Service Blue - Print Housing Developement

year

2023

Role

Research Collaborator Co-designer

timeframe

3 months

tools

Miro, Figma, Pot-its

Team

Aria Zhou Kshitij Palresha Malak Aljuhani Meshwa Kshatriya Miko Yoshida Missy Quick

Service Blueprint was a co-created service design project in partnership with FICA (a nonprofit providing safe, affordable housing to underserved communities). Over Zoom we worked with FICA staff and tenants to map FICA’s housing service using service blueprinting, tenant interviews, and stakeholder workshops. The result was a comprehensive blueprint of the tenant experience that clarified FICA’s processes and highlighted opportunities to improve equity and tenant satisfaction.

How might we?

How might we design FICA’s rental and renovation services so that they are transparent, equitable, and truly informed by the lived expertise of its tenants from underserved communities?

Intervention

Our intervention blended participatory research with collaborative service mapping. Over remote workshops, we guided FICA staff through co-creating a service blueprint that documented every touchpoint of the housing process (frontstage) and the supporting operations (backstage) We complemented the workshops with staff interviews and facilitated stakeholder discussions, ensuring the blueprint was grounded in real experiences. In this way we captured both the day-to-day journey of residents and the organizational processes behind it, identifying pain points and opportunities.

How might we?

How might we design FICA’s rental and renovation services so that they are transparent, equitable, and truly informed by the lived expertise of its tenants from underserved communities?

Intervention

How might we?

How might we design FICA’s rental and renovation services so that they are transparent, equitable, and truly informed by the lived expertise of its tenants from underserved communities?

Intervention

How might we?

How might we design FICA’s rental and renovation services so that they are transparent, equitable, and truly informed by the lived expertise of its tenants from underserved communities?

Intervention

This map visualizes the layered network of stakeholders involved in FICA’s housing service, from core users like tenants and their families to direct collaborators such as staff and service partners, and indirect actors including policymakers, funders, and community advocates.

Scroll through the page to explore personalized resources, intuitive visuals, and easy-to-use features designed to make the FAFSA process clearer and more approachable.

Our work built on FICA’s deep community ties and existing tenant relationships. Rather than extract insights, we approached each session as a space to listen, reflect, and align. Co-creating with tenant leaders and FICA staff helped surface nuances that often get overlooked, while grounding the process in the cultural and social context of those most familiar with the system.

We considered accessibility early and throughout, creating space for different formats of participation, and recognizing that lived experience—not just user input—should shape design decisions. We mapped how renters move through forms, interviews, and communication channels, and identified areas where tools or timing could be better aligned with people’s daily realities.

The blueprint helped visualize how FICA’s internal processes, partnerships, and policies intersect. By laying out the full service journey, we could explore where external constraints (like funding requirements or partner availability) shaped internal operations. This broader view helped FICA identify tensions that weren’t visible in day-to-day problem-solving, and opened up strategic conversations across teams helping us to ideate for an array of toolkit ideas.

Rent Readiness & Onboarding Pack

Helps you to: Support new tenants in understanding rights, responsibilities, and FICA’s community model
Type of tool: Onboarding visual cards co-created with former residents
Outcomes: Clear expectations and stronger tenant onboarding
Time: 30–60 min

Decision Transparency Blueprint Pack

Helps you to: Make visible how decisions are made about tenant selection and maintenance prioritization
Type of tool: Live service diagrams with tokens and cards
Outcomes: Transparency and shared understanding of resource allocation
Time: 1–2 hours

Household Tools Discovery Pack

Helps you to: Explore what furniture, appliances, or storage needs are truly missing from each tenant’s space
Type of tool: “Room Remix” layout maps with priority stickers
Outcomes: Clarity in procurement and dignity-centered support
Time: 1–1.5 hours

Apartment Ecosystem Evaluation Pack

Helps you to: Evaluate how current services (e.g. maintenance, support) are perceived across stakeholder groups
Type of tool: Collaborative wall map and sticker heatmaps
Outcomes: Honest multi-lens insights into current service performance
Time: 30–60 min

Community Touchpoints Activation Pack

Helps you to: Reimagine how informal networks and neighbor-to-neighbor support could be integrated
Type of tool: Card sorting and story-led neighbor sessions
Outcomes: Map of trust-based services to enhance community life
Time: 1–1.5 hours

FICA-to-Future Scenario Pack

Helps you to: Invite stakeholders to envision future service directions and policy alignments
Type of tool: Futures role-play and service backcasting
Outcomes: Long-term, resident-rooted strategic alignment
Time: 2–3 hours