Overview
I live in NYC, and one of the biggest problems is homelessness. As a designer, I want to develop an excellent social project for homeless people who have access to smartphones.
Problem Statement
During my research, I noticed that apps for homeless people provide many excellent services, but they often don’t offer any wallet functionality. I thought these features would be useful for buying supplies and using public transportation.
Solution
HOMIE is a digital wallet project. It provides a budget and ID option for homeless people to find their needs to survive.
My Role
Ux designer
Tools
Tools
Figma, Photoshop
Time Line
3 weeks
Project Type
Personal Project
The Design Thinking Process
Empathize
Define
Ideate
Prototype
Test
Competitor Analysis
I evaluated WIN and OurCalling for competitive analysis. Both apps offer brilliant features to help people. They provide shelter, food, and healthy options. However there is room for improvement.
The target audience for my app are homeless youth and the key functionality I provide is a digital wallet they can use for:
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Identification
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Building a budget
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Buying food from HOMIE MARKETS, leveraging special discounts.
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Earn money by working with HOMIE
Research and Empathy Maps
The research started with a friend. He has work experience with homeless youth for many years and has a deep understanding of their needs. Working with him helped me focus on user needs as fast as possible.
‘IT COULD HAPPEN TO ANYBODY. ONE DAY YOU ARE ON THE TOP. NEXT DAY, YOU ARE DOWN”
Emily C.
User Testing
As I started user testing, I faced some problems. Some participants said they wouldn't want to be part of this research. After searching, I found one participant to help me. I also published a quantitative survey on Instagram.
User Persona
Affinity Diagram
User Flow
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Wireframes
I started putting my thoughts on the page. There were some specific ideas I was pretty sure I wanted. Face recognition was one of them.
Low-Fidelity wireframes
How Might We
The homeless youth who want to start improving their lives need accessible resources. With many obstacles surrounding homelessness, disadvantaged youth have limited access to finding these resources and can miss opportunities to improve their lives.
How might we help them find shelter and food?
How might we give them a budget and help them get their surviving expense?
How might we create a helpful ID?
Hypothesis
The HOMIE mobile app will help eliminate the pressures associated with homelessness.
The outcomes:
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A user-friendly app
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A smooth and straightforward user journey
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A supportive platform helps users access real-life support and features of opportunities
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Support based app for a board age range
High-Fidelity wireframes
Testing
I finished my prototype and started testing with my participants.
Key Learnings
This project was extraordinary. I had a chance to learn more about homeless people and homeless youth. I'm grateful that this project gave me empathy for the people trying to survive on the streets every day. HOMIE was my third project. I used Figma, Photoshop, and Adobe Illustrator. I would say that with this project, I became more organized and more consistent.