Giiive — UX Design
Giiive placed 1st in the coexistence track, the track that had the most submissions, in the 2023 BU Catalyst Designathon. The project was created by a team of three over the course of two and a half days.
Brainstorming
Designathon participants were given three tracks to explore: travel, culture, and coexistence. We found the coexistence track the most interesting. It reminded me of the World Scholar’s Cup 2019 theme, A World on the Margins. I learned, debated, and wrote about neglected histories and life on the edge of society, which left a lasting impact on my worldview.
After we decided on our intended track, we brainstormed many problem spaces to explore. We ended up choosing the relationship between homeless individuals and passersby.
This topic was special to me because of a debate round I competed in for the 2019 World Scholar’s Cup. My team debated whether policymakers should allow homeless individuals to sleep in schools overnight since they were vacant and accessible. Growing up in Taiwan, I did not have much exposure to the homeless population, so doing the research to defend my team’s position helped me empathize with the situation and realize there were many people out there who did not think and experience the world as I did. This experience had me viewing social issues with more gravity, and I must thank this debate experience for helping me be able to empathize with different perspectives.
Problem Space
As students living in a densely-populated city, we coexist with people from many walks of life, including those experiencing homelessness. This issue is especially prevalent near the University of Washington campus, and we pass by many homeless individuals in our daily routines. As our team comes from backgrounds with little exposure to such experiences, we had to educate ourselves on the housing crisis as we assimilated into the culture here. We, and many of our friends, would help them if we could, but we lack the means to do so without risking personal safety. And, without hearing their stories, it is hard to break free from our biases and cultural stereotypes.
Stakeholder Engagement
After deciding on our problem space, we concluded the first day of the designathon by conducting a stakeholder survey. We recognize that the participants were selected by convenience sampling and only represent one small stakeholder group, but we had no other choice due to the time constraints and scope of the project.
According to user research survey responses from 12 participants, stigma is the primary barrier that prevents them from diving beyond a surface-level interest and understanding of the situation. Many also expressed that they would be willing to give to the homeless community if appropriate resources were accessible and readily available. Therefore, we decided to design a mobile application aimed at reducing stigma and educating the user.
We did some research to create user personas. Though we began with a demographic most similar to ours, we were able to expand our views and address our personal biases in the process of researching our two main stakeholder groups.
Proof of Concept Prototype
During our design process, we focused on goals rather than features, using “the leap” focus points to structure our decisions. We decided that the metric we wanted to move was the user’s open-mindedness and philanthropy, while we wanted users to feel educated and compassionate after the designed experience.
After settling on our goals, we designed the user flow, then the prototype itself.
Giiive aims to solve the problem by encouraging passersby to connect and empathize with their local homeless population by hearing their individual stories. By presenting the community through a human-centered approach rather than statistics, we aim to reduce stigma and encourage the user to engage with an accessible solution. Though we acknowledge that donations are short-term solutions, we hope that, by providing small starting steps, we can pique the user’s interest in contributing to long-term, systemic change. To aid them in their journey, we provide links to additional educational resources. We hope users will walk away from the experience feeling educated, compassionate, and open-minded.
Limitations
Our app is targeted towards college students and young adults who have access to mobile phones and internet service. This main stakeholder was chosen out of convenience due to the time limit.
We understand that some homeless individuals may not readily have access to these resources, hence we intend to connect them with our service through various local organizations. However, there is a possibility that their stories may be misrepresented, and they will have no control over this. Additionally, we must ensure that the privacy of the individuals behind the stories is well protected, as they do not have the luxury of stable, private residences.
Conclusion
I participated in this designathon with less design experience than I would have liked. However, my teammates were amazing and helped me grow through this project. I learned a lot about the design process through working with them, and began to fall in love with the human-centered design process. This experience taught me what it is like to work with a talented and passionate team, and I look forward to doing it again many times in the future.
Attributions
Project created with Annie Pao and Stephanie Chou for the BU Catalyst 2023 Designathon.