Client
Noisy Cricket
My Role
User Researcher
UX/UI Designer
​
Tools & Processes
Design Thinking
Human-centred Design
Double Diamond
Experience Design
User Research
How Might We Statements
Personas
User Journey
Concept
Prototyping
User Testing
Pitching to client
Challenge
How might we improve the systemic, cultural and personal process to enable those people looking for gainful employment to find their success story?
As part of a collaborative team of Digital Experience Design and Digital Management students at Hyper Island, the task was to find a solution for the Manchester Homelessness Partnership to help with the re-employment of people with lived experience of homelessness by finding, securing and sustaining work opportunities.
77% of homeless people say they want to work, but only 15%
succeed in gaining employment
– Crisis
Research into what support is available for businesses looking to help homeless people quickly revealed a key problem area for the team to explore:
​
‘There is a lot of siloed and disjointed information spread across various platforms, which makes it difficult to find information easily. It’s like everyone was working for the same cause but tackling it differently.’
This problem area was also confirmed through interviews with business employees. A common statement from our interviews was, “I want to help but I don't know how”.
Reframing the design challenge to focus on how charities and the council can make information more accessible for businesses outlined three principal opportunity areas to focus further research on:
-
Improving the accessibility of information;
-
Motivating businesses to help;
-
Supporting businesses in their ability to employ people with lived experience of homelessness.
The team went through several rounds of idea generation and brainstorming and decided that an online information hub, where businesses could gain the knowledge they need to be able to help, would address our three principal opportunity areas. ​
​
Once the team had decided on a website, I worked on sitemaps and wireframes that were then iterated on.
