Author: Maddie Bowen

Sp18 Homelessness

Team Tools for the Homeless / H2omeless: Build, Test, and Final Thoughts

Maddie Bowen

Build: Our HCW statement was “How can we ensure homeless individuals in Houston’s tent camps have an easy way to carry their water to maintain good hygiene?”  We started off with 5 spaces where we could potentially build a prototype in: delivery services, refilling stations, waterless hygiene, information distribution and carrying methods.  After doing “axis” exercises, it was clear that the most feasible and realistic space would be carrying methods. Our prototype is a sturdy, yet extensible strap that will attach the half gallon milk cartons in two places to make the carrying of these full cartons easier.  A half … Continue reading Team Tools for the Homeless / H2omeless: Build, Test, and Final Thoughts

Sp18 Homelessness

Team Tools for the Homeless: IDEATE and MSR

Maddie Bowen

This week our team started the ideate process and presented our progress during the mid semester review (MSR). We described our story of how we got from wanting to help the homeless to our concrete how can we statement: How can we ensure homeless individuals in Houston’s tent camps have reliable access to the water needed to maintain good hygiene? We also brainstormed that our solution would achieve the following design goals: Something that you don’t have to carry or would be easy to carry/lightweight Sustainable – should be able to use more than once Cost-effective enough to reproduce Accessible/easy … Continue reading Team Tools for the Homeless: IDEATE and MSR

Sp18 Homelessness

Team Tools for the Homeless: REFRAME

Maddie Bowen

This week, our team met to reframe our project! 2 key insights that are driving our design process forward are: There are many short-term solutions to water scarcity (boy scout troops, volunteers, etc.), but few long term solutions in Houston Limited access to water affects the homeless in ways more than just dehydration, most notably affecting hygiene (ability to brush teeth, wash hands, shower, etc.) and while Star of Hope hands out hygiene bags, many of the items are unusable without water During this meeting we also established a few overarching short and long term measures of success based on … Continue reading Team Tools for the Homeless: REFRAME

Sp18 Homelessness

Team Tools for the Homeless: IMMERSE

Maddie Bowen

This week, our team delved into the Immerse phase. We gathered info from primary and secondary sources to build an idea of who our users are, their primary struggles, and their environment. We visited Kenneth, the Outreach Director of Star of Hope, a homelessness resource center and our community partner, to learn more about the daily needs of our users and the roadblocks they face in providing services. We synthesized this primary source and our secondary research to construct our user persona. Visiting Star of Hope: Star of Hope provides resources to move individuals from the street to stability in … Continue reading Team Tools for the Homeless: IMMERSE

Sp18 Homelessness

Team Tools for the Homeless: IDENTIFY

Maddie Bowen

Team Tools for the Homeless had a great first week! We have identified two potential areas that we want to focus our research: Identification theft among homeless individuals Access to proper hygiene while homeless As a team, we have begun our research, paying close attention to some of the major implications of each problem space. Identification Theft… … makes it more difficult for homeless individuals to check-in to shelters … makes it more difficult for homeless individuals to apply for jobs … makes it more difficult for homeless individuals to receive public aid such as food stamps … leaves homeless … Continue reading Team Tools for the Homeless: IDENTIFY