PINHELP

Role

Sole UX/UI Designer

Services

App Design

Branding

Industry

Technology

Date

4 Weeks

Tools

Figma

FigJam

Adobe Photoshop

info

PINHELP IS AN ACCESSIBLE, CITY-WIDE TOUCHSCREEN NETWORK DESIGNED TO BE A LIFELINE FOR INDIVIDUALS IN NEED OF IMMEDIATE ASSISTANCE. IT PROVIDES A SIMPLE AND INTUITIVE INTERFACE TO QUICKLY LOCATE AND NAVIGATE TO CRITICAL RESOURCES.

Visit Case Study

User Research

PROBLEM

Individuals experiencing homelessness or facing crises often struggle to access essential services. They are often in vulnerable situations, facing immediate needs for shelter, food, and support, but lack easy access to this critical information.

GOAL

Our goal is to provide a simple, accessible, and intuitive way for vulnerable individuals to quickly locate and navigate to essential services within their immediate vicinity.

USER RESEARCH

In order to better understand user frustration, needs, and requirements, I conducted user research through interviews and surveys for my project. My objective was to gain insights into the needs and preferences of users in order to improve the design of my responsive website.

I identified several key pain points and challenges:

Time-consuming processes.
Limited accessibility.
Lack of personalization.
High fees and hidden costs.

These insights will guide the development of my responsive website, ensuring it addresses the specific needs and concerns of my users.

USERS

As the sole UX Designer on this project, I was responsible for leading and driving the entire user-centered design process, which means:

Conducted user research to understand the needs and challenges of vulnerable individuals.
Defined the core problem and provided key insights that informed the ideation phase.
Developed personas, user journeys, empathy maps, and user flows to represent and understand the target users.
Led the visual design process, creating low-fidelity and high-fidelity wireframes, interactive prototypes, and facilitating user testing sessions.

Meet Sara who is a tech-savvy, vulnerable 17-year-old who needs immediate and discreet access to safe shelter and navigation assistance because she is fleeing an abusive home and requires a reliable, accessible system to locate and reach essential services without relying on prior digital literacy or attracting unwanted attention.

Meet John who is a 62-year-old, recently homeless individual with physical limitations and limited digital literacy who needs to easily locate and access essential services (food, medication, shelter) because he struggles with navigation, complex information, and feels isolated, hindering his ability to meet his basic needs and manage his health.

USER JOURNEY MAP

By creating a user journey map, I aimed to illustrate the process of how Sarah Miller behaves, feels, and what she thinks while accomplishing her goal of finding safe shelter using the PinHELP system. This helps to address potential pain points and identify opportunities for moments of reassurance and support.

By creating user journey maps, I wanted to illustrate the process of how John Walker behaves, feels, and what he thinks while accomplishing his goals to address pain points or provide moments of delight using the PinHELP system. This helps us understand a different user's perspective and ensure the system meets a broader range of needs.

Lo-Fi

USER FLOW

Begun with creating a user flow:

PAPER WIREFRAMES

Focusing on the core features identified during user research, I sketched the first wireframes using pen and paper.

DIGITAL WIREFRAMES

After numerous rounds of revisions, I have finally created wireframes that perfectly capture the user flow and address the needs of our users.

You can view the Portrait Lo-Fi Prototype here.

You can view the Landscape Lo-Fi Prototype here.

Hi-Fi

STICKER SHEET

Started by creating a "Sticker Sheet":

USABILITY STUDY: FINDINGS

Following the initial low-fidelity prototyping, I conducted a usability study to gather valuable feedback on the PinHELP system. Now, let's delve into the key findings from this testing phase and identify the specific areas where design improvements are needed.

Here are the findings from the study:

ITERATING ON DESIGN

Based on insights from the usability studies, I applied design changes.

HI-FI PROTOTYPE

Building upon the insights gained from the usability study and the refined wireframes, I then focused on creating the high-fidelity prototype. The goal was to develop a final design that was not only simple and intuitive but also visually engaging and trustworthy.