Chalmers Signal V1 Scoping
Shubi:
- Referrals to respite centers are done faster
- Staff time spent more efficiently
- Shelters and respite sites save money on resources
- More people find shelters vs. previously
- Folks can self-serve for shelters if needed
Kai:
- To make respite centers more accessible
- To reduce respite referral times
- Improve experience of someone trying to get access to a respite site
- Provided shelter staff with tools that treat them as value and worthy; it's distasteful that the city ships hard-to-use enterprise interfaces; they deserve well-thought-out products in their everyday life
- Improve understanding of how referrals impact the Toronto shelter system
| Rank | Goal | Success Criteria |
|---|---|---|
| 1 (Main) | Reduce referral time so more folks can get into a shelter faster | mins spent on referral per client on avg ; avg time spent on referrals by staff on avg day or week |
| 2* | Improve experience of: staff trying to make referral | staff satisfaction rating of referral process |
| 3* | Improve experience of: someone trying to get access to a respite site | % of times found referral to site within 10, 15, 20, 30 mins ; quality of referrals - how easy/fast to get to site, site population served matches my profile etc |
| 4* | Treat staff as valuable workers worthy of using high-design items in their everyday workday | staff satisfaction of support in job |
| 5* | Staff time spent more efficiently | % of time spent on referral vs % time spent on client services vs rest of admin tasks vs breaks ; how have their job description changed (are they doing new tasks they didn't have time for before? are they doing more "nothing" / waiting?) |
| 6* | Shelters can divert money/resources spent on inefficent referrals to better outcomes (i.e. more client programs/staff wages)* | $ spent on referrals, $ spent on non-referral staff wages etc, $ spent on client programs - absolute and as a % of total budget |
*Not all goals are entirely under our influence
Kai:
- To help the underserved and underhoused survive until a time at which they can be housed
Zach:
- we've identified a discrete, well scoped problem that can be solved through automation.
- homelessness in toronto is a market few are serving with high-design
- except for ample labs and code for canada. but these are new developments in last 4 years
- our research clearly shows a clear bottleneck in shelter referal times, and that referal times are a crucial part of emergency shelter services
- identified with primary research (interviews with reception staff)
- identified by industry experts (ombudsman)
- homelessness in toronto is a market few are serving with high-design
Shubhi:
- improve homelessness situation in Toronto
- make more impact than # of hours / $ volunteered by individuals on project
- long term, lasting impact for shelters / referral system
- our expertise is not in client care / case working, so try to come up with solutions that use our expertise (technology, design)
- ultimately, fewer people suffering bc of inefficent referral/ referral bureaucracy
Kai:
- Fewer incidences of empty bed/spaces in shelters when they are in demand
- Fewer winter deaths due to unavailability of shelters
Zach:
- 24 hour reception site staff refer clients to emergency shelter faster
- shelter services are able to verify that they have reached 100% capacity. no unused spaces in shelter system
- there is no empty space at the same time someone (who matches service criteria for that empty space) is looking for space.
Shubhi:
- mins/hrs spent on referral (by staff, avg day) (per client)
- $ referral cost (per client, per week)
- num of staff required for referral
- time to be referred/find shelter
- num of respite sites adopted signal
- integration w municipal process/software
- helps other projects trying to improve homelessness situation
| User (Actor) | Actions (Jobs) | Ending |
|---|---|---|
| Signal onboarding volunteer | 1. Create shelter profile 2. Install signal at site 3. Demo signal for staff 4. Answer questions staff might have etc 5. Ensure Signal device is working & connected to map | Signal device installed at site & working |
| Shelter staff | 1. See if signal working & connected to map 2. Match capacity at site to signal capacity 3. As clients come in, move dial up 4. As clients leave, move dial down 5. When new clints come looking for space that shelter cannot provide, refer to map 6.Navigate map to find site that can accomodate client 7. Call selected site to confirm availability 8. Repeat steps 6-7 as needed 9. Once a site has confirmed availability, find route for client 10. Communicate to client the details of referral (or lack thereof) 11. Document referral process as needed/required | 1. Staff documented shelter availability on Chalmers map 2. Staff successfully referred client 3. Staff failed to refer client because no availability ➡️ :( 4. Staff failed to refer client because technical issue ➡️ call for help!! |
| Signal technician | 1. Recieve request for support 2. Visit shelter site in person 3. Diagnose issue. 4. Treat issue with Chalmers Signal (else record and report issue to support@chalmersproject.com). | 1. Chalmers signal site is back up and operational 2. Bug report is filed with support@chalmersproject.com |
followup tasks:
- kai: fix email systems oopsies
TODO: Email aliases to create! supper@chalmersproject.com zoop@chalmersproject.com zoobie@chalmersproject.com shoobie@chalmersproject.com kyle@chalmersproject.com misterchalmers@chalmersproject.com mistuh_c@chalmersproject.com kung_fu_pasta_salad@chalmersproject.com wildcard
we're hiring!.png we have no money but we have zoop!
