NORC Innovation Centre

• Canada’s aging population needs innovative care models like Naturally Occurring Retirement Communities (NORCs) to support aging in place.
• NORCs integrate health, social, and physical supports directly within high-density housing for older adults, reducing healthcare costs and enhancing care.
• Our project developed a digital employee portal to support frontline and backstage staff in coordinating care within NORCs.
• Through service design techniques, we expanded beyond traditional UX to create both digital and non-digital service touch-points.

Canada’s rapidly aging population demands innovative housing and care solutions to support older adults’ desire to age in their communities. Naturally Occurring Retirement Communities (NORCs) is an innovative model that integrates health, social, and physical supports directly within apartment buildings, community housing and condominiums with a high density of older adults. NORCs present an alternative with the potential to lower healthcare costs for older adults while improving healthcare outcomes and satisfaction.

We addressed this challenge by collaborating with frontline care providers and backstage support staff. We mapped and blueprinted the new service while developing a digital tool to empower NIC’s frontline staff and easing data collection and coordination for backstage staff. The project centered on a digital employee portal, however the team applied Service Design coursework and co-op experience from Bridgeable to expand beyond the silo of traditional UX. The portal served as a site for negotiating and tangibilizing key components of the new service model and the work extended to non-digitial touchpoints and broader service processes and policies.