Design Research
Staff Interviews
Empathy Mapping
Wireframing
Prototyping
Illustrator
Indesign
Adobe XD
Three months;
Spring 2018
Kinzie Burke
Abhi Shah
Zach Kokatnur
Justin McKinstry
The Green chair project is a non-profit organization that provides people who are recovering from homelessness, or crisis with low priced furnishings for their new home. Agencies refer participants to the organization, and they go through a private, one hour shopping experience, in store. During this project we created both physical and digital solutions that accommodate more clients, improve efficiency and streamline the shopping process.
This project was a collaboration between IBM, NC State University and the Green Chair Project. The design challenge entailed giving practical solutions to increase outreach and enable the non-profit to serve a minimum of 1000 families each year. I was part of the digital team and we focused on creating virtual solutions.
Create a digital solution that enables Green Chair to serve 1000 families every year.
My team came up with multiple solutions and a three-step implementation process which allows the non-profit to transition to a digital service in addition to their physical shopping experience. This allows Green Chair to serve up to 1000 families a year without having to implement a full website. Once the virtual experience is set up, however, the process is further streamlined and Green Chair will have the capacity and the resources to expand.
Green Chair currently only serves clients in-house. They offer a private, one hour shopping experience guided by a program coordinator. They serve around four families a day. An agency refers clients to Green Chair, and Green Chair accepts clients who live in Wake County and are physically able to visit the Green Chair warehouse.
During the research phase, my team visited the non-profit's warehouse, and went through a full shopping experience in order to understand our user's perspective. One of the most important parts of the shopping experience is the order. Th user makes smaller decisions first, before they work up to big decisions. For example, the first thing the user will choose is a laundry basket, and the last thing they choose is living room furnishings.
During our interviews, we asked both staff and volunteers about their experience at Green Chair. We learned a lot about the non-profit's structure, it's administrative processes and its values. We asked questions that gave us more insight into what might be obstructing them in terms of their goal to serve a minimum of 1000 families an year.
When a client is referred by an agency, and until they go through the experience, a lot of paperwork is involved. The paperwork can hold up the process if it isn't filled out correctly.
Currently there are only three program coordinators, and they are the only ones who can guide clients through a shopping experience. This is a lot of pressure on only three staff members.
Green Chair routinely turns away and rejects clients because they are not from Wake county or because the client can't physically come to the warehouse.
Transparency is an important aspect of establishing trust. In order to provide the best possible service, the shopping experience allows the user to inspect items in order to learn more about its condition.
To create a dignified experience, the website mimics other shopping experiences such as Amazon or Target. It allows the user to choose from multiple product choices, view their cart, and to pan over the product images.
The user has the agency to choose their furniture. There aren't any guidelines, restrictions or contingencies. All the products that are available are listed and the user makes the final choice for each item .
During the ideation phase we used multiple mapping strategies. These included: Empathy Maps, Big Idea Vignettes, Customer Journey maps and the Prioritization Grid. These tools helped my team make user-centered design decisions when coming up with solutions.
After our ideation phase, Kenzie and I worked on the website UX and UI. We started out by sketching and designing lo-fi wireframes of the virtual shopping experience. We then conducted a quick user test with with our clients to get feedback.
Creating a virtual shopping experience takes time and maintenance. We wanted to ensure our client, Project Green Chair could implement temporary solutions in place in order to expand their outreach while the virtual experience is being developed. This is an IBM strategy we learned, implementing 'cupcake' solutions so the 'wedding cake' could be built.
The client is redirected to a separate section which gives the client information related to an alternative, digital shopping experience if the client is unable to physically come to the Green Chair warehouse. This accommodates clients who live far away and people with disabilities.
We provided a list of organizations whose focus is providing furniture to those in need. Reaching out to these organizations is a good opportunity to find other ways to improve Green Chair, and to spread Green Chair’s practices pertaining to dignity to other furniture banks.
In order to cater to users who are unable to physically attend a shopping experience, a video call can be conducted. This provides face to face interaction while also letting the client observe all the items at their leisure. Green Chair volunteers can be trained to facilitate these calls using an engagement guidebook.
The website serves as an alternative shopping experience for clients that can't physically come to the Green Chair warehouse. It is the ideal high level solution that can be implemented to improve efficiency. Clients can select their choices at leisure from home. They can inspect and review their choices, similar to other digital shopping experiences.
This project gave me the chance to explore design thinking tools and strategies. Each tool gave me different insight into my user, my process, and my solution.
If I had more time, I would explore long term usability. This experience may be helpful over the next few years, but if the non-profit grew to national levels, other systems would need to be in place to make sure the user still gets a personal, dignified shopping experience.
I would also consider how this product could be maintained. In order for this solution to be successful, the website has to be constantly updated. It would be important to consider how the website could be automated so that the maintenance is less labor intensive.
Interested in learning more?
Contact me at: lavanyagunturi@gmail.com ✉️
if you want to talk further about my work!