As part of our research on Homelessness, we (Bebhionn, Erik, Ryan and I) thought about a product we could create and as we were researching, we discovered kiosks scattered around Belfast called .Pulse.
.Pulse is a smart hub tailored to keep people safe and connected, by providing necessities such as free Wifi, emergency services, a map, and public access to defibrillators etc. As a group, we thought there should be a service catered to homelessness. And by gathering .Pulse's features and information, we came up with the solution to create a sub-service within .Pulse's product but made for the homeless.
The sub-service would include the existing features as .Pulse's but in this instance, users would have aid to shelters located around the city, food banks, clothing banks, hospitals etc.
At first, we thought it was a good idea, but as we were given advice, the idea showcased a few problems. One of the problems was; the users wouldn't feel comfortable using this service in a public area and feel degraded because of their situation.
This is why we came up with a new idea focused on storage lockers. This new idea focuses on safely storing items using a fingerprint system within shelters. This service is called Safekeep.
Links to the rest of the SafeKeep Project