WeLive
Overview
After my freshman year of college in August 2018, I participated in a summer study abroad program in Cascais, Portugal, called the European Innovation Academy. In 3 weeks, we formed a team of co-founders, began building our product “WeLive,” and pitched it to a panel of investors. “WeLive” was a mobile application that aimed to combat homelessness by connecting homeless people to volunteers, charities, and other organizations. We centered around community, and our goal was to help create a social support network so that homeless people could reintegrate into society.
I was the Chief Design Officer, so I worked on creating the most simple workflows for both the homeless and for volunteers. I tried to figure out the best way to enable users to foster connections with each other and be empathetic towards each other.
The Problem
Walking around in the city, we see people asking for spare change, but giving that to someone doesn’t bring about enough change. With the homeless population steadily increasing in cities such as San Francisco, we wanted to do something to help the homeless while leveraging the goodness in other people.
Challenges
1. Profitability
Throughout our time working on this project, the issue of how we can make money came up again and again. The idea felt like a non-profit - it was centered around volunteers giving to the homeless. How could we convince people to fund us?
2. Starting from Scratch
It wasn’t just all of our first times creating something new, it was also the first time we’ve had our respective roles and responsibilities - it was the first time I would design a product.
3. Finishing it Fast
The program we were in was only 3 weeks long - an expedited startup process. We spent the first week researching, interviewing, and formulating our idea. I started building our application during the second week, while also creating marketing materials (we thought anything art related had to be done be the design person). We spent the last week cleaning up the prototype and crafting our pitch, and then we were done.
Discovery
The first step in our endeavor was to find out if our idea was even possible - if homeless people don’t have smartphones, then we need to think of another solution. We found very few research papers with the words “homeless” and “phone” in the same sentence - but we did find one study from Yale (here) which told us that 70% of their medical patients experiencing homelessness had a cell phone.
From there, we organized three interviews in Lisbon - one with a coordinator for the CASA Foodbank, one with the coordinator for a local shelter, and one with a resident of the shelter. It turned out that 90% of the homeless that the food bank and shelter coordinators interacted with had smartphones.
Insights
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Food isn’t a huge issue. The food bank makes rounds everyday to distribute food to the homeless around the city.
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When a homeless person lands a job, they can’t keep it for long. No one is guiding them, and they don’t know what to do - so they end up on the streets again.
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People experiencing homelessness want to stop worrying about their everyday needs (food, shelter, hygiene) so they can pursue their passions and impact the world the way they want.
User Profiles
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The Homeless
Want to have their needs met - food, a place to stay, a way to live. Has limited use of a smartphone (only wifi). Want to get back on their feet and pursue a better life.
Tasks:
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Connect with volunteers
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Get their needs met
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Gain the support they need to move forward
2. The Volunteers
Want to give, support, and help the homeless community. Relatively adept at using technology and willing to go out of their way to do something for someone.
Tasks:
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Prepare meals, hygiene kits, or clothes so they can touch point with and support a homeless person
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Join recreational activities
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Help build the community
Conceptualization
We had so many feature ideas thrown around, but could only fit so many into the prototype. We wanted to pitch what we were going to build and not just an MVP, so we included features that aligned with our vision of building a community/social support network.
Solution
Connect people the way everyone connects these days - through a social platform. People could eat meals together, play games, coordinate pick up basketball, and volunteers can directly see the impact they’re having on one person. We decided to make an application that would both be a tool for the homeless and a platform for volunteers to give. We wanted there to be a community and connections made through this app.
Toggle Between Both Sides
In order to build a community of giving and receiving we wanted users to be able to choose whether they were asking or offering. This builds empathy for both user profiles, exposes them to the supply and demand, and allows anyone to give.
Categories that promote need and allow for interaction
In order to build community, we wanted to start small and expand. Focusing on one-on-one or small group interactions gives people the space they need for support and guidance. The categories were a mix of needs and socials. People experiencing homelessness still have everyday needs covered while they can begin to expand their social network. By allowing volunteers to give both, we can get needs met and promote community at the same time.
Joining an Event
We didn’t want this to be a platform where people message and interact with anyone they want. There needed to be limitations so that people feel comfortable using the platform but can also coordinate meet-ups successfully. My solution is having volunteers create an “offer” within a category and displayed within a certain radius. An “asker” would then be able to join the meeting (1 min decision time, so others can have the opportunity) and then be added into the corresponding group chat for that activity.
Profiles/Stories
Profiles are the users way of sharing where they came from, what they are struggling with, and what their current situation is. These profiles are there to build empathy, and to foster a sense of familiarity with someone you’d be meeting with.
Interactive Map
This feature is for people to seek help and take action on their own. Finding where things are when you need them is a powerful tool to find one’s way around a city. When one clicks on “shelters” the map would show all the shelters in the nearby area, or all the free wifi, public bathrooms etc.
Project Learnings
Be Simple
Thinking about the user that we are trying to help the most, I needed to make sure there was minimal action to take to get users to interact with each other. I had to make sure the navigation clearly led towards the right outcome.
Rely on your teammates
During this project, I really overloaded myself with responsibilities because there were no defined roles and responsibilities. As the designer, I was designated anything that had to be made - flyers, marketing videos, the facebook page, and the application prototype. I voiced that I was overworked when everything was already done, but my teammates would have helped me if I’d asked.
Validate assumptions ASAP
Our original thoughts that the homeless were starving, cold, and upset were mostly wrong. It wasn’t until we talked to organizations that interact with the homeless population everyday that we see they are partially taken care of. The problem was they are stagnant in that state.