LADDER TELEBOOTH PROCESS BOOK
Yichao Zhang
Contents Hackney video Community features Maxneef human need Social capital Basic human right Design tool research IDEO research tool Public think model Observation tool Story cube Secondary research Address research Insight statements Adversarial Design Ladder Phone booth design
Video: https://vimeo.com/263010773
Through our research in London borough of Hackney, we found out two extraordinary aspects about this area: Marginalization and Fragmentation, the expansion that happened in Hackney in the past 10 years changed local people’s life in many ways, This expansion makes many people gradually out of touch with society. These people are like living on the edge of society or living outside of community.s
Community features
Maxneef human need
Social capital
First we use the standard of Manfred Max-Neef fundamental needs to analysis Homeless group, and based on which, think about what these people have and what is missing. For example, they have a very poor living environment, but they have a categorical freedom. By using this tool we are able to present essential aspects that is lack of in homeless group whereas normal people would take as granted. We do believe some people choose to be homeless as a freedom of individual, we need to make clear which type of group we are dealing with in our design solutions.
IDEO Card
Research toll Design
We wish to create a research tool to insight into daily life and behaviors of homeless, and from where to expose social issues behind that. In the early stage of our interviews that we were carrying on in Hackney, we tried to let the public do the descriptions of homeless in their mind, since everyone has their own version according to the impression they have about that subject. We are interested in how these impression were made and who is actually controlling the general figure of certain group in the social discussions. We tried to create the narrative of homeless life by sending out disposable cameras, and value those factors using the standard of Max-Neef human neede system to achieve a better understanding of their situation. We built story cubes as a way to visualize the stories we got directly from homeless themselves. In this case Story Cube works as a communication tool to challenge the stereotypes public are holding about what homeless life should be.
e in mind. It should be noted that the power of prototypes on public thinking about homelessness is markably strong.
Story cube
When the people thinking homelessness they allways think about this is individuals problem, but not on society. for example, people can identify the connections between homelessness and poor physical and mental health, but they struggle to understand the impacts of homelessness on communities or at the national level.
The causes of homelessness in the United Kingdom
In our secondary research we analyzed the government papers that had been published, generally government department define the problem of Homelessness as an economic issue. The number of homeless people in Hackney doubled in the past five years while as a fact the housing price in the same area increased by 63%, renting by 75%. The local council made solutions including 2 million’s expenses on infrastructure projects to help with the situation, but the outcome doesn’t look good enough to most people concerned. And in another way, we want to have a better knowledge of these expenses being used and whether the current model is efficient enough.
The government sees the homelessness as an economic issuse, People are working on programmes, services and policy changes to prevent and reduce homelessness, and moving public thinking is a critical part of social change work. .
Without robust discussions of the societal impacts of homelessness, the public will not be able to see how the negative consequences are felt beyond those who are currently homeless. The lack of a social frame dramatically limits public engagement with the issue and reduces demand for solutions. In the current charity model, most aid plans are made by local council and charity organizations, the whole process of decision making are lacking the participation of Homeless themselves, homeless people become a changeless group of receiving helps without the motivation of doing anything back to society. And also according to our primary and secondary researches, we found out there’s a gap between the services being offered and what homeless people really need especially when one wants to fight back to normal life.
Address research
Insight Statements Design Challenge Our main challenge is to build connection between homeless and the local community. Keywords: mailbox, address 1. address issues being a barrier for homeless people getting back to the society. 2. can’t collect benefits because homeless they haven’t got an address Keyword: information 1.not being able to get useful information especially online information is also a problem. 2. They don't know where they can get help 3. Charity organizations are willing to help them but don’t have a way of possibly informing their target groups. 4. they don’t have access to online information, neither by PC nor by mobile phone
I wish to challenge the inherent habits and thoughts by re-purposing the function of certain object, in this case, I found out that many homeless people is holding a McDonald’s cup asking for donations, thus this cup becomes a daily necessity with function of collecting changes. Based on this I did few attempts of transforming this cup into a communication tool to help homeless build connections with the community and thus help them find the sense of belongings. This cup consists of one microphone, mobile network and one tiny printer. Through speech input, one person could print the information he needs while allowing a discussion between two people in different places.
