Aspen: By ReloShare
The purpose of this internship was to leverage existing UX research and insights gathered by the UX team and translate them into a mid to high-fidelity prototype. This prototype was instrumental in showcasing the app's capabilities to potential clients and investors, demonstrating its user-friendly interface and robust functionalities.
Context
Problem Statement
Proposed Solution
Research
Discoveries
Project Duration
3 weeks - Winternship
Team
UX + Development team
Role
UX Design Intern
ReloShare utilizes its instant-booking technology to power custom hotel and corporate housing reservation systems, ensuring access to safe and reliable accommodations for clients and sectors that have long been overlooked.
Social service shelters and agencies lack an efficient managerial tool to track current occupants, relying on manual processes that are time-consuming and hinder immediate assistance. Additionally, agencies struggle to find alternative shelter for those seeking temporary shelter if their own shelter is fully booked, forcing agents to turn away those in need.
Aspen: A shelter management system for social service shelters and agencies. This application will handle occupant logs, room maintenance, and client data. Additionally, it will host a feature allowing users to find available shelter space for clients they cannot accommodate.
Target Users: Social Services Staff Members
Secondary Users: City, state, or local government, policy makers, government/philanthropic funders
Research Questions
1. What is the current process of managing shelter stays and guest information?
2. What guest information is collected by shelters?
3. What is the current process of locating alternative shelter options for people seeking shelter?
4. What challenges are associated with the current shelter management system?
5. How can the experience of managing shelters and locating alternative shelter options be improved?
📝 All shelter management information is tracked by pen and paper and relayed verbally. This causes issues when the bed sheet is damaged or lost.
⏳ Intake process within the shelter is tedious and time consuming.
📤 Does not have an efficient way to export shelter info to HUD.
📝 Employees spend more time updating colleagues about previous days events instead of investing that time helping the clients.
Organization
ReloShare
“Using paper to track our beds often gets damaged, lost, and torn. It has caused a multitude of different issues. ”
— Shelter Manager
User Persona
User Journey Map
Design Outcomes
Design Principles
Overall, we wanted a solution that:
✅ Efficiently tracked occupants logs, room maintenance, and client data
✅ Easily replace damaged or lost bed sheets by maintaining digital records
✅ Simplify and accelerate the intake process, allowing employees to spend more time assisting the clients
We wanted to avoid:
🚫 Creating complex manual data entry, as they can be time consuming
🚫 Solutions that hinder users with disabilities
🚫 Distracting or overly stimulating information or visual displays
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Streamlines the intake process to allow for more time spent in meaningful social interaction.
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Designs are adaptable to different shelter environments and user needs, allowing for customization and configuration as needed.
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Aspen uses encryption to protect data both in transit and at rest, ensuring that sensitive information is secure.
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Designs are simple and intuitive, avoiding unnecessary complexity to make it easy for users to understand and use the application.
