Background Info & Opportunity

I was the product designer for team "No Place Like Home" during the 2015 San Francisco Developer Week Hackathon, where we won 3rd place out of 100 teams. Coverage and mention in Huffington Post.

Hackathon Challenge: How might we strengthen renters’ rights by connecting renters with the City of San Francisco?

Opportunity: With property value in San Francisco skyrocketing, landlords often use the threat of an Ellis eviction (CA state law allowing landlords to evitct tennants in order to "go out of business") as a tool to bully tennants into an unfair buyout (paying them to move out of their unit). Our vision is to reduce the rate of unfair displacement practices in San Francisco by 75%.

Hypothesis

If we provide SF renters with trustworthy information about the value of their unit, renters will have more power to effectively negotiate for a fair buyout.

Process

Get to know the tennants

Our team understood that the key to an effective offering is to have a strong understanding of San Francisco tennants who faced (or are facing) a buyout or eviction. Beacuse it was a 36 hour hackathon, we got scrappy. I started by emailing and tweeting those who had faced evictions, scoured online articles, contacted the SF Tennants Group, reporters, and even politicians, to better understand the tennants and pains & needs. 

Document the problem statement & solution

Documenting this information was critical for the hackathon because everybody was working at lightning speeds in different areas. Writing this down ensured we were on the same page, and ultimately helped us move faster as one cohesive unit.  

Problem Statement: I'm a long-term SF renter who's on a fixed income. I'm trying to understand whether I should accept a buyout from my landlord, but I don't know the legal rules to calculate it because it's complex and confusing. This makes me feel fearful and powerless. 

Solution: Help San Francisco tennants understand their tennant rights, and help them feel powerful and confident in being able to decide whether to accept a buy-out. 

Design principles:

1. Keep it simple - Many of those targeted for buyouts are the elderly, do not have a higher education, and have English as a second language. Therefore, to make the biggest impact, this product needs to be simple and easy to use and understand.

2. Provide reliable help quickly - If someone is under the threat of an Ellis eviction (a tactic used by landlords), they only have 3 days to respond. Therefore, we need to ensure our information is accurate, and provided immediately.

Sketches & Wireframes

I sketched wireframes and the user flow, while the developers dove into the code. 

I started with extremely scrappy sketches to show the different ways we could collect and present the relevant information. The developers provided feedback, helping me understand what was feasible in our short amount of time. 

Iterations & Testing

I took our paper mockups and tested it with hackers outside of our team to help us iterate.

From these usability tests, we found that simple forms with a few set of questions per page led to the higest completion rate. As expected, those who felt the form was too long would drop-off before finishing. 

Final Experience

With 12 minutes to spare, we completed our project, "No Place Like Home." 

I used an engaging photo of real San Franciscans for the landing page to build an emotional connection with the user. The goal was to help those facing evictions feel like they weren't alone, and that someone was on their side.

The prominent call-to-action ensured all visitors knew how to find their unit's buyout value.

Placing the form fields on one page increased completion rate. We continued using engaging photos of San Francisco for the background image, as we wanted our users to feel a connection to the site, and confident in our expertise in the San Francisco tennant laws. 

The third and final page shows two sets of information: The minimum value they should expect, and then the maximum they could ask for. With this data, we educated tennants about the tax implications and the type of living situation they could afford if they accepted the buyout. We found tennants were woefully unaware of these critical pieces of information. 

Outcome & Next Steps: 

Team "No Place Like Home" won 3rd place out of 100 teams (and +500 partcipants). We received a standing ovation and hackathon participants reach out to us wanting to use our tool immediately. 

It felt amazing to create something for social good, and our team has agreed to meet quarterly to update and iterate this product. 

At the moment, changes to tennant and landlord laws are being made, so we are waiting for them to finalize before me make our next iteration.