Product Design for vulnerable populations
Challenge: Create a product that tackles the wicked problem of financial insecurity of a vulnerable population.
My Role: As a Product Creator I led user research and product development and prototyping. As a Graphic Designer I produced all end deliverables and established a cohesive brand.
Team Structure: 6 Product Creators and Design Thinking Specialists
Product: Purse Strings is a single platform merging latest technologies and real human connection to address the siloed and limited resources currently available to survivors of Domestic Abuse. Our solution comes from a series of iterative prototypes and user interviews to maximize impact and feasibility. We have already gained support from 300 users, half of whom are invested in supporting further development.
Summary: We were asked to design a product that helps survivors of Domestic Abuse to regain financial independence. We began with a series of ethnographic interviews and observations to identify potential common resource spaces. From there we found that every survivor’s journey is incredibly unique. There is no one type of person Domestic Abuse affects and no set pattern of behaviors that instigate or respond to the experience. Domestic Abuse can present itself across a gradient of passive manipulation to aggressive isolation. The one key moment that grounds commonality among all survivors is the “aha” moment. That moment can look different, it can be slow and planned or rapid and instinctual, but it is always what triggers drastic change. When journey mapping a variety of “aha” moments, we found that the most critical pain point was retelling the individual journey, constantly having to convince everybody of the abuse. The retelling is incredibly traumatizing. We developed and tested a product that made sure that a survivor’s story would only need to be told once.
Commonality points across user journeys
Design Criteria reflecting the need for a new type of financial products
Design Criteria reflecting the need for resources and community
THE NEEDS WE WANT TO MEET
Inform | Survivors rarely know the money to which they are entitled – Purse Strings, leveraging Artificial Intelligence & Geolocation, reviews state laws and calculates total money available
Secure | Survivors struggle to create an account away from their abusers – Purse Strings, establishes a new secure account based on these funds
Own | Survivors must tell their story repeatedly – Purse Strings creates a digital key that shares relevant information with approved recipients
Connect | Survivors struggle to find local & experienced resources– Purse Strings, using Geolocation and stringent background checks, provides access to trusted, experienced, local in-person connections for immediate and ongoing support
NEXT STEPS
We are currently in phase one of development – establishing a safe and secured community for survivors of Domestic Abuse. Once the community is fully established, we will continue phase 2 prototype iteration with end users to make sure what we deliver is co-created, motivating, and impactful.