The CHI student design competition question for 2008 asked students to look at the problem of living without a home. After a great deal of research our team chose to look at homeless women with special needs. We define this group as pregnant women and women with substance abuse problems. Our paper was selected as one of the 12 semi-finalists in the competition.

Interviews with counselors at a few local homeless organizations revealed that this group has difficulty keeping track of their schedules. They also told us that all of the women in the house had cell phones. From insights we came up with aSister, a SMS cell phone reminder system that helps assist these women in keeping track of their schedules.

aSister is used to remind these women of their appointments and deliver health tips using SMS. It can also be used to send encouraging messages from counselors and mentors. Eventually the system is transitioned to the woman so she manages her own reminders and schedule.

We conducted a small scale test with two women in a local shelter and sent them reminders of their schedule over the course of a week. The women really liked the system and didn’t want to stop using it. They found it really helpful and it helped them remember things they needed to do.

Based on this test we saw the potential to expand our population to all sheltered homeless who work with a counselor or case manager. We wrote up the results of our study and submitted it as a note to UBIComp 2008.