Designing for Good
How do you make the experience of giving money, food, or aid to a stranger a more effective experience for everyone involved? A Simple Focus client who had worked with Memphis’ unhoused population for years asked us to help him solve that problem.
When you’re faced with someone asking for help, the encounter can be stressful. You want to provide assistance, but a few dollars cash isn’t always the most effective solution.
The problems facing our our asset-deprived population are complex, and solving them is politically fraught. We narrowed our focus to the precise moment that you, the “HLPR,” choose to give aid to someone on the street. Using your phone, you can tap into a network of rideshare apps, food delivery services, and local shelters to provide more worthwhile support in just a few taps.
Defining the Happy Path
To sell this vision to investors, non-profit partners, and city leaders, we decided to build a high-fidelity interactive prototype that would help our client wow in his pitch meetings. That started with user flows and determining a happy path for the presentation. I worked with our Director of Research to map out logic that included options for giving food, shelter, and transportation.
Building Wireframes
From there, we sketched out every screen that would be needed for the prototype, which gave us an idea of the scope and requirements for each step of the process. To offer food to a stranger, for example, involves all sorts of variables, like allergens, dietary preference, third-party cashiers, corporate partnership, and special menu selections. And the giver could combine multiple forms of aid, multiplying the complexity of each flow.
Creating the Design Language
In this case, the job of the design was to make the idea feel as real as possible right out of the gate. Not wanting to rely on any existing off-the-shelf UI framework, I created a unique look and feel, including custom illustrations for onboarding, to give the prototype a sense of character.
Prototyping the Final Product
Finally, I used advanced prototyping tools to create animations, transitions, and interaction design details that helped make the product our client was presenting feel like a fully-formed idea. The prototype wowed in every pitch meeting, and has already begun driving investment in the startup.
