OSF Homeless Kiosk

Collaborative Application Design and User Testing

Introduction

This project was completed during my Topics in User Experience class with a group of five. We were tasked with making a tablet application that could be used in homeless shelters in the Peoria area, either by the homeless themselves or by the nurses that work in the shelters. For this design, my group spent time thoroughly examining the goals of the application and completing various UX exercises to better understand potential users. We compiled a list of questions and interviewed our contact at OSF, as well as a subject matter expert (SME) about the current homeless situation.

Based on these interviews, we began our work on different UX brainstorming exercises, including a persona, HEART goals, a competitive analysis, information architecture, user flows, and journey map. Additionally, we created a moodboard to explore the visual design of the application. Based on the findings from these exercises, my group was able to begin our wireframes with a more informed view of what the app needed to accomplish.

Our main features in the app were a service locator, email access, OSF transport assist, the Care-A-Van schedule, make a call, MyChart access, and the anonymous concern box. Rounds of feedback and iterations allowed us to move on to create our high fidelity mockups, which we ultimately user tested with some of the nurses present in the homeless shelters.

Development

The application prototype was created using Adobe XD. For our design document, moodboard, and UX exercises, we used Figma. I had used XD in the past, but this was my first time using Figma. My teammates helped me learn the basics, and I taught myself the rest along the way.

Results

This application was a great success. We received feedback from our user testing which we were able to implement in our final design. Additionally, our contact at OSF and our professor gave us very positive comments. Some comments made by my peers included:

"Fantastic visual design skills."
“She has a good eye for design and is very good at knowing what the best UX would be.”
"She has done great work throughout the semester and I feel like I can always trust her to get her work done."

Example High Fidelity Screens

Presenting to OSF Officials and Class