Introduction Ladder
The Ladder is an organization we created that does the duration of the phone booth project and also currency system that is introduced to our audience in our monopoly game. It’s a charity organization that is sponsored by local council(ideally) and advertisings, same way as what telephone company gain benefits on the phone booth. The difference between the Ladder and traditional charities is we aim at building contacts between homeless and local residents, offering another option for everyone, both for residents who want to help homeless in a better way and also those homeless who want to fight their way back.
Information Booth Design
Information Booth is an approach to better communications inside the community, while this connections being built between homeless and charity organizations is not only one way like how it used to be, but bidirectional. In one way homeless can find much more information they need easier; in another way, government can integrate the resources as evidence for more efficient decision making in the future. Moreover, I wish through the participation from both sides, to eventually generate discussions within a wider scope of the society about homeless issue.
Background Homelessness is rising As previously stated, Hackney has become an increasingly attractive place to live, this has had a significant impact on both the mortgage and rental market in the borough; Average house prices have increased by over 63% over the course of the last 5 years, which has had a corresponding impact on the local rental market, where rents have increased by between 32% and 75%. Over the same period, the number of rough sleepers has more than doubled, moreover there are groups whose number are impossible to be counted: the 'hidden homeless’, so called ‘sofa sleeper’, who are also struggling for somewhere to settle. New legislation has arrived In 2018, the Homelessness Reduction Act comes into force, requiring local authorities to actively take steps to prevent households at risk of homelessness tipping into crisis. However, since 2010 local authority funds have reduced by around 40% with further cuts continuing until 2020. Councils are now being asked to do more with less. This requires new, efficient, and innovative approaches to tackling a worsening problem.
This idea is about putting PhoneBooth back into use as a multi-fucntions space for people who have trouble settling down. The red British telephone booth is a universally recognized icon for over 90 years, but thanks to the smartphones, these British classics are becoming obsolete. Somehow we believe that we are able to repurpose them as a mini information center to continue setrving the local community. Through our research about Homelessness in Hackney we found out that except address issue being a barrier for homeless people to get back to society, not being able to get valid informations especially online informations is also a problem for people in trouble settling down. Thus we come up with a idea of putting phone booth into use as a small spot of information cente.
Information network
UI system
Prototype model
Organization and Management
Funding Ladder Organization is the Cooperation with the green house charity. Entity of the duration of the information booth program and Mailbox system, supervised by the local council, the Ladder(Organization) works both for registered homeless and also short term homeless people who are struggling to get a way out. Considering the current situation and the Housing Act 1996, registered homeless have priority of receiving helps from the Ladder, for those who are not yet register in local government, our organization will arrange a waiting list for whoever applied. Sponsorship Sponsored by local charity organizations, the Ladder can also gain benefits from the outdoor advertisings on the phone booth. The funding’s will be spent under the supervision of public and local government. Information System The system works as a online platform cauterizing gathered information of following aspects: Shelter, Food, Hygiene, Health Care(Mental and Physical) including addictions treatments, and other services that meets the basic needs of homeless. This system aims at building a more straight forward connection between organizations that offers help to homeless and those homeless who need help, and will be achieved in the entity of reformed phone booths network. Management of Phone Booth & Mailbox To put the information system into use, our program includes repurposing abandoned phone booths into mini station with internet and mailbox service. Those who registered in the Ladder can get access to the phone booth and acquire information they need. Moreover, each phone box has 7 mailboxes on one side to be applied by whom in need for an address. Our first plan is to set 6 pilots of this reforming plan around spots that homeless used to gather in our first stage.
Location
Website: https://lesliechen67.wixsite.com/thisiskris