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Sahara
At-a-glance
This project focuses on giving back to society and driving social impact. Using the Sharpen plugin, the prompt "Design a user experience to help communities find and assist people who are homeless" was generated, inspiring a solution to empower individuals and communities to take meaningful action for those in need.
Problem
In India, many homeless individuals lack access to essential resources and support due to the absence of connectivity and systemic barriers. At the same time, communities and compassionate individuals who are willing to help often struggle to identify urgent needs, locate reliable resources, or coordinate their efforts effectively. This disconnect limits the impact of aid and perpetuates the cycle of homelessness.
The challenge
The challenge is to design a user-friendly platform that empowers communities to take meaningful action by bridging the gap between available resources and the people who need them most, fostering collaboration and lasting impact.
Design process
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The users
To help communicate information about users, I created two fictional personas showcasing two different problems.
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Priya is a dedicated community volunteer who needs a way to quickly locate nearby resources and collaborate with other volunteers because she struggles to provide timely help due to a lack of centralised information and coordination.
Arjun is a socially conscious business owner who needs a platform to identify trustworthy organisations and urgent needs in his area because he wants to ensure his contributions make a meaningful and measurable impact.
Goal
Our Sahara app will let users identify nearby resources, connect with volunteers, and respond to urgent needs which will affect community volunteers and concerned citizens by streamlining coordination, improving the effectiveness of their efforts, and ensuring help reaches homeless individuals quickly and reliably we will measure effectiveness by tracking user engagement, the number of successful volunteer collaborations, and feedback on the impact of efforts.
Competitive audit
How might we..
​How might we.. is an ideation technique in which user problems, needs, or pain points are into opportunities for design.
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How might we.. create a platform where people can collaborate with each other to help people in need and spread awareness
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How might we.. use geo location to pin point where help is required
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How might we.. verify volunteers working in NGO’s so that people can trust each other
Sitemap
Low-fi sketches
These are the initial sketches of the app which were turned into digital wireframes.
Low-fidelity wireframes
Low-fidelity wireframes were followed by low-fidelity prototypes which were used for usability study.
Usability study
An unmoderated usability study was conducted with the research goal "figure out if users are able to perform the core functionalities of the app". A survey was provided to 5 participants in which a link for the low-fi prototype and later high-fidelity prototype was provided along with tasks that they were asked to perform.
Affinity diagram
Affinity diagram was used to organise data collected from research. Modifications were made to the designs based on the priority of insights gathered from the data.
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Modifying designs
A. Feed and urgent tabs were switched so that urgent tab is the first thing that is displayed when user opens the app.
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B. Volunteer icon was changed as users found the icon hard to recognise.
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'My events' tab was removed as it obstructed user flow.
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Reflection
Working on this project allowed me to deeply explore the intersection of technology and community-driven action for addressing homelessness in India. Designing a user experience for individuals ready to help posed unique challenges, particularly in balancing usability with functionality and ensuring the solution was empathetic and impactful. This project reinforced my belief in the power of design to drive positive change.