Resources Map Task Flow DiagramsThese task flow diagrams were used in the requirement

gathering and design phase to illustrate the detailed

work flow of how the social workers at local information

call center and community services currently find social

service information for their homeless clients and how

they will find more effectively find better information in

the future with our design.

Dasen Hu | Feixing Tuang

The Problem StatementThere are many social services in Bloomington, IN working on helping the people that are homeless

to meet their basic needs. Different social services have different requirements, orientations and

operating hours. They are also situated in different locations of the town.

To recommend a suitable social service, social

workers at the service referral agencies have

to read information about each of the related

social services and check bus routes and

schedules to find the right match for their

clients. The process is inefficient because

information is written in paragraph and the

social workers have to check external sites for

bus routes and schedules.

The purpose of the Task Flow Diagrams

These task flow diagrams helped us to identify which parts of the current interface and

the social workers’ work flow we should improve on to make the referral process

easier and more informative for better services to the people that are homeless.

Answer call

Gather basic information/needs

Search

By keywords By agency By program

Provide information/referrals

Data logging

End

Get returned results

Read detailed description of each results

Analyze results based on client’s needs and eligibility

Check bus route and map

Familiar?

No

Yes

Current Task Flow

Insights

• From the interviews with the social

workers, we learned that in most

calls that the social workers receive,

they would have to go through the descriptions of each social services to learn the details of

these services in order to find the right match for the clients.

• We also learnt that there is a list of common criteria that the people that are homeless most

concern about. These criteria include public transportation to the service center, hours (in

related to work/ school schedule), eligibility requirements etc.

• If the social workers can filter the social services easily according to the clients’ criteria before

reading the detailed descriptions of the social services, they will not have to read the detailed

descriptions of every related social services.

Answer call

Gather basic information/needs

Got referrals in mind?

Filter based on client’s requirement and eligibility Search by keywords

Provide information/referrals

Data logging

End

Get returned results with bus route and map

Read detailed description

Analyze results with the visualizations based on client’s needs and eligibility

No

Yes

Narrow down to several referrals

New Design

Module 4: Keyword Search

Module 1:Criteria Filter

Module 2:Map

Visualization

Module 3:Criteria (Side bar)

Visualization

DesignWith the task flow diagrams, we identified four modules to focus on in the next step:

(2) The map visualization shows agency locations and bus routes

(3) The icons at the side bar show the most important information of the agencies

(4) The keyword search engine.

(1) The criteria filter filters the social service agencies based on clients’ preferences and basic information