The Walking Sun

Stakeholders are increasingly interconnected, where an action toward one stakeholder is visible to others and can affect members of the stakeholder ecosystem. Actions towards any of the stakeholders can signal its trustworthiness and determine to what degree other stakeholders will assume vulnerability and engage in future exchange relationships.

Secondary research into older migrants in Australia, aged between 66 and 91 and of German, Dutch, Romanian, Chinese and Vietnamese origin, surfaced a range of factors shaping their social connectedness: personal preference, individual effort, English language proficiency, driving ability and length of residence. Four distinct groups emerged from the data: the isolated, family, ethnic community and multicultural clusters.

Older migrants from culturally and linguistically diverse backgrounds are at greater risk of depression than Anglo-Australians, and even skilled migrants who score low on community connectedness risk falling into a social isolation trap as they age.

Food is a universal experience. After migrating, many people feel they belong neither fully to their native culture nor their host culture, and food becomes a way to hold onto one while discovering the other. How new migrants adapt to unfamiliar food patterns depends on their cultural background, their beliefs, and how much of the new environment they choose to take on.

“We argue that the seeking of comfort, love and community through food is reflective of a sense of social connectedness, which refers to individuals’ fundamental need to belong.” — Baumeister & Leary, 1995

We conducted two rounds of interviews: the first with older migrants, the second with cultural businesses in Dandenong, including grocery stores, restaurants and caterers, since these were the main food-based businesses serving Melbourne's migrant communities.

To establish our target group, we created a behavioural archetype based on the insights from the interviews we conducted and the characteristics of the culture segments of Essence & Enrichment.

People over 65 are one of the fastest-growing consumer groups for digital products, and today's seniors are far more fluent with technology than the generation before them. That fluency, and where it still has gaps, shaped how we approached the platform.

The design brief came out of an exercise called Product Pinocchio, where we asked what our service would be like if it were a person: what are they like, what are their values, what is their community, what makes them different, what is their fight?

Each screen moved from a rough wireframe to a working interface as the platform's features, tone and visual identity came together.

We tested the prototype with small businesses in Dandenong. One grocery store owner said they wished this had existed when they first migrated to Australia, and found it especially valuable for older migrants, who could use it to find a community to spend time with.

These stakeholders would help us:

A service blueprint traced the platform across events, the business database and community stories, connecting the front-of-stage experience to what runs behind it.

Alongside the platform, a business model mapped how festive events could generate revenue for The Walking Sun while giving participating businesses a direct return in visibility and custom.