Suka Suka

SUKA SUKA is a platform that connects people, who need a helping hand, with someone who is happy to help and engenders social interactions and friendships between these people. Consisting of a smartphone App and series of physical kiosks located in Hawker Centres and community centres, our platform is inclusive, easy to use, and obligation free. A form of incentives may be implemented to further encourage interactions and live by “sharing is caring” in Singapore!

Objectives + Challenges

Problem Statement

The goal of this project is to design a solution for Singapore with the theme Aging in Place and the sub theme Community.

Target Audience

Students & Teaching group | Singaporean public

Collaboration

RYO TADA, EGE SAVAS, MENGLIN YE, ALYSSA KONG, CALLY LING JIA QI, AXEL CHIN, SHAINA TAN

As a team of eight, we divided and conquered. Making sure we explored and investigated different parts of the city and major gathering points.

Goals

Constraints

Community engaging solution for Singapore
Require minimal change to infrastructure

Budget - Out of our own pocket!
timeline - four weeks

Process + Approach

Methodology

Deep exploration and interviews to understand the problems and areas for life improvement that could be addressed in Singapore's aging population. We coupled this with design exploration and ideation.

Key Activities

Interviews
Observations
Ideation & Sketching
Visual prototyping

Tools & Technologies
Surveys & Questionaires Solidworks Adobe Suite Keyshot

Solutions, Deliverables + Outcomes

Final Output

Our final output was a concept for a digital platform and community board free from incentives to allow members of the public to ask for and give help. We presented it as a series of visuals and a video to the public.

Our research in Singapore determined that many elderly Singaporeans wanted to continue to be able to contribute to society post retirement. We also found that opportunities for social interaction are in decline due to trends such as decentralised working. Finally, we found that the Hawker centres in Singapore were a core location for meeting and social interactions.

The dual goals of SUKA SUKA are to provide opportunities for all to contribute and share with society and to help build community.

Key Features

Physical and digital locations to access the community

Located in key gathering points like the Hawker centres

Outcomes + Comments

Outcomes

The project was received relatively well when presented to both the student cohort and the general public.

Lessons Learned

Very much outside my usual realms of physical products, this was a great learning experience in exploratory design through community engagement.

Personal Commentary

This was a fun project! Lots to learn and try out, and great to do it in a different part of the world where I have less experience.

It's a shame we only had the short time. It would have been interesting to conduct actual trials of a connected community platform and see what the response and engagement was like.

Digital communities are a challenging thing to get right. While the core concept seems good, it's hard to know what the actual behaviour would have been like. Also, how can we make accommodations for those who are less tech-savvy or interested? Further iterations and trials are definitely needed to understand the community impact and use.

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