Kai:
- Map
- Show all shelters, know at-a-glance which ones have capacity
- Be able to quickly get contact info to a shelter
- Be able to know at-a-glance when shelter is closed / closing time / almost closed "YOU HAVE 10 MINUTES RUN!!1!"
- ?? Show how to get from arbitrary to a shelter?? location directions api??? what if somebody is lost ?? utils to help locate and direct person?
- Help! support me! button for staff
- Did you make a successful referral?
- emoji feedback indicators
- fun & lighthearted humour/joy embedded into design
- virgl themed?
- fun & lighthearted humour/joy embedded into design
- "request" for update? -> send request to signal operator to update signal or 'press dial' to confirm that is accurate
- Signal
- Dial to indicate occupancy
- Button to request for help!
- Holds operational reference booklet / troubleshooting guide
- Internal
- Telegram group when we get alerts from the signal
- Events:
- Turned on + connected to WiFi
- End of day: Histogram of times updated (knob turn), by hour [1-2PM: 3 updates, 2-3PM: 17 updates] (server can send this one, not signal)
- Log of failed update attempts? i.e. when internet down, record error and submit to server later
- Events:
- Telegram group when we get alerts from the signal
Shubhi:
- visual map
- map that has dots/markers for sites with pop up that contain fixed details (name, total capacity, hours, population served, phone number)
- current capacity by site on visual map
- last updated/timestamp of current capacity change (how recent is the "current capacity" number)
- option to get walking / transit / commuting route to new site from current location
- ttc route on visual map - visual markers on map
- FAQ page for reference (for using Signal / Map by shelter staff)
- Contact page/form for reporting bugs + contact details for service (including service number/email and hours served)
- easy way to identify incorrect information on map (maybe link to contact form?)
- easy way to navigate onto web map
- button up/down OR dial for capacity changes
- additional site details: historic % capacity at site, by hour, by month/season
- example google maps histogram as inspo!
- self serve menu to create profile (for onboarding volunteer)
- have your current location (shelter) be the central point for your view of the web map
- documentation /bug reports to refer to when technicians fixing issues
- way for staff to change total capacity of own site
- color coding current capacity visually on map
- quick button on map to record when referral was successful (has congratulatory message but useful for recording success)
- external users (other sites/users) to request for update/confirm current capacity is updated --> in a way that isn't too annoying
- either on the signal device OR pop up in corner of map (different pros/cons of each method)
Zach:
- chalmers signal admin panel
- warm intros at shelter so device can be installed
- wifi password
- regular (4 times in first week?) demos of the chalmers signal to staff
- map displays data received from signals
- green for empty, yellow for filling up, orange for nearly full, red for full, grey for no updates recently
- create gmail accounts for shelters for us to whitelist and for them to sign into map
- maybe install another browser they only use for the map so they're always signed into that gmail account?
- shelter staff add updating the chalmers signal to their headcount protocol
- add map to easy to find place in shelter reception desk
- home page of browser
- dedicated screen
- bookmark in browser
- shortcut on desktop
- dedicated macro button???
- somewhat regularly vetted data on chalmers signal website/map
- once per month vetted?
- link to google map route to a shelter in the map popup?
- filtering of shelter type on map (male, female, family, all)
- ask for help button on signal?
- telegram chat with chalmers signal members for support button activations?
- bug report form
- troubleshooting guide for support technicians
See this FigJam!