Gray Area UX Mutual Aid and Barter Workshop: Day 1 HW

Mutual Aid App Concept: Last-Minute Local Rideshare to the Voting Polls App.

Day 1: User Interviews

EW Interview:

WARM-UP

How old are you? 31

Where do you live? Brooklyn

What do you do? Designer, Craftsperson, Shoemaker

How might you define bartering and/or mutual aid in your own words? Multiple people offering either some kind of support services with money, medical, depending on the expertise of the people. Local, community oriented. Grassroots, volunteering services and time.

MAIN BODY

Have you participated in a mutual aid effort before? Yes

What was the mutual aid effort, and what was your role? I donated meals recently, well, donated money to someone who was making meals for the homeless. Also New York Cares is an online networks of volunteer opportunities, you have to register and do an online class. Once you’re registered and take the class you can essentially sign up for endless opportunities to help. There is a church in Harlem that does soup kitchen stuff and I’ve signed up for that before.

A lot of it is homeless support, handing out socks and jackets and stuff to people on the street. There’s elderly support where you basically elderly people who don’t have family you spend time with.

Big Brothers, Big Sister style babysitting service.

What tasks were you assigned?Meal prep and service. I got here and basically they were like “you are going to be slicing lettuce today” and somebody else’s job was to cut the apples and they had some chefs there that were also volunteers but the chefs that work in that church, and they were doing all the more involved cooking stuff. We basically just prepped a bunch of buffet trays and then we put it all out in this sort of larger room where everyone was waiting and then they call people up based on spots in lines but certain people that get preference to go first, depending on if they have a job to go to or if they were older, and they do shifts. And you basically served them. It was a great experience and one of the things that was surprising that a lot of people there didn’t look homeless but I guess they were. During the meal prep they were very specific about making sure to be very nice and give them a friendly experience because it’s the only friendly interaction they’ll have this week.

What tools/software were used?It’s a website that was recommended to me through a friend, because I was looking for ways to help. And a friend of mine was like “oh hey, this is a resource” and so I went online and did the registration class. The website is pretty well run and it’s easy to find something and sign up for it yoru profile and your cares it goes through to whoever is managing the volunteer activity and then they reach out to you via phone and when they get to you. There wans an XCL spreadsheet when I got there and it felt really lo-fi, adn they tell you in advance to tell you to come prepared to do whatever they tell you to do.

How was your experience? What would you change about the experience? The website was a little overwhelming, on any given day there are over 50 options to volunteer, and I saw so many interesting ones that I liked so I was like, you can search the opportunities by what type of volunteer service you’re trying to work for. It’s not necessarily a bad thing I think maybe it’s just like, it’s kind of a strange critique to have. There’s just something about the way it’s set up, it doesn’t ask you what you want to help out with first it just gives you the list of everything available in new york.

Another, idk if this is mutual aid, but I did work with the WPA to volunteer as a shoemaking teacher to show a class of former prisoners how to make shoes.

I also did traffic detail for a protest, there’s these bike crews that bike into the center of intersections before the protest gets there, and there’s this very lo-fi, everything is very lo-fi, there is no apps that really I guess people use instagram for these but they’re a little hairy because the police can track it, but this I found out about at a vigil, and there was a march after the vigil and they were like anyone doing bike detail go over here, and I had my bike on me so I said sure, and they were like “this person is in command, this is the strategy, we have 2 ppl on the intersection, they were talking bout how to block the traffic, and how far ahead to go, and how to redirect people, and after that was over one of the leads had an index card and she held it up and I took a photo of it, and whenever they need someone the have people who’s info they’ve collected and they text or email you and say ”hey, this time this day we need bikers”. You can commit really quickly , also there’s no digital anything really associated with it besides email stuff. Maybe some of the bigger ones have a slack or google calendar but this one was pretty basic and there’s not really an app out there right now that allows for it. It’s very loose, the commitment and everything is. They probably struggle to find people just because the commitment is, what if you get the text when you’re in the middle of doing something and then you’re like I don’t have time to do this right now. There’s something about the casual nature of it that makes it feel less serious, like if there was more of an organization where you have to sign up and they give you a like, uniform or something or a patch um, then people might be more inclined to commit. But I kinda like how it’s sort of informal. Cause I think that’s just how people are. Sometimes. When stuff gets too formal sometimes it becomes like a standard hierarchy and then it becomes immediately corrupt. Or it turns into, when sometime is super organized and super well executed especially on a public dissent level, then the FBI is like hmmm we don’t like this. So there is something about the informal handshake nature of it that makes it almost better. It depends on what it is.

How would you feel about giving/getting rides to/from strangers to go vote? If I could get a free ride to a polling station, yes. I would drive strangers too.

What kind of protections would you need to see to take a ride from a stranger? honestly , if it were something important like that, I would maybe, but otherwise no. No AC, Windows Open, Masks ON. Like, standard car setup, you have like, a really small cockpit of recirculation air. Especially 20 minutes? That’s how you get corona virus.

Name the site/tool you would use to do that.

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Walk me through how you would normally use it.

