Our second quarter is underway and so is our Service Design class. The class will have teams working with an organization and addressing a particular issue they might be facing. David Bill and I are working together on this project and for our first assignment, we were asked to visit two service companies and document our experience.
After discussing several options, we narrowed our focus to the Austin Animal Center and Treasure City Thrift. Both organizations spoke to several of our interests – animals, accessibility, community driven, and helping others.
The following outlines our visit to each organization and what we believe might be some potential opportunities for improvement.
Austin Animal Center
The Austin Animal Center is the largest no-kill animal shelter in the United States. It is a city run organization that offers services that include:
adoption
lost and found
spay and neutering
foster care
Parking
The center is part of a large complex. And while there is large signage on the fence near a driveway – that can be seen on the street – the sign at the entrance does not indicate the fact that the center is located in the complex.
When driving past the entrance, there is only a small sign at a Y junction that indicates where one must go to get to the center.
After going the right direction, the small parking lot was full. We then drove to the side of the buildings, with these signs being the only indication that we were heading toward more parking
After driving around the building, we ran across another parking lot, which seemed to be for staff, but there was no signage identifying the lot as such.
We continued down the drive and finally found an unidentified gravel lot, fairly far away from the buildings.
Entering the Building
The complex itself is four years old and the main entrance, while very large, is only visible once you have parked your car.
Upon entering the building, we found an empty welcome desk. On the desk, below eye level, we found instructions on how to adopt a pet, which included the need to call. Later, In looking at their website, we didn’t see the same instructions or request to call in advance.
As we scanned the main entrance, we noticed that all the employees were busy attending to other tasks. We remained unaware of what to do so we decided to begin to walk around.
Visiting the Animals
There was a large arrow below a cat and dog icon in the main lobby pointing toward a hallway. We walked down the hallway and when coming across the cages, we noticed the confusing identifying information. Visually, the signage was very “loud” and distracting and we were uncertain to what each item meant.
Additionally, while there was lots of signage, it remained unclear what a visitor could and should do when walking through the hallways of animals. There were clear indicators that the dogs outside of the main building could be walked but nothing stated that anyone could do so. We talked to one person and they seemed uncertain. It wasn’t until later, when an employee pointed it out, that we found the required sign up sheet to walk a dog. The form was hidden on the front desk and even if identified and completed, it was not clear who should receive the form.
Before leaving, we spoke with Sharon Nichols, a staff member at the Austin Animal Center, who gave us some insight into some of their primary issues. Additionally, she introduced us to the leadership team and we will be meeting with them next week.
Through our initial observations and conversation with Sharon, there seem to be several key areas for improvement.
Challenges
Adoption Process
The experience, from start to finish, has been identified
User Flow
Navigating the space and knowing what one can do and where to go within the complex.
Services
The Austin Animal Center offers a variety of services but it was difficult to identify what they do. Additionally, there seems to be a lack of awareness of the organization’s reputation.
Opportunities
Visuals
In talking with Sharon there have been efforts to address these issues, in particular, the ease of navigating the buildings. Despite their efforts, there is a great deal of visual noise – resulting in information overload and uncertainty on what to do and where to go. In particular, this might limit one’s comfort with the experience of finding and adopting a pet.
Adoption Process
The process from entering the complex to learning about and then adopting a pet seems to be fraught with a variety of hurdles from logistics to information clarity.
Clarification of Services
While their services are outlined on their website, The Austin Animal Center could improve how one, once they have entered the building, is able to identify the location and point of contact for a particular service.
Treasure City Thrift Store
Treasure City Thrift Store is a worker run non-profit that operates as a thrift store and donates material goods and financial support to grassroots community groups and projects. Their mantra is, Solidarity not Charity, meaning, “Charity alleviates the symptoms caused by an unjust system but doesn’t challenge the root problems, and it often puts those providing the charity in a position of power OVER those who it ‘helps’ with benevolence or feeling good for helping out. Solidarity, on the other hand, implies that our struggles are intertwined.”
Treasure City Thrift operates their thrift store through:
Affordable clothes and furniture to buy ($1-$5 for clothes, $4-$40 furniture pieces)
Free event space for grassroots organizations
Plastic bins that collect material goods for local organizations
Financial donations for grassroots organizations and projects
Monthly accessible building events (Really Really Free Market + 25 Cent Sales)
Parking + Neighborhood
The store is on the busy East 7th Street near Cuvee Coffee Bar, Chase bank, upscale leasing units, and discount stores such as Payless and H-E-B. The parking lot is large and the building is painted bright pink with their signature “pirate” that has “Solidarity not Charity” written next to it. The building is clearly visible once you are in the parking lot but from East 7th, it is a sharp right turn into the parking lot after the red light, amid other colorful businesses in the area.
Entering the Building
The front door and side window have signs that display the latest updates of the store.
When you enter, the initial feeling is overwhelming of where to go for what. There are housewares and books to the left, clothes to the right, and furniture scattered throughout the store.
There is a cashier station centered in the middle of the store in between the clothes and all-gender restroom.
This is the sign that “tells” the story of Treasure City Thrift’s roots, through their involvement with Inside Books Project.
The donation pile is behind the cashier station.
Behind the cashier as well are plastic bins to store material goods to be donated to local rotating organizations.
There are various crafty signs around the store to display where you are.
Here is the information corner of social justice events happening in Austin.
When you are ready to pay for your goods, you are greeted with the return policy.
There are various other signage around the store that shows who Treasure City Thrift supports and what Treasure City Thrift is.
Challenges + Opportunities
Overall, there are plenty of potential challenges and opportunities to address at Treasure City Thrift. Their culture of social justice, grassroots, and bottom-up community led could utilize the support of clear and articulate signage and a re-design of the flow of the store from one department to the next. Additionally, the story and mission of Treasure City Thrift is unclear to the customer unless you explicitly ask. There are scattered posters, signups and events, and information corners that could be transformed to share the story of what Treasure City Thrift does beyond operating as a thrift store. Treasure City Thrift offers financial and community support to the East Austin and greater Austin community and as a service design project, could benefit from consistent and clear visuals, cues of where to go for what, and organized and aesthetically pleasing representations of all that they offer via services, events, flyers, etc.