizational model.
We mainly tackled the Organizational Structure levels, where changes will consequently affect the Service, User Experience, and Visual Identity.
We offered plans for User Experience and Visual Identity in complimentary of the Organizational Strategy.
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We then ideate details of the organizational change plan.
We mainly tackled the Organizational Structure levels, where changes will consequently affect the Service, User Experience, and Visual Identity.
We offered plans for User Experience and Visual Identity in complimentary of the Organizational Strategy.
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We also built reports and social media campaign samples for the new department.
05 The Brand Strategy
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I created corresponding brand strategy in complimentary of the organizational change strategy, to help WTW better position its leadership in the industry, with a well-prepared brand identity.
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I first researched the brand strategy of competitors to understand the current industry identity.
Competitor Brand Research
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I then created personas of key target customers to better understand their social identity and demands. The future brand identity is built based on the personas.
Key Target Customer Persona
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I then created detailed brand statements with core brand personalities to set the tone of the brand.
Detailed Brand Statement Break Down
Final Brand Statement & Personality
06 Appendix: Visual System & Merchandizing
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Based on the brand strategy above, I created the brand visual identity and visual merchandising mock-ups to make sure the visualization correctly represents the brand identity.
Detailed Brand Statement Break Down
07 Self-reflection
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This is my first organizational change strategy design. Organizational design and new service design lay at the foundation of an organizational structure. Changes on one pieces will affect the whole system.
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Taking full consideration of the system and predict the impact of each action are necessary during the design process.