Llama Foods

Llama Foods brings affordable, quality food to food deserts and employ people from these communities with fair wages. 

The 2020 pandemic amplified the inequity that has always been present in our country.

“Members of minority racial and ethnic groups are disproportionately represented among COVID-19–associated deaths.” *

The virus propagated in low-income communities of color—individuals who do not have the luxury of working remotely. Nutritious food is critical for breaking the cycle of chronic disease (poor food → poor health → more bills → less money →  poor food). More access to more nutritious food gives these communities a fighting chance against future pandemics. 

Communities where access to preventative health care and even access to food exacerbates the prevalence of pre-existing conditions such as heart disease and diabetes, which also made these communities particularly vulnerable.

The problem is staggering. 38 Million Americans live in poverty, and many live where easy access to nutritious food is impossible.

A food desert is where people have low incomes and low access to quality food. The Bay area is home to 9 of America's worst food deserts, and right here in San Francisco, we have a large part of the city that is considered a Food Desert.

Llama Foods
Bringing quality foods to food deserts sustainably and equitably.

Aynne Valencia, Amy Cheng, Audrey Graves

Stay in place shelter

The stay-in-place shelter is for people in at-risk situations and families experiencing homelessness during the coronavirus crisis.
The first location was at Bayview pier.  I worked with several departments at the City and County of San Francisco to pull together experience design, signage, and materials.

This was used for postcard outreach and main signage at the entry to the shelters

Some considerations for the design approach. 

Informal
Should not feel like a government institution.  Many people experiencing homelessness have had negative interactions in the past and we want them to feel safe. 

Open 
While folks are expected to stay in place there, we don't want them to feel trapped

Warm 
Through colors, giving the temporary rows of trailers street names, and trailers addresses the intent is to create a sense of dignity and normalness.

Temporary

Use of the word Guest, Staff will be hosts.  Implying a relationship that is akin to a hotel or any temporary stay. 

Signage

Signage in place prior to opening day

Related Projects

CityTestSF

Rapid response in a global emergency

CityTestSF is a Covid19 appointment only testing spots for essential workers by the City of San Francisco in partnership with Color, Carbon Health, and One Medical. My team at SF Digital services designed the onsite signage, the online booking system, and a solution for safe distance on-site communications.

Things we considered:

Clarity.
Being clear about what this is, who it is for, and what to expect.

Safety
From gathering information prior to arrival to anticipating questions and creating a safe way to handle questions so we never put people working on the test site in harm’s way.

Friendliness
Getting a test for a potentially dangerous virus is scary. We wanted people to know we care. And did this by using some small touches like simply emojis in strategic areas to take the edge off a stressful situation.

Consistency
It had to feel like it came from SF. We wanted to make sure that from the first touchpoint like an email, or poster, to the test results, everything felt like a cohesive system.

One of the many services we are launching to help the people of San Francisco and the people who protect and serve them.

Learn about it at:

https://sf.gov/citytestsf

Related projects

Cooper U

Enhancing new lines of business

Reengaging alumni

Cooper design wanted to expand their Cooper U Education design offering. I conducted a market analysis, reviewed competitors, interviewed internal employees, customers and potential customers and conducted a several surveys and three month round of interviews to create a strategy and roadmap for targeting new lines of business.

High level strategic recommendations based on market and customer research

Current customer journey

Experience map

Related Projects

Glam Studio

GLAM STUDIO

Glam Studio was the output of a digital strategy pitch for Sephora. 

The Brief
Sephora wanted to explore how to use the iPad as a potential eCommerce Platform.

My Role
Design Strategy

Approach

Conducted design research
Spoke to 35 female Sephora customers in the target age group. I asked a series of questions centered on what brands they enjoyed using, what devices they frequently used, that apps they used most and what activities they tended to use their iPad for.

Competitive Analysis
Looked at a range of other cosmetic retailers, department stores and makeup related games. I did an analysis of what the range of offerings were, what was getting the most downloads and usage and what the nature of the features on these applications.

Organizational Research
Since this product would ideal go to market within a year, I spoke with the e commerce, point of Sale group and other people in the organization to analyze what a realistic scope for how robust the eCommerce experience could be based on the current or easily repurposed SKU features they already had. I also looked at what capabilities, bandwidth the organization could support in the timeframe allowed.

Metrics of success
Worked with the team to identify what metrics we would use to determine usage and success of the product as well as what the company hoped to get out of the investment in this channel.

Deliverables
A comprehensive presentation of findings, a persona of the specific customer archetype for this product channel and a series of recommendations for product, services and their rollout strategy.

The samples show a small part of the market research, customer personas from segmentation and a few of the concepts that came out of the retail digital product and service strategy. 

RefreshSF

RefreshSF was a project aimed at helping people access fresh water, a critical need for homeless people. This project sought to reopen the City of San Francisco public restrooms and get funding to open public stations for bathing, washing clothes, laundry, etc. The idea is to use unused or underused urban spaces. This project used crowdsourcing with a public awareness campaign and a mobile system for citizens to donate small amounts of money to the project.

Our team did three pilots of our idea in San Francisco, setting up temporary wash basins with a water hose to attract attention and get feedback. .The feedback was positive, we discovered that many people who used the service were not homeless, and the general public would find the service proposed to be desirable, and they would use it as well. We also found department stores, the Ferry Building, hotels, and local churches willing to support the program.

This project won the Creative Currency hackathon and was presented at the Social Capital Markets Conference.