HOMELESS CASH PROJECT
Overview
Homeless Cash is a social impact project that aims to design a service to enable donations to homeless people from passers-by in a cashless society. As our commercial and retail environments move steadily towards cashless transactions as the norm, fewer Australians carry cash daily, particularly coins. This project aims to answer the question, How might we facilitate the exchange of value so that people experiencing homelessness can meet immediate needs in a way that they choose and feel dignified and connected?
This community-lead project is supported by the Boston Consulting Group’s social impact scheme and has engaged multiple organisations and individuals to assist in research and design. St Vincent de Paul is the product owner, providing expertise and guidance in research, ethics and user testing. The project has also partnered with Mobilise, a small not-for-profit organisation that provides on-the-ground support to the homeless. The technological solution is being built by a team of computer science and engineering students from the ANU TechLauncher program.
Research
The first six weeks of the project consisted of desk research and ethnographic research to develop a deep understanding of the perspectives and lived experiences of people experiencing homelessness, as well as the potential technological landscape we would be working within. After reviewing research insights from interviews and ride-alongs with support organisations, we made key decisions that will shape our solution:
The project will design for the most visible group of people experiencing homelessness, that is the 'rough sleepers' who are most entrenched in homelessness.
There will be no stipulation from us or the donor on how the recipient spends their money.
The solution must facilitate conversation and connection between individuals, one of the most important needs of people experiencing homelessness.
Ideation
The team developed several ideas including supermarket tokens, a round-up service at retailers, centralised storage, a donation locker, an app to sponsor a family. We arrived at three main concepts:
1. Device/App (tap) Recipient wears or carries a small device with an NFC chip (like a credit card). Donors use an app on their phone and tap it to the device (like PayWave) to make a donation. Recipients can tap their device at any PayWave machines to make purchases.
2. Device/App (distance) Recipient wears or carries a small device that sends out an iBeacon signal to donors’ phones within 70m. Donors use an app to donate to recipients and can set automatic predefined donations. Recipients can tap their device at any PayWave machines to make purchases.
3. Supermarket Partnership Recipient has a supermarket account with a unique code. They have a sign showing their code e.g. “donate to my Woolies account”. Donor can donate to their account by using supermarket website and code.
Concept Testing
To test the three shortlisted concepts, I sketched a storyboard for each one and created a card sorting activity, which I distributed amongst the team. The activity was intended to be run with donors and recipients to test the desirability of the different concepts. I created two different versions for the two user groups, and the activity is broken up into different journey stages, showing different features of each concept. An interviewer asks a user to discuss whether they would use this feature or not and writes their comments on the cards. The interviewer then takes a photo and uploads it to our shared Miro board and makes summary notes, which allowed me identify commonalities.
Prototype
Based on the following concept map, storyboards and wireframes I developed, the TechLauncher team prototyped an app that allows a donor to send data to a nearby iBeacon device.
Next Steps
Refine the prototype with TechLauncher team
Conduct usability testing with St Vincent de Paul Samaritan House, the Early Morning Centre and Mobilise
Evaluate insights from recipients and donors and reimagine the solution
Pitch the MVP to a major retailer