UX for Good – Chicago, IL (2011)

“All the presentations were well done, but one really stuck with me: unemployment. The unemployment team tackled the misperceptions that exist for a local magazine called Streetwise. Vendors for Streetwise are usually homeless and are looking to get their lives back together and selling Streetwise is their job. I see these vendors on the corners [...]

As the StreetWise challenge group prepares their presentation for the other teams, I thought it would be interesting to ask a few members of the group about the challenges they face in the last 30 minutes… Kevin Mech (KeyLimeTie) was working out the spatial element of the reveal. Kevin: “You can’t really center the presentation [...]

The StreetWise team wanted more copies of the magazine to put together their presentation. The organization’s executive director, Jim LoBianco, said he knew where he could get some — within ten minutes he found a vendor, L. Not the type of people to neglect an opportunity, the team gathered in the lobby of the Adler [...]

Postulate: there exists an organization called StreetWise that provides employment opportunities to people with little to no skills who are homeless or at risk of being homeless. So why is the particular opportunity they provide selling a magazine? Why not cookies or coffee or something else? I had always assumed the answer was some feel-good [...]

It’s fascinating to watch the cycle of feedback between the UX designers and representatives of the nonprofits. So often technological and “business school” solutions don’t truly meet the actual problems faced by organizations. But as these UX folks test out some ideas with StreetWise’s executive director, they seem like they’re learning more about it and [...]

What are the UX tools we could use to change the perception of StreetWise? And what SHOULD it be anyway? Originally uploaded by ux4good This is Andrew Benedict-Nelson of Insight Labs (Twitter: @digitialagitator). I’ll be following the StreetWise group at the UX4Good event throughout the day. UX designers are currently meeting with StreetWise Executive Director [...]

Here’s where the ideas of our UX designers meet reality — our StreetWise challenge group is currently meeting with the group’s Executive Director, Jim LoBianco, testing our their ideas from yesterday and finding out more about the organization’s needs.

Our UX experts have begun laying the groundwork for a re-imagining of the StreetWise experience. Among the moving parts noted by the participants were: distribution channels, identity of StreetWise customers, perceptions of StreetWise vendors, and the nature and value of the StreetWise product. Yet several of the designers suggested there may be additional, hidden factors [...]

Fighting Unemployment in partnership with Streetwise, Inc. Challenge Overview Every day a growing number of individuals are affected by a shrinking economy.Without access to earned income, these individuals risk falling into homelessness. Many of these people need to find jobs right now but lack the skills to do so. These individuals are at risk; having [...]

Jim LoBianco Day job: Executive Director, StreetWise, Inc. Description: Jim LoBianco is the Executive Director of StreetWise, Inc., which serves the greater Chicago area by helping the homeless and those at risk of homelessness to rise out of poverty. Born and raised in Chicago, Jim began volunteering at a soup kitchen in Uptown while in [...]