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As a driver, how would you feel about giving a ride to someone with a different political ideology?I don’t care. I mean, I think that would be a concern for certain people, you would need a certain type of driver. That I would be a little nervous about, probably. I took an uber with my sister and her boyfriend, it wa sa few years ago, we flew to orlando to meet a bunch of family for my dad’s bday, and I met my sister and her bf at the airport, and I guess I would be categorized in the liberal side, not super one way or the other on certain things, but their like, very openly, ant-extreme right wing adnt hey were having a conversation related to that in the uber and they were both in the back seat and i was in the front seat and the uber driver and i can see the faces he’s making and his noises and I’m like this guy, definitely leans right for sure, and I definitely felt uncomfortable in that scenario. I could see where certain people it could cause a problem but I don’t care, I’ll drive anyone to the polls. If you want to vote you can vote.

What are some concerns about getting a ride / giving a ride to the polls? COVID is the only concern.

Tell me about a time you were really frustrated by a rideshare app… The most frustrating thing that’s happened to me multiple times with the app and this more of a corporate issue that is expressing itself in the drivers because no driver ever wants to cancel a ride because then something bad happens to them on the corporate side, it seems like, but they’ll just not pick you up and not cancel the ride adn they just wait for you to cancel it because they don’t want to get in trouble. That is super annoying because then you get charged a fee and you have to argue with uber or lyft or whoever so however the incentive system is set up the drivers are incentivised to never ever cancel a ride no matter what. This doesn’t happen in ny because uber is so widely used but if i go to a small city airport like tampa you take that ny — tampa flight and usually gets in nighttime and then you call for an uber at the airport and every single time, these guys they call you and ask you where you’re going, and if they don’t like the neighborhood that you’re going to, they just don’t cancel the ride and they just don’t come, and then sometimes they’ll even call you and say I’m here where are you” and a lot of times what they’ll do is go to your location in the departure level and say I’m here they were either able to either make money, or avoid the penalty fee, they cherry pick the rides that they want from the airport and they’re able to do it because there’s a lot less uber drivers in tampa florida than other places. It happened almost every time I went to that airport.

JN Interview:

WARM-UP

• How old are you? 64
• Where do you live? Boulder, CO
• What do you do? Retired, Crisis Textline, Contract Tracer
• How might you define bartering and/or mutual aid in your own words?
• I’m not sure! What is mutual aid?

MAIN BODY

• Have you participated in a mutual aid effort before? I think, yes
• What was the mutual aid effort?Getting masks for people in hospitals
• What tools/software were used: Phone, google, computer
• How was your experience?: Fantastic, very fulfilling, tiring. Sometimes disappointing. People were so nice, people were warm.
• What would you change about the experience?: I would organize better, someone from the hospital to receive the donations of the masks.
• How would you feel about giving/getting rides to/from strangers to go vote in a non-covid era? I would feel good about it. What is the vetting process? I would like to be able to assume this is a safe person, or nice person, that I can trust. That would be my only reservation there.
• I would want to do the same thing that UBER does is “john” is coming and their license plate so you know you’re getting in the car with the right person
• How would you feel about giving/getting rides to/from strangers during COVID?: I would not. I would ride my bike there. When I take an uber, [name redacted] taking Ubers. I don’t want to. Unless I was in a car that I had a plastic partition with a seam. And there’s no money exchange.
• People have to wear masks. I would want to be in the backseat, far away, and I would want to be the only passenger unless they’re in the same pod.
• How would you feel about a commitment to a set of safety protocols? Trust? Are [the drivers] going to get lazy? How do I feel like I can trust them?
• What would help you trust drivers more? The organization — I would have to trust them. They’re vetted! If they did that partition, it could be up to the passenger to get in an wipe everything down. That’s my contribution. I come in the same way I go into an airplane seat and I wear a mask. [Cleaning the car is] a lot to ask of the driver. The organization could provide wipes and masks that the driver brings so it makes it easy for the passengers and they clean it.
• As a driver, how would you feel about giving a ride to someone with a different political ideology?I would drive [someone with a different political ideology]. I’d kind of want to get lost or a flat tire or something but no, if I’m going to agree to be a driver I’m going to be a driver for everyone. We all need to vote.
• What are some concerns about getting a ride / giving a ride to the polls? (already answered)
• Tell me about a time you were really frustrated by a rideshare app… The only time I’m frustrated is when I cancel it and they charge me anyone and there’s nobody to call, how do you get that refund. You go online and get the refund, if there’s ever a problem, there’s no customer service.
• Tell me about a time you had a fantastic experience with a rideshare app…
• If you are being offered a free ride to another place would you take it?: If there was a car or two waiting there for people like me that would be awesome. If I could get a text that john is there waiting for people like you.
• I would drive if I had a partition in my car. How can you create a partition? And how to communicate with the people in charge about their comfort levels and what can be done to make them more comfortable.
• Should be younger people, not high risk people.

CLOSING

• What do you think overall about what we talked about today? I’d like to hear your own personal thoughts: It made me think and it’s really interesting and feels inspiring like I want to be a driver. It’s fun for me to think about, I like when people ask me questions about how I feel about things and it makes me think.
• How does this relate to your life?: It wakes me up and makes me think what else can I do, how can I help?I can pay for some partitions. I can make phone calls. I can organize, be an organizer. Try to make it as simple as possible too.
• Is there anything that we haven’t asked that you think we should know? No. Thank you!