Ashley O'Callaghan
Social designer, researcher and storyteller
Overview
Design Research and UX Design
January - June 2020
Faced with growing numbers of residents at risk of homelessness Hackney Council needed a more accessible service which better utilised modern technology and reduced friction between staff and legacy systems.
This project set out to design and test digital tools that would streamline internal processes and increase staff capacity to better support at-risk residents.
Role
Working within a multidisciplinary team I conducted qualitative and quantitative research with frontline staff and managers at Hackney Council to identify pain points in the current system and inform the design of better tools for meeting the housing and benefit needs of residents.
Using a hypothesis led approach I designed prototypes to learn more about our design assumptions through live testing with staff and residents.
Main activities
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In depth desk and stakeholder research to understand housing policy
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Ethnographic research observing frontline staff and residents interactions at different service points
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Leading qualitative and quantitative research with internal and external stakeholders
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Facilitating synthesis, pain point mapping and user journey sessions
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Designing prototypes to test hypothesis
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Live testing with frontline staff and residents
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Iterating on prototypes
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Sharing findings with stakeholders at workshops, show and tells and in reports
Outcome
The tools we designed had a range of significant benefits, including improving communication between staff and residents, giving staff an accurate picture of each individual's situation, and saving thousands of hours of staff time.
This has helped Hackney better support the housing and benefits needs of residents, as well as generate higher levels of resident engagement, empowering them to take ownership of their situation.
"It's a more seamless way of working, a much nicer way to work with individuals, putting the torch on small steps people can take."
- Rough Sleeping Coordinator
User research materials to test a tool designed to help staff gather the information they need about residents
Framing user research insights into measurable hypotheses for testing
