UX Strategist | UX Writer | Graphic Designer
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Carbox Event @ Meta Research Reality Labs
I collaborated with my peers to design and implement a community outreach event at Meta Research Reality Labs. I pitched the idea that we ultimately decided to run with: Carboxes. Pictured above, my colleague builds her Carbox and admires the many donations that we received.
Carboxes are reused cardboard boxes, roughly the size of shoe boxes, filled with toiletries, nonperishable foods and other necessities. These boxes are designed to be stored in cars to safely distribute essentials to unhoused people. In Pittsburgh, the houseless population often ask for donations at stoplights and intersections. The Carboxes can be offered in their entirety or the houseless person can reach in to grab what they want. I created a Resource Pamphlet to accompany each box, vetting each food pantry and shelter to ensure they are still serving the community because many have closed during the Covid-19 Pandemic.
Employees at Meta Research Reality Labs brought in any boxes they could provide (shoeboxes, opened Amazon packages, etc.) and signed up to bring in different essentials to fill them with. My peers and I built and distributed the boxes, incentivizing participation by offering 3D Printed desk ornaments to those willing to donate resources. We were able to build and distribute about 30 boxes.
We created some hygiene packs complete with masks, toothbrushes, sanitizing toothbrush caps, floss, alcohol wipes, bandaids and chapstick to make building the boxes easier. I am pictured above in the left photo putting some hygiene packs together.
The entire Carbox UX Team was overjoyed by our peers' eagerness to help those in need.
These are screenshots of the Resource Pamphlet that I designed to be distributed with the Carboxes. It folds accordian-style.
Design Thinking Process
Empathize
Determined stakeholders and located coworkers with relevant knowledge.
Conducted interviews across the lab.
Read up on local accounts of and services designed for houseless people.
Compiling team skills and team learning/creating asks.
Engaging in team self-analysis of our social positions, economic, social, and the sociopolitical context of our setting/employer.
Define
Determined limits and capacities i.e. financial, logistical/geographic, and time constraints.
Chose the kind of event in relation to office groups and policies.
Focused on our immediate community, the Strip District of Pittsburgh, PA.
Focused on events accomplishable in the office & under Oct. 2021 pandemic restrictions.
Ideate
Our ideation phase was a two-hour workshop held on November 5, 2021.
With our challenge defined as creating an event or experience that would help RL-R PGH employees leverage their position toward tangible community good.
Using the classic and iconic design tool of the *post-it note*, we did 2min brainstorming, crazy-8’s sketching, and organized our ideas by focus, medium, event type, etc. on a whiteboard where we continued to synthesize and iterate.
We settled on making Car Boxes, on assembling them in the office, and on doing outreach/education beforehand to contextualize the event.
Prototype
We prepared multiple iterations of documentation and other variables essential to the project.
Our meetings/discussions as prep for groups.
Early lunch discussions.
Media posts and responses; practicing engagement.
3D draft prints
Early copies of print resources.
Box Guide as prototype for the Carboxes.
Test
The test of Car Boxing can be considered by a few scenarios/parameters:
Lunch discussions as testing of themselves OR as a prototype for iteration/final event.
Final event day as testing of our media outreach, materials collection, and event planning.
Responses to the event as testing our impact on office culture.
Boxes distributed from the event as testing how well we “sold” the idea and practice.
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