Magdalena Bravo


MADE IN SOHO. THE PROJECT





From strategizing to saving local businesses from Covid-19 crisis.



In this project, our partner, Westminster City Council asked us to create a vision for Soho in 2040. The first part of this project can be found here. But the Covid-19 pandemic hit London and Soho and we had to react to the new scenario, so we used our research to design a service that could help local shops survive the pandemic.







Made in