Avail
Avail is a mobile app designed to connect the homeless citizens of Boston to homelessness services. This app design and prototype was developed as part of an assignment for my graduate Human-Computer Interaction course.
Bringing humanity to homelessness
The ubiquity of smartphones allows users to access a seemingly unlimited number of services on-demand. It stands to reason that an individual who is homeless or lacking in basic necessities should also be able to access the things they need with the same ease. The picture of homelessness in America is diverse, and upon a preliminary research effort, it can be concluded that a large percentage of homeless people in America have access to smartphones. (Italicized for emphasis because everyone asks this question).
Given this, our team proposed a mobile application that easily connects users to services for hunger, homelessness, and other emergency services. Users can use this app to find homeless shelters, food pantries, soup kitchens, free health clinics and other services for homelessness or emergency situations. Most importantly, it humanizes the process of securing basic necessities - health care, lodging, and food.
This project was inspired by a recent news report about a chef who wanted to remove the stigma of a soup kitchen for homeless individuals. To achieve this, he created a restaurant-type environment with table service, decor, and the ability for homeless patrons to make reservations. Consequently, one of the main features of our app allows for this reservation to be made, in addition to providing search functionality for other homelessness services.
Design and Development
The design and development of the Avail mobile app involved extensive prototyping, user testing, and multiple versions. Our team conducted multiple usability studies, solicited feedback from a variety of users, and completed a number of analyses. For more information on the lengthy lead-up to actually presenting the final version of our app, check out the HCI course syllabus. See the videos below for our initial paper prototype and the eventual interactive mobile app implementation.
Searching for services
We designed the app to be very simple, friendly, user-friendly and intuitive. It was important that all the interface components were among those commonly used in other apps.
Selecting a location for service and a time for an appointment
Appointments are listed in the profile view for users to be reminded or get more information on time, date and travel
Reserving an appointment
Yelp and Open Table were helpful inspiration for creating the functionality for reserving an appointment.
Methodology
This project was done in a group. Since I had previous experience with Adobe products, design and prototyping, I volunteered to do the building. This design was sketched out on paper, then built in Adobe Xd with interactions using the Mobile Web template. It also uses some custom graphics I created in Illustrator.
*Small side note: This is also an interesting project for me because I used to work at a substance abuse clinic that distributed smartphones to clients in order to help with their recovery. Many of these clients were homeless and lacking in basic necessities, and having a Smartphone really helped them make strides towards getting back on their feet. You can read more about the program and its pilot study here.