As a part of a course called User Oriented Collaborative Design, I worked on a team of six to design and prototype a product tailored to domestic abuse support network volunteers.
The project was a semester long study in user-oriented design practices. As a team we improved our design practices by doing user visits, design matrices, personas and other common techniques. We co-designed with our users at every stage of the process. Hot line volunteers are on the clock at any time, and any place. They must take calls in private to maintain confidentiality. As a result, many remained in their houses while on-call and found it frustrating to be unable to leave during the long on-call hours. We had many iterations of designs before deciding on Rapid Refuge as a Safe Space for help line volunteers at any time. Rapid Refuge allows volunteers to quickly create a private space to take calls in, or to meet with a survivor. The realization of the product would rely on mechanical principles present in fold-up, wire laundry hampers. Our final deliverable was a life-size, looks-like, acts-like sketch model of Rapid Refuge. |
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