Flatmate, one that isn’t useless
Flatmate is an app created for New Zealand tertiary students moving into their first flat. By simplifying the often overwhelming and stressful responsibilities of adulthood, Flatmate aims to seamlessly integrate natural disaster preparation alongside flat management tasks such as bills, expenses, events, and rosters. By incorporating preparation into students’ everyday lives, Flatmate builds awareness of potential disasters whilst engaging and encouraging students to prepare for a disaster. The app provides a simple and accessible way for students to get ready whilst changing the current narrative that being prepared is costly and time-consuming.
My target demographic of tertiary students aged 18-25 is severely overlooked regarding natural emergencies.
Studies often decide that students are at a low risk as they are seen as independent and able to fend for themselves. This results in minimal marketing material, messaging and initiatives aimed at the younger generation. I argue that tertiary students are placed in high-risk positions when moving to University in a new city. As most students lack the knowledge of potential disasters in their new environment, they also will have little understanding of how to respond to one.
In addition to a lack of awareness, students are also placed in sub-standard housing that is more prone to damage in a natural disaster due to its being old and outdated. Despite being at high risk, this demographic is held back from preparing due to a range of barriers such as lack of knowledge, income, and other priorities like school and part-time or full-time jobs.
Trojan Horse
Aotearoa, New Zealand, is situated on some of the most dynamic environmental landscapes in the world.
With our current climate issues and the recent increase in natural disasters across New Zealand, it’s imperative that we put efforts towards motivating New Zealanders’ to prepare. Civil Defence research suggests that due to the current living crisis and many other barriers, people find it hard to put time and effort towards emergencies as it isn’t perceived as a significant priority. Our country’s current messaging is formal and uninviting which sparks no
interest or motivation for New Zealanders to prepare for a natural disaster. Hamilton the Director of CDEM also states that Civil defence struggles to build a community connection surrounding disaster preparation as this is vital to strengthening New Zealand’s response and resilience to these emergencies.
This project aims to raise awareness amongst students about the potential natural disasters they may face when moving to University and encourages them to take steps towards preparing.
By seamlessly integrating emergency preparation into everyday life, Flatmate aims to make natural disaster preparation a social norm and a natural part of moving into a new flat. It takes a relaxed, approachable tone, using its brand attitude to resonate with students and get them thinking about emergencies. Flatmate also aims to shift the narrative around emergency preparation,
which is often seen as expensive and time-consuming. In reality, preparing can be as simple as sitting down with your flatmates and creating a simple plan together. Flatmate also aims to create better community resilience towards disasters through social connections.
Design Strategy
As current Civil Defence messaging isn’t resonating with the younger generation, Flatmate uses a different approach to integrate disaster preparation into students’ everyday lives by adopting the concept of the Trojan Horse. This ancient Greek tale inspires the idea of giving a gift with something hidden or disguised inside to gain access to a particular entity. By integrating this concept into my app I can sneak emergency preparation into students’ everyday lives by assisting with all other responsibilities.
Behaviour Change
To inspire behaviour change and make preparing more accessible for students, Flatmate adopts BJ Fogg’s behaviour change model. This model discusses three factors for understanding human behaviour: Motivation, Ability, and Triggers. Using this model Flatmate can persuade and increase the likelihood of tertiary students to prepare for natural disasters by creating motivation and making preparation more accessible.
Flat Management system