Farizah Naeem
Region of Waterloo:
Pocket Cards
The Pocket Cards, a first-year university initiative and my first team project using Figma, received the 3rd place Scotiabank Prize Award. These pocket-sized, brochure-style cards offer essential information on food and shelter resources.
Overview
Project Goal
Problem Statement
User and Audience
To come up with the best solution to have quick and easy access to information regarding food and shelter.
To redesign the current Pocket Card in a way that the information available is reliable, readable and easily accessible to the users.
Primary Audience/User:
The Unhoused Community
and Individuals
Secondary Audience/User:
Workers/volunteers of
the Region of Waterloo
Team Members:
-
Priyanka Baskaran
-
Alia Bibi
-
Daniel Chung
-
Rathesa Kodeeswaran
-
Farizah Naeem
-
Mohamed Shaffie
-
Jagdeep Singh
-
Liana Valdez
-
Isabel Uribe-Perez
Roles and Responsibilities
Separately,
-Alia Bibi: Selection process using Now, How?, Wow! Method and The Four Categories Method
-Daniel Chung: Journey Map
-Rathesa Kodeeswaran, Persona, Usability Testing
-Farizah Naeem: Background Research/ Background Information
-Jagdeep Singh: Hi-fidelity prototype
-Liana Valdez: Live Document/QR code creation, Usability Testing
-Isabel Uribe-Perez: Project Constraints, User Needs Statements, Usability Testing
Together,
-Ideation, and voting on top ideas
-Low fidelity prototyping
Scope and Constraints
-
Really big group, hard to manage meeting times
-
Ethics approval process will take 3-4 months
-
Safety concerns due to lack of training in approaching the unhoused community
-
Budget considerations for cost efficiency
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Design constraints related to colour selection
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Need to adapt to technological advancements while preserving the physical design
Solution
-
Created a shared document
-
Everyone worked on their individual parts on their own pace
-
Video called during the break to have a meeting and discuss any problems and to catch everyone up to speed
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We used all the tools provided to us
-
We were encouraged to think outside the box and develop solutions that enable us to navigate around the constraints
The Working Process and Actions Taken
Empathy
Secondary Research
As a team, we build empathy with our users through Secondary research and Group Interviews.
Which included reading recent news articles, reviewing government data, videos, and websites of stakeholders
Click the button to access Interview Transcript
With our Secondary Research and Group Interview Results, we then came up with a Persona
We then created a Journey Map for our Persona
Early Research Findings and User Feedback
Pocket Card Updates
-
Receiving information about schedule changes are through email
-
Pocket Cards are updated every two months
-
Using posters at library as a way of communicating information out
Issues
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Cannot gain access to internet or have a low knowledge of digital literacy
-
Information changes frequently causing pocket cards to be outdated
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As many services are willing to reach out and help, the pocket card is too small to fit all information
-
Small businesses are hard to partner with due to demographic of clients
Improvement
-
Accurate and dated information
-
Information about public bathrooms locations
Define
User Needs Statement
Ideate
All team members ideated solutions and we used Post-it Voting to shortlist ideas
Selection Process
Low-Fidelity Prototype and Testing
First Prototype
Usability Testing Plan
Usability Test Findings
Priority 1:
-
User found text was small in size, making it hard to read
Before
After
-
Unsure of where the QR code would lead
Before
After
Priority 2:
-
Spacing and alignment of tags/headings
-
Re-adjusting the size of the box containing scheduling information
Before
After
Medium-Fidelity Prototype and Testing
Second Prototype
Scan QR Code to access live document
Live Document Prototype
Case Study Slide Deck
Outcomes and Takeaways
The Region of Waterloo Pocket Cards project taught us the importance of designing concise, user-friendly resources that effectively communicate essential information to those in need.