Jahin's Portfolio

Final Prototype

Assimilating their Information

Learning about their Struggles

Tell me about your situation?
Series of unfortunate events and bad relationship lead to a financial downfall. Lived with mother for a few months but had to live because of landlord. Had a car given to him by a boss but it broke down and also couldn’t pay for registration of the car. Lived in the broken car, kitchen pantry, garage and then 7 months on the streets. Lyft driver now but not enough. Friends and family not there for support. They blame him for drug abuse and bad choices. Effects of recession causing continued problems. Option to get $187/per month and food that he cannot refrigerate. Usually eats food with preservatives that stay well on the streets. The food gets stolen as well.

If you had 3 wishes, what would they be ?
a) Cure for deadly diseases b) End of homelessness & poverty c) World Peace

Dennis Jones - Ex-actor - Lyft driver

How many years have you been homeless ? 2 years.

Tell me about your situation ?
Came to see daughter but she didn’t want to see him. “I don’t have time to see you.” “I don’t think I want to be alive.” Wife died of brain cancer. Lives in shelter. Was a lawyer. Walks with a cane.

How do you survive ?
During the day, hangs with friends and at night, sleeps in shelter with bed bugs.

If you had 3 wishes, what would they be ?
a) A warm place to sleep without bed bugs b) Vegetarian meal c)

Bruce - Ex-Lawyer for 33 years - Vegetarian

Homeless for 2nd time - Did receive housing but fiance died and he left - Lost other son couple months ago who was serving the country (explosive) - brother was murdered - Pancreatic Cancer Stage 4 - Still Happy - Doesn’t wanna do Chemotherapy - Doctors assume 1.5 years life expectancy - Without Chemo, it will be less than that - “Everybody should smile” - Was in the winter shelter which closed that morning - doesn’t know here he’ll go but hopeful he will find someplace - No Housing - He works but still can’t afford housing - Works for “People Ready” which gives you odd jobs - Pays on a Daily basis - $850/month rent for 1 bedroom apartment - You gotta have money/vehicle to move to a different location - Had a RV - Too expensive to live around here.

What would you want people to know about homelessness ?
It sucks. Keep a job. If you have family, go to them. Don’t burn it. Don’t burn walls.

If you had 3 wishes, what would they be ?
a) If my boys were back b) Everybody off the streets c) No snow

Mike - Works Odd Jobs - Cancer Patient

Tell me about your situation ?
Homeless for last 3 weeks. Going to housing options from 9 to 4 but they say to see them next day.

What happened ?
Dad is an alcoholic and they fell out. Rather stay out than inside house. Feels safer in the streets compared to home. Tired. Walking for 3 days. Tries to sleep in the streets. Feels desperate. Doesn’t drink and no drugs. Smokes cigarettes. Been spat on. Humiliated by people. Says people think that homeless people with a blanket in their hands is a waste of space. Didn’t carry a blanket for 2 weeks because of embarrassment but due to severe cold, he had to stop worrying about that. Can’t give up. Wants money rather than food. Needs housing, a mobile phone, toilet paper, wet wipes and essentials, etc. Doesn’t know whether he wants to live or die. “Thank you for talking to me.” Thinks people think of him as a low-life.

If you had 3 wishes, what would they be ?
a) Have nice house b) - c) Have a family

Andy - 21 - Cardiff - Alcoholic Father

Tell me about your situation ?
5 months homeless. Past intense trauma. Mental Health problem.

How did you end up homeless ?
Homeless since 2017 wildfire, background in Statistics. Facing challenges due to lack of amenities for interviews and reintegration.

Is anybody helping you ?
Some services. Hard to find them and get connected. Nobody helping right now.

How are you surviving ?
Food stamps. General relief. $220/month. Wastes food since no storage. Likes cheese but cannot keep. Cannot cook hot food. Most homeless people go through trauma.

Why do you struggle navigating social services ?
Understaffed outreach teams with low pay face challenges in efficiency. The housing voucher system, while fair, can be confusing due to its lack of nepotism.

If you had 3 wishes, what would they be ?
a) A stable home with daily comforts and cooking. b) A desire to return to a Data Analyst career in Electricity Research. c) Loss of a beloved Poodle-mix dog in June 2019.

Mona - Masters in Industrial Engineering - Ex-Insurance Company

User Research

Solving the issue of food preservation for the homeless.

Homelessness presents a multifaceted global issue, impacting millions of lives worldwide. Beyond shelter, it's about restoring dignity, opportunities, and hope. HopeLink seeks to revolutionize homelessness solutions through design and technology, addressing every aspect of the challenge.

Final Solution

The App begins by helping people find food pantries that serve free food. If they cannot finish all the food, the app helps them locate the nearest Community Fridge and using an internal Identification System, when they refrigerate the food at the till, they can scan their Unique Barcode and receive a Receipt.

What’s the story ?

This project is inspired by the lack of accessible support for homeless people from a holistic point of view.

Context

User Research

Product Strategy

UX Design

UI Design

Prototyping

Usability Testing

Tools

Pen & Paper

Notion

FigJam

Figma

Uizard

Tools

3 weeks

Product

Feature addition address a certain Userflow

Target Audience

Homeless people struggling to store food.

The Problem

From 5 interviews, a plethora of problems were discovered and by assessing their importance, the issue of food preservation was deemed to be the Most Urgent & Most Important, followed by shelter. Usually, food pantries provide food once a day and homeless people would ideally like to store the food somewhere to prevent food being rotten.

The Goal

Bridging the gap between Community Fridges & Homeless People to save food. Moreover, the app also provides an Unique Identification System that does Receipt Management as well.

Additionally, people also give away their extra food at home to community fridges. For homeless people, they can Store their own food and Eat homecooked food as well. This also contributes to solving the greater problem of Nationwide Food Wastage.

HOME

Work

about

Contact

Empathising with them

Affinity Mapping

Problem Definition

After thorough analysis of the needs, wants and frustrations of our users, we have created user stories that reflect their expectations. However, we need to narrow down and begin by solving a singular problem.

As food is the most important aspect of survival and is the most common problem found among our participants, we have decided to solve the issue regarding the deterioration of food.

Ideation

Competitor Analysis

By doing a competitive benchmarking, we understood that there is no one app that caters for all the problems a homeless person faces. And different apps that are made for them, serve them differently. This gave us the idea of creating a holistic app solution. We learnt that we needed to put in sections for each major problem like food, shelter, health, employment, etc. A donation service inside the app and most importantly, emergency support as well as self-help techniques to ease their situations.

Crafting User Stories

Dennis:

As a person who does not have a house and refrigerator, I want to eat fresh food and store it for later so that the food does not get bad/rotten.

Mona-b:

As a person who wants to get back her job, I want to practice hygiene so that I can be presentable and clean in general.

Mona-a:

As a person who wants to get back her job, I want to access amenities so that I can be presentable and clean in general.

Mona-c:

As a homeless person living in the park, I want to effectively contact social services so that I can get help faster.

Mona-d:

As someone facing mental health issues, I want to access mental health support so that I can address/overcome my problems in order to function better.

Andy:

As a new homeless person, I want to get housing from the government so that I can get off the streets and have a warm place to sleep.

Bruce:

As a vegetarian, I want to get more vegetarian food options so that I can eat with satisfaction.

Mike:

As a homeless person who works, I want to get cheap rent options so that I can use my earnings to live under a roof.

Prioritising Features using a Importance Matrix

Userflow: Find & Refrigerate Your Food In a Community Fridge

Userflow: Find Your Nearest Food Pantry

Information Architecture

Low-Fidelity Wireframes

Prototype