From Touchpoints to Trustpoints: Designing Vulnerable Customer Journeys for More Accessible and Inclusive Services through Universal Design Principles

The project investigates consumer vulnerability along the service customer journey, taking service design as the operative lens for analysis and intervention. The research identifies touchpoints where cognitive, sensory, temporal, or power asymmetries expose specific groups of consumers to the risk of exclusion, reconstructing their design-related determinants through qualitative methods (observation, interviews, service mapping) combined with tools from systemic and service design. The aim is to develop design criteria - also informed by universal design principles, such as equitable use, tolerance for error, and perceptible information - able to reconfigure critical touchpoints into trustpoints: points of contact designed to generate recognition, an accessible rhythm, parity of choice, and continuity of experience. The project contributes to the theoretical debate on vulnerability and accessibility in consumer markets and to service design practice.