HomeFix

The Center for NYC Neighborhoods is the largest independent non-profit organization devoted to supporting low- and moderate-income homeowners in NYC. Designit NYC partnered with the Center to help launch the New York City Department of Housing Preservation and Development's new HomeFix program, which aims to fund essential repairs that maintain the health and integrity of their homes. This project was done entirely pro bono on Designit’s side and emerged from a successful initial partnership between Designit & the Center for Designit’s Service Design Day event in June 2019.

Learn more about HomeFix: https://www.nyc.gov/site/hpd/services-and-information/homefix.page

Case study on Designit’s website: https://www.designit.com/work/protecting-affordable-homeownership-in-new-york

I WORKED ON

Service design, research, workshop facilitation, client management, visual design of deliverables, process mapping

I COLLABORATED WITH

Designit team: Maria Chercoles (service design, lead), Valentina Canavesio (research), Vanessa Jimenez (visual design, illustration), Christian Linsey (director)

RESEARCH

The aim of the research was not only to understand the future users of the HomeFix program, but also to understand how the Center and its partners operate to ensure whatever we designed worked for all parties involved. We interviewed representatives from different departments of the Center, we shadowed employees while they were taking calls in the main intake call center and we interviewed 6 different homeowners from various neighborhoods in NYC.

METHODS

User interviews, shadowing, co-creation, fly-on-the-wall observation, desk research

Barbara & Jerome, homeowners in Staten Island

Shadowing employees who work in the Center’s “Hub”

Interviewing employees working at the Center for NYC Neighborhoods

exploration

After the research, we realized what the Center and its partners needed in the short-term was better tools for collaboration and coordination in order to launch the program by the deadline. To help them, we facilitated a series of workshops:

2 workshops with the Center and its partners with representatives from the Center and its many partner organizations. At the first workshop we presented the research insights, a journey map of the HomeFix program, and then divided the group into tactical teams to resolve outstanding items. At the second workshop we presented 15 experience concepts that emerged from the ideation workshop (see below).
An ideation workshop at Designit NYC where our studio generated over 150 concepts around different aspects of the HomeFix program experience. This workshop was held in between the two workshops above.

METHODS

Co-creation & ideation workshop, HMWs, process map, user personas, user journey, systems thinking

deliverables

At the end of the project, we delivered:

Research insights from our interviews with the homeowners in the form of a research video, interview transcripts and a PDF of insights
4 program design mantra posters to guide the Center throughout their development of the HomeFix program
Storyboards of different user scenarios so the Center and their partners could connect to real use cases and stories throughout the design of the program
Process map of the HomeFix program in the form of a printed map, a high-resolution PDF and an editable Excel spreadsheet

< BACK