Over two weekends , Venture Studios from Crisis teamed up with a community of techies and creatives to host the#HackathonforHomelessness. Over the course of a few days, a diverse group of people built solutions to problem statements co-created by those with lived experience of homelessness.
Brief
How do we ensure that once housing is secured for a homeless person, the items that make up a home including white goods, cleaning materials, bedding etc are available?
Design and build a digital product to combat this issue.
Tasks
Design and build a functioning and coded digital product ready to demo to stakeholders within 2 weeks.
Present product with team to Venture Studios along with other contestants.
Have a brand, design system, and high fidelity wireframes with a coherent user journey ready to present.
Time frame
2 weeks.
My role
Only UX/UI Designer in a team of 6. Team consisted of 2 front end dev, 2 back end devs, and a PM.
Research
Research into the issue
Research into the issue
We started off by researching into the issue to find out how common it was for ex homeless people to be left with an empty accomodation with little to no furniture. As a group we also wanted to explore what the most common struggles were in this scenario so we could start looking at ways to alleviate the problem.
We now know there’s something called an ‘Applicance Poverty’ where too many people are living in houses without essential household items and can’t afford to buy them. We identified gaps in the journey for a household item to make it’s way to a person who needs it.
Findings
62% of homless people are classed as ‘hidden homeless’ as they are not on the streets.
1.9M homes are without a washing machine which proves 1M+ people are unable to afford basic neccesities
Eligibility of gov funding for basic household items usually requires individuals to match a strict eligibilty criteria and is a very time consuming process.
User Persona
Group Brainstorm
Discussion points we had prior to deciding what to build.
Brainstorm took place over Zoom once we consolidated our research.
Feature Map
Things we ,as a group, thought the user should be able to do.
The order in which they'd do them .
Design
User journeys | Wireframes | Final interfaces
Design with dignity
This was an approach Crisis Studio strongly recommended we follow. This was a learning curve for me as a designer and it taught me to be more empathetic and sensitive in my designs.
Crisis studio
“While a people-powered community is full of well-intentioned people, many solutions often fail to consider the complexities of the problems they are attempting to solve, which can lead to doing more harm than good. We see what happens when solutions are created with good intentions but from zero insight.”
User Journeys
Low fidelity wireframes
High fidelity wireframes
Sign up process
Giver journey
Receiver journey
Deliver
Presentation Night
Our solution
An accessible marketplace to connect people with essential goods they no longer need, to people experiencing homelessness who are trying to turn their house into a home.
Psst... skip to Homebuddy, minute 1:44:45
Iterate
Stakeholder feedback | Self reflection
Self reflection
Some problems are bigger than a quick solution. For this problem statement, before design even happens I know that extensive user research needs to happen in order to even think about putting forward a solution.
I needed to design with dignity for this task and I know it’s made me stronger as a designer.
Working with such a diverse group of people in such a short space of time has opened my eyes to see how technical knowledge across all basis (front end/back end/product managment) can impact design for the better.
