Giiive placed 1st in the coexistence track, the track that had the most submissions, in the 2023 BU Catalyst Designathon. The project was created by a team of three over the course of two and a half days.

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As students living in a densely-populated city, we coexist with people from many walks of life, including those experiencing homelessness. This issue is especially prevalent near the University of Washington campus, and we pass by many homeless individuals in our daily routines. As we come from backgrounds with little exposure to such experiences, we had to educate ourselves on the housing crisis as we assimilated into the culture here. We, and many of our friends, would help them if we could, but we lack the means to do so without risking personal safety. And, without hearing their stories, it is hard to break free from our biases and cultural stereotypes.

Giiive aims to solve the problem by encouraging passersby to connect and empathize with their local homeless population by hearing their individual stories. By presenting the community through a human-centered approach rather than statistics, we aim to reduce stigma and encourage the user to engage with an accessible solution. Though we acknowledge that donations are short-term solutions, we hope that, by providing small starting steps, we can pique the user’s interest in contributing to long-term, systemic change.

To aid them in their journey, we provide links to additional educational resources. We hope users will walk away from the experience feeling educated, compassionate, and open-minded.

According to user research survey responses from 12 participants, stigma is the primary barrier that prevents them from diving beyond a surface-level interest and understanding of the situation. Many also expressed that they would be willing to give to the homeless community if appropriate resources were accessible and readily available. Therefore, we decided to design a mobile application aimed at reducing stigma and educating the user.

During our design process, we focused on goals rather than features, using “the leap” focus points to structure our decisions. We decided that the metric we wanted to move was the user’s open-mindedness and philanthropy, while we wanted users to feel educated and compassionate after the designed experience.

Our app is targeted towards college students and young adults who have access to mobile phones and internet service. This main stakeholder was chosen out of convenience due to the time limit.

We understand that some homeless individuals may not readily have access to these resources, hence we intend to connect them with our service through various local organizations. However, there is a possibility that their stories may be misrepresented, and they will have no control over this. Additionally, we must ensure that the privacy of the individuals behind the stories is well protected, as they do not have the luxury of stable, private residences.

Project created with Annie Pao and Stephanie Chou for the BU Catalyst 2023 Designathon.