The Terwilliger Center for Innovation in Shelter, a unit within Habitat for Humanity International, works to improve housing market systems for low-income families. They approached On-Off Group to design and facilitate a workshop that would help their partners develop innovative market interventions and strategies using a human-centered approach.

The Challenge

Over 4 million families in the Philippines lack liveable housing. The Center’s mission is to change that. While construction labor markets are vibrant, they often don’t target vulnerable, emerging segments of low-income households. The goal was to connect design professionals—architects, engineers, and builders—with low-income families to create market-based technical solutions that improve housing quality and safety.

Al Razon, Market Systems and Entrepreneurship Specialist, explained: “This workshop is one of many partnerships we hope to surface, working with professionals directly engaged with artisans. The idea is not just to brainstorm, but to start prototyping with firms, learn from the process, scale if necessary, and share results with the broader market.”

Francis Baraoidan, Construction Quality and Housing Support Services Specialist, added: “We envision design professionals taking an active role in providing services to low-income households. Beyond design expertise, we wanted their creativity to spark new technical, market-based solutions.”

The Approach

On-Off Group facilitated a remote, Design Sprint-based workshop during the pandemic. We guided participants—designers, architects, and engineers—through ideation and prototyping phases, ensuring their solutions aligned with the needs of low-income households. The program emphasized:

• Grounding ideas in user research, synthesized into accessible personas (“Eds and Ginas”).
• Building empathy for families who construct homes incrementally with limited resources.
• Collaborating in diverse, cross-functional teams using Zoom, Miro, and Viber.
• Iterating prototypes quickly with direct feedback from target households.

The Results

Participants produced prototypes tackling real housing challenges:

• Team One created a mobile and kiosk-based platform to centralize construction knowledge, visualize building options, and connect families with financing and skilled labor. Families appreciated how it made expert advice “faster and hassle free.”
• Team Two designed a skills-sharing model to overcome mistrust of professionals and empower families to adopt safer, more affordable practices. Their long-term vision was to spread practical construction knowledge across communities.

Both prototypes were tested with low-income families, generating feedback to refine and strengthen solutions. Several action points were identified, including moving to digital prototyping and conducting further field research.

Impact

The workshop built momentum within the Center’s partner ecosystem. Participants described it as “a true collaboration despite only meeting online” and “a clear process that pushed us outside our comfort zones.” For many, it was their first exposure to Human-Centered Design, and it gave them confidence to apply the approach in future projects.

Architect Carl Saycon, a partner through FYI Design Studio, summarized: “The low-income household community is underserved and demands a Human-Centered Approach so we can understand their needs fully before prescribing solutions.”

The Center and its partners continue to refine prototypes and explore pathways to scale, supported by coaching sessions and ongoing collaboration.

Key Success Factors

• Strong partnership: Al and Francis’ leadership ensured alignment and momentum throughout.
• Motivated participants: Professionals volunteered their time and energy to co-create impactful ideas.
• Solid research: Up-to-date insights grounded every discussion and guided prototyping.
• Clear workshop story: A structured design sprint journey helped participants stay focused and productive.

“This is just the start of more ideas and prototypes. We encourage participants to bring these forward, explore them in their firms, and continue supporting families like Eds and Ginas.” – Al Razon