LAHSA
The Brief:
LAHSA helps distribute over $132 million in funds to shelters and organizations throughout LA to help combat the growing crisis that is homelessness. Measure passing in 2016, new opportunities will be sprouting up for LAHSA.
It was our team’s job to design a product that would help people experiencing homelessness gain access to basic life essentials such as food, shelter, medical aid and education.
The Problem:
Our team of 3 had exactly 3 weeks to come up with a product that addressed the user problems in a creative and innovative way. In order to do so, we had to be diligent with staying on schedule and making sure that a clean, simple product was being designed.
The process as UX/UI designer:
Research, Competitive Analysis, Wireframes, User Flow, Identify User Persona, Prototype, User Testing
User target of this project:
25-35 years homeless female live in LA, looking for shelter.
Our team works together to assess the homeless person's problems, and identify how to help them from a range of solutions. Whether their homelessness has been caused by loss of income, psychological problems, substance abuse, lack of job training, or other problems, multiple options are available to assist each person. This approach not only provides short-term answers but also develops permanent solutions.
Research:
After extensive research, interviews with experts, building out task flows and user personas/scenarios, we began to piece together what solutions to our problem could be. The first step, prioritizing features, C&C analysis, user flows, and site maps.
Once we had done a substantial amount of research to understand our problem, we took to the streets with a paper prototype of the kiosk and worked with people currently experiencing homelessness as well as experts in the field to get feedback on our product.
The biggest issue we kept facing with our testing was that we needed to make our product more user-friendly to anyone facing a disability. There were users who had poor vision, were fighting a mental disability, or had limited time. The larger and clearer the icons and text were, the easier people working with various faculties could use it.
The Solution:
To Build Easy use and Clear pages Full-Service, Free-Standing Kiosk. To Help The Homeless Gain Access To Information & Services That Could Aid Them In Taking The First Steps Toward Re-Entry Into Society.
where will be kiosk go?
❖ Outside Metro Stations
❖ Bus Stops
❖ Union Station
❖ Outside Prisons & Courthouses
❖ Large Parks i.e. MacArthur Park
❖ Any Partnered Shelters
After getting some feedback from users and experts, low-fi wireframes were built out, along with a clickable prototype. We incorporated clearer icons and made the text slightly larger based on our feedback.
Our initial iterations have garnished some attention from Los Angeles City Hall who became interested in some of the features we incorporated.
Mockup:
Next Steps:
❖ Priority - We need more usability testing and clarification on whether this kiosk will be used and approachable by our target audience as well as create a Customer Journey Map to see the emotional journey a user may take while using the kiosk. At this point, not enough data is present to create a viable CJM and more is needed.
❖ Make this a hybrid app that can be on tablets, phones or kiosks as more and more homeless are using smartphone technology. This will also allow volunteers and Outreach programs to be able to help immediately when out on the streets and interacting with people.
❖ Space Availability Feature that will sync with shelters so that users can see where there is bed availability. This will reduce overflow, lack of resources, and shelters having to turn people away.
❖ Add a logged-in state so users can create profiles to save favorite places, apply for a case manager, monitor housing application status, and even provide a messaging system where they can reach out to counselors or do daily check-ins for battling mental illness and substance abuse.
❖ Cater to the visually impaired and provide voice control from start-to-finish of the user flow