OBJECTIVE

Our team set out to improve the dynamics between New York police officers and individuals experiencing homelessness in New York City.

OUTCOME

A variety of recommendations were provided to both the NYPD and organizations supporting individuals striving to get out of homelessness. This included both a tangible prototype - the “You Matter” bag - and future event recommendations. These recommendations included a police vs. youth basketball league and a police led pop-up breakfast.

Role: design research, problem reframing, ideation

Skills: human-centered design, experience mapping, synthesis, strategy

By utilizing research techniques like "card sorting" we were able get an understanding of how individuals experiencing homelessness feel about different authority figures throughout the city. Most importantly, their feelings towards New York City police officers.

We wanted to be sure that we had a well-informed take on how individuals experiencing homelessness perceived the NYPD. To ensure this, we spoke to a diverse set of homeless individuals - veterans, males, females, New York natives, people from out of town, those that had stayed in shelters and those that had not.

We needed to develop a solution that addressed the mistrust that currently exists between police and individuals living on the streets.

We worked with organizations focused on helping individuals out of homelessness and learned about the most requested items. We decided to develop a bag with these items that could be distributed by the NYPD with the words “You Matter” on them - a nod to the feeling of invisibility often felt by homeless individuals. The bag would also include a card with the contact information of the police officer and various resources for them throughout the city.

We wanted the synthesis of our research to be experienced organically, instead of as a standard slide presentation. We asked our viewers to navigate a mobile-style presentation of our findings with the goal of learning the typical experience of an individual navigating homelessness in NYC.

The research was categorized to first demonstrate a “typical” user journey for a homeless individual and then an “ideal” user journey, where our recommendations for system improvements are incorporated. We showcased quotes from our interviews with homeless focused organizations, police officers and stakeholders which informed why we feel our solutions would work for real-world application.