My Role:

Product Designer

Timeframe: 2 Weeks

Design Tools: Figma, Invision Freehand

Outline Brief

Create an app that aims to eliminate the pressures associated with becoming homeless. Propose a user journey that supports and educates users on relevant material that can help a potentially homeless person successfully integrate into a local community.

Summary:

An app designed to help young people on the brink of homelessness find access to services and receive the support they need.

Problem Statement

Becoming homeless can be a stressful and overwhelming experience, and many individuals are not aware of the resources and support available to them.

My Design Process

What Is Homelessness?

Homelessness can be defined as a person who has no accommodation in the UK or elsewhere. A person is also homeless if they have accommodation but cannot reasonably occupy it, for example, because of a threat of violence (Government Statistical Service, 2022).

The types of people who are considered to be homeless:

• Rooflessness (without a shelter of any kind, sleeping rough)
• Houselessness (with a place to sleep but temporary, in institutions or a shelter)
• Living in insecure housing (threatened with severe exclusion due to insecure tenancies, eviction, domestic violence, or staying with family and friends known as ‘sofa surfing)
• Living in inadequate housing (in caravans on illegal campsites, in unfit housing, in extreme overcrowding)

How did COVID-19 impact Homelessness

COVID-19 impacted people in various negative ways. Below is a chart from Crisis on ‘The impact of COVID-19 on people facing homelessness and service provision across Great Britain’. The chart ****shows the challenges related to supporting people currently housed and at risk of homelessness during wave 1 & wave 2 of COVID-19. Mental health was a high concern due to the high number of deaths occurring and social restrictions put in place by the government. The UK took an economic hit as unemployment figures increased and cutbacks on furlough schemes left many people on the verge of homelessness.