Good Samaritan Shelter
Good Samaritan Shelter is the largest nonprofit and social service provider in Santa Barbara County, offering housing and support services to 5,000+ vulnerable individuals across six cities. My team and I designed an Android app that transformed their previously outdated newsletter system, which was difficult to maintain and had limited reach, into a searchable digital mobile tool.
Role
Product Designer
Timeline
May 2025 - Aug 2025
Team
3 Product Designers
1 Product Manager
2 Engineers
My Role
I owned the design of the map view, list view, and AI search feature, which directly addressed the problem of users struggling to navigate outdated spreadsheets by making services easy to discover, filter, and compare.
Impact
Set to deploy in Spring 2026, the android app is projected to serve atleast 5,000+ individuals annually, equivalent to Good Samaritan Shelter's current yearly reach across all housing and service programs.
The Challenge
For over 5,000 unhoused individuals in Santa Barbara County, accessing shelter is a daily struggle. The main resource, a web platform with an email newsletter managed by the Good Samaritan Shelter, required a laptop and internet access, which many users didn’t have.
My challenge was to close that gap by creating an accessible, offline-first Android app that empowers users with clear, accurate information to make critical decisions quickly.
The Challenge
User Research
User Research
Pain Point 1: The Accessibility Gap for Visually Impaired Users
Existing online shelter resources often overlooked visual accessibility. Without readable typefaces and adequate color contrast, visually impaired users face significant challenges navigating dense information to access help.
Pain Point 2: Connectivity Barriers
Many users relied on government-issued android phones with limited data and unstable Wi-Fi. The original website's need for a data-heavy connection often caused it to fail to load, cutting them off from vital information when needed.
Pain Point 3: Information Overload & Distrust
Information on existing digital services was often outdated or inaccurate, making the search frustrating, eroding trust in online tools. As a result, many users gave up and turned to already overworked, understaffed caseworkers for help.
Framing the Opportunity
How might we help people experiencing homelessness in Santa Barbara County access and navigate fragmented social services through an accessible, offline-friendly mobile experience?
Addressing the Accessibility Gap for Visually Impaired Users
We Began by Prioritizing Visual Impairment Needs and Accessible Touch-Target Design
Inclusive Design
To build an inclusive experience for users with visual impairments, we focused on reducing cognitive overload. I developed a WCAG AA-compliant design system featuring high-contrast colors, large typography, and larger-than-norma touch targets to improve readability and ease of use.
Addressing Connectivity Barriers
Adapting to the Reality of Unstable Housing by Anticipating Unreliable Connectivity
Iterative Prototyping
Building on this foundation of inclusivity, my next priority was designing for varying connectivity levels, adapting to the realities of unstable housing. For users with unreliable internet, a heavy, slow-loading app can be a dead end, so I advocated for an offline-first experience that stays functional in poor network conditions.
Addressing Cognitive Overload Given Our Contextual Considerations
Building the Core User Flow Around Accessibility and Connectivity
Pain Point 03
Given the accessibility and connectivity considerations, I developed an inclusive, offline-first end-to-end user flow, from landing on the homepage to locating a service. By restructuring fragmented municipal data into a reliable, intuitive UI, I transformed a scattered system into a predictable, guided experience.
Iterative Prototyping of Key Features
Balancing Design Tradeoffs and Rationale through Iterative Exploration
Pain Point 03
With the core user flow and foundational screens in place, I shifted focus to refining the experience through iterative prototyping. This phase involved improving visual fidelity, enhancing interaction details, and ensuring that each screen remained functional, particularly for users with visual impairments and limited connectivity.
High-Fidelity Prototype Overview
Bringing It All Together
Iterative Prototyping
This this the current final high-fidelity prototype that brings all the solutions together into a single, cohesive experience. Our design and user flow is intentionally simple, prioritizing speed, visual accessibility, and clarity to meet the needs of a user in crisis.
List View: An Instant, Low-Data Starting Point
To immediately address connectivity barriers and prevent a user from feeling overwhelmed, the app defaults to the List View. This simple, text-based format loads instantly even on a weak connection. It provides a clear, structured overview of services, offering immediate clarity without consuming too much data.
Map View: Building Trust Through Spatial Context
For users needing to understand their immediate surroundings, the Map View provides crucial spatial context. It helps reduce distrust by visually confirming that services are real, tangible places they can walk to, clearly showing their route and distance if walk-ins are allowed. It provides an immediate sense of what is possible and nearby.
Semantic Search: The Fastest Path to an Answer
Some users prefer to search directly for services. This AI-powered search dynamically surfaces the most relevant resources, helping users quickly find what they need without browsing through lists or maps.
Documentation
Developer Handoff for Implementation
To ensure smooth implementation, I created comprehensive documentation including annotated screens with design rationale from our iterative testing, development-ready assets with clear naming conventions, and detailed accessibility specifications for WCAG AA compliance (color contrast ratios, touch target sizes, screen reader labels, and focus order).
Documentation
Closing Thoughts
Reflections
User Research
Design is Empathy
For users in crisis, designing for speed and simplicity is a form of empathy. Through rapid iteration and close collaboration with our clients, I learned that every decision is an opportunity to reduce cognitive overload, offering clear, focused guidance to help users make the best possible decisions within given constraints.
Designing for Real World Constraints
This project pushed me to continuously learn and design for our user's actual context. Learning to prioritize offline-first functionality and accessibility for visual impairments and accessible touch targets was at the core of successfully addressing this critical design challenge.