The Brief:
An app to support the needs of people in situations that lead to homelessness (care system, victim of abuse, newly released from prison) stay connected to their community so they do not end up on the street.
Deliverable:
3 app screens: A home screen and 2 other screens
My Role: UX Research, Product Designer
Duration: 2 weeks
Tool used: Figma, Invision freehand, Miro
This was a solo project. I was responsible for all of the design concept.
Homelessness is defined as a state of not having a permanent home or place of residence, which includes staying in hostels and sofa-surfing. There are a variety of reasons why people become homeless, but one of the most common is a lack of affordable housing. Some people are unable to pay their rent or mortgage payments due to unforeseen circumstances such as job loss or divorce. Aspects such as mental and physical health also play a role.
To design a user friendly and engaging app that helps and minimise homelessness, with educational resources which provide access to real-life support, keeping in mind accessibility features.
The outcome I hope to achieve:
- A user-friendly and engaging app
- Educational content to help build skills
- Resources to support individuals even after being housed or gotten a job
- Create a community, to help each other out
- Accessible to users with auditory, visual or any other disabilities.
I had hoped to find apps that focused on helping the homeless, but the only direct app I have found that its main purpose is to help homelessness is "StreetLink," which allows users to alert authorities when a rough sleeper is spotted or if one is about to become a rough sleeper, and "Greater Change," which allows users to fund charitable organisations and individuals in need. In terms of indirect competitors, Olio and Too Good To Go are both apps that attempt to reduce food waste by giving either free food or food for as little as £2, an interesting feature that Olio has is a community section where individuals in the area share resources, they no longer use, such as shoes. I chose these two as my indirect competitors because, while they do not focus on homelessness, the inexpensive food or free resources available through the app might benefit a large number of people on a low income or in need.
I conducted secondary research in order to gain a better understanding of homelessness and the challenges it causes. If I had more time to research for the case study, I would have collected primary data. It is important to highlight that getting access to care is one of the personal issues that people experiencing homelessness frequently encounter.
Why does everything have to be about accommodation? Full-time job? Help with mental health? Can’t get that because I’m not in full time accommodation, I can’t get accommodation because I’m not in a full-time job. It is always back and forth. And I’ve got to the point where I’m like, what’s the point?— Patient story, Healthwatch West Berkshire
Local Healthwatch in England interviewed over 1,200 people experiencing homelessness, and these are the three most prevalent issues they identified.
1. Difficulty accessing services due to now having an address or suitable identification, or not having enough phone credit to make an appointment. It can also be difficult for them to attend appointments or stick to health advice.
2. Difficulty registering with GP services; while having an address is not legally required to register to a GP, however, some GP will not allow those who are homeless and do not have a fixed address to register as patients. At least five GP offices in England are turning people away, which has a significant impact on people in need of healthcare support.
3. Difficulty getting holistic support. The study discovered that individuals do not feel medical professionals understand their circumstances. Ultimately, they seek holistic support with their health, housing and employment all in one place.
In addition to accessing healthcare, some other problems that persons experiencing homelessness encounter are food and shelter insecurity, financial insecurity, and basic requirements such as warmth, dry clothes, food, and water. Those experiencing homelessness find it difficult to overcome their circumstances due to a lack of necessity.
User personas help designers in identifying the answer to one of the most fundamental questions: "Who am I designing for?" Understanding the target users' expectations, problems, and motivations. It's important to consider your users' needs when designing a product.
The crazy 8s method is used to lead an effective design sprint, in which ideas should be generated more quickly because you have more information to work with (from business and user research). The key advantage of this method is that it does not require the input of designers. To fulfil the activity's purpose, I set a timer for 8 minutes spending at least 1 minute per design.
This approach is part of lean UX, whereby all hypotheses are stated and discussed to rapidly improve design solutions. This could include product managers, UI designers as well as frontend developers within this ideation session to understand all technical constraints that are part of the project. To carry out the straw man proposal approach, simply gather all your collages and carry out a 10 minutes iteration on designs independently. I spent 10 minutes designing the homepage and refining it, I found it easy to do so because of the crazy 8s activity I did before.
Mind Map is used as a visual representation of a sequence of thoughts, a concept, a system or a process. This is useful during the early phases of the project, as it can describe your product in a simple method, thus explaining its core mechanisms and highlighting the true value of the product.
Having established the different ideations, I created three wireframes- low-fidelity, mid-fidelity and high-fidelity and the three screens are homepage, account and events. I took concepts from the crazy 8s and strawman proposal to come up with a sketch that’ll act as a backbone of my design and build on it. Keeping my research in mind, I went for a simple and easy to navigate design.
Miller Law- Content is broken down into smaller parts to make it easier for users to process, understand, and retain it. It's important to remember that short-term memory capacity varies depending on prior knowledge and current context. It's also worth noting that using the "magical number seven" to justify unnecessary limitations isn't encouraged. Each element of content is reduced down into smaller bits and evenly spaced out to make it easier for users to process, understand, and memorise. This is particularly noticeable on the Event screen.
Aesthetic Usability Effect- People respond positively to aesthetically pleasing designs, leading them to assume the design actually works better. As a result, they are more tolerant of minor usability flaws, leading to increased usability. Usability issues can be hidden behind the aesthetically pleasing design, preventing errors from being detected during usability testing. I was able to adapt aesthetic principles using the grid system by also applying simple colours and images that complimented each other.
Law Of Common Region- The common region provides a clear framework and helps users in immediately understanding the relationships between elements and sections. To create a common region, I put borders around my sections. A background behind an element or set of elements can also be used to establish a common region.
I used the font Sansation typeface (sans serif) as it's free, readable and very clean, it is also transferable to android mobile; even though my design frames are iPhone I had to keep in mind that different users have different phones, not just iPhone. I used different font sizes and styles “Bold” and “Regular” to establish a hierarchy to help with the user journey.
Accessibility enables people with disabilities to perceive, understand, navigate, interact with, and contribute to the web. I used high contrasting colours for users with visual impairment. A feature I've considered implementing, potentially in the settings, is the ability to modify the font size to suit their needs. Nonetheless, I used the Figma mirror on my phone to double-check elements like icons to ensure they are large enough to tap on easily and effectively. The screenshots below highlight the Figma plugin called colour contrast checker, which assisted in ensuring that the colours and typefaces matched accessibility standards.
Overall, I enjoyed working on this project. It was a learning experience for me; I learned the value of iteration and that it's okay not to get everything right the first time. I found that going back to my user research helped me in the process because there were times when I would get off track and forget the core reasons.If I were making the app for real, I'd gather primary data and interview charity workers or others who work closely with homeless people to get more qualitative data that secondary research couldn't provide. I'd also build for Android because I understand that everyone's circumstances are different and that not everyone owns an iPhone.
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