Space+ UX Design/Research

UX Researcher/Designer, Strategic Designer

Partner: Baltimore Safe Haven + Maryland Institute Queer Alliance + Faculty and Staff Queer Alliance (FASQA)

The project spearheaded the “Human-centered Design” process to ensure the credential included the voices of LGBTQ young adults with home insecurity in Baltimore and unique groundwork for evaluation of qualitative social work.

Research

There are significantly higher rates of home insecurity among LGBTQ yong adults than straight-identifying young people.

Human Centered Disen is a collaborative, creative process dedicated to understanding people’s needs and designing interventions that better serve people’s needs. HCD is informed by qualitative insights and thrives as part of a multidisciplinary set of approaches, imagining new possibilities and what could be. HCD positions lived experience as expertise, involving people in every step of the design process, as co-creators and experts.

According to a recent study from Chapin Hall at the University of Chicago, LGBTQ young people are 120% more likely to experience home insecurity than non-LGBTQ youth. Right off the bat, these young people are presented with an uneven playing field. It’s estimated that about 7% of youth in the United States are LGBTQ, while 40% of youth experiencing home insecurity are LGBTQ.

These statistics are even worse for Black and Indigenous People of Color (BIPOC) LGBTQ+ populations who suffer from racial inequities and discrimination.

So, I ask:

September 2021 - May 2022

Partners:

Baltimore Safe Haven

Maryland Institute Queer Alliance

Faculty and Staff Queer Alliance (FASQA)

MICA’s Center for Social Design

Role:

Strategic Designer +

UX Researcher + UX Designer

How might we engage allies in supporting LGBTQ young adults w/ home insecurity?

The research phase included meeting with stakeholders, community partner and gathering data points about LGBTQ young adults home insecurity and housing access.

PhaseⅠ

RESEARCH:

Research included community agency coordinator meeting, mental health thinking tanks, and outreach shadowings where we facilitated conversations around hosuing insecurity and access. We also conducted brainstorming sessions as part of gathering data around what the residents of Baltimore needed to ensure an easy process to access housing and relate services.

we mapped out and clustered ideas and thought through an impact/effort matrix to think about which ideas to focus on, developing HMW questions to lead design decision.

Over the course of 2 months, I did readings and looked at literature such as the House Keys, Not Handcuffs, interviewed key audiences, and agencies, and presented at the virtual thinking tanks about HIV, COVID-19, and mental health. This is also when the project pivoted to work in the context of the COVID-19 pandemic.

To ensure that the work was grounded in equity and sustainability, I generated a set of design principles, an overarching philosophy grounded in values we believe in called life-centered design.

Synthesis of the research further helped articulate the context, and functional & biologized questions to better understand natural inspiration as appropriate for the project.

Shared Definition

It is imperative to understand the set terms and language used within my research. Much like any term, it is crucial to discuss when it is appropriate to use such terms and, who fits within this definition.

Physical instability stands An individual’s home is transient. It does not necessarily mean that an individual sleeps on the street. But Homelessness is the ultimate expression of home insecurity.

My research shows that many have to share the same space with other people to live. And that can lead to a mentally insecurity.

It defines accessibility as taking into account the specific needs of disadvantaged and marginalized groups. It means the community is not welcoming/friendly towards those have different gender orientations sexual orientations.

Home insecurity is a condition in which a person’s living situation lacks security and stability in an individual shelter.

Level of Analysis
As individuals, we live within webs of social relationships. Thinking in terms of ecological levels of analysis to clarify how a single event or problem has multiple causes, to illustrate multiple answers to an important question for community psychology: What's a community?

LGBTQ individual understand & feel free to press their own identity and sexual orientation

INDIVIDUAL LEVEL

Consider the smallest doll to be the individual person, lack of timely & proper education on one's psychological understanding of their own gender and body. Gender should be communicated outwardly through dress, voice, and behavior. But many don't have the support or feel free & safe to express gender orientation.

Misundersanding, mistreatment and discrimination against LGBTQ individuals

FAMILY & FRIENDS LEVEL

LGBTQ young adults are often misunderstood, mistreated, and discriminated against by their family, peers, mentors, teachers, services, authority figures, and more. Creating a toxic microenvironment in which LGBTQ repeatedly engages causes physical and mental suffering. That's why family conflict is the primary cause of running away for LGBTQ young adults.

Discriminatory policy and practices in all areas of LGBTQ

individuals' life

ORGANIZATION LEVEL

Frequently rejected by their families or fleeing abusive long-term placements, LGBTQ individuals are too often misunderstood and mistreated by the staff and other residents at temporary shelters. (Sobering data shows that nearly half of LGBTQ young individuals who had been in out-of-home care reported spending times living on the streets in preference to the hostile environments they had found in these settings.)

The system of recism, proverty, sexism, and other oppressions overlap and invade Baltimore's cultures

LOCALITY & CITY LEVEL

Popular culture, religions, and belief systems dominate society norms and exclude LGBTQ from the mainstream.

SOCIETY LEVEL

During the interview process, the respondents pointed toward a number of factors they believe contribute to home insecurity. Combining with the level of analysis, we can better understand why LGBTQ individuals are at risk of experiencing home insecurity.

Theme & Insight

I identified insights and themes based on the data gathered during research and interviews. Some themes I explored were:

• Supporting LGBTQ young adults combat mental health stigma
• Combating misgendering
• Provideingphysical materials for outreach engagement