Every year, Good Design Australia, a well-regarded international design promotion organisation, recognises the value of good design and the critical role it plays in creating a better and safer future through the Australian Good Design Awards.
The Awards are one of the longest-running international design awards in the world, and have been around since 1958.
This year, Mable was proud to receive the Australian Good Design Award for Mable Last Minute in the Digital Design category in recognition for outstanding design and innovation.
The Good Design Awards Jury commented, “Mable Last Minute is a sound idea and implication of a remote service to Australian elderly residents and those with disabilities. Great design and execution.”
We congratulate the core team of Rob Hudson, Thien Mau and Sophie Tobin who worked on this, on this prestigious win!
The story behind Mable Last Minute
The COVID-19 pandemic caused major disruptions to support supply, combined with increased demand for short notice and short-term jobs from both clients and support coordinators.
In response to these disruptions, Mable launched Mable Last Minute in April 2020 to support our community to receive consistent support. Through this initiative, Mable clients could now book independent support workers on Mable to be available within as little as four hours.
Mable Last Minute continued to thrive beyond the pandemic, and became a valuable way for older Australians and people with disability to book support workers on Mable on short notice, often in unpredictable, challenging situations. These ranged from travel support to and from a job interview, to support on a university assignment for vision impaired student, to support with social participation to attend a show.
In addition, it became a vital tool for support workers to build their small business on Mable. For them, Mable Last Minute could represent an opportunity to fill gaps in availability and a way of meeting and working with new clients. What are one-off jobs could also result in gaining new, ongoing clients. On Mable, 38% of jobs through Mable Last Minute have resulted in ongoing support relationships.
Behind the scenes
To bring the design of Mable Last Minute to life, our design team sought input from those who would be using the feature — older Australians and people with disability. Their valuable feedback, both in concept and usability, shaped Mable Last Minute. We also gathered feedback from our inclusion and accessibility consultant, who uses screen reading technology, as we wanted to create not just an accessible product, but one that feels welcoming to those who use assistive technology. We would like to thank them for their insights.
Mable’s vision is for an inclusive society where everyone belongs. Through Mable Last Minute, we have had the opportunity to enable inclusion through choice and control for our community. We would like to thank everyone involved in making this vision a reality.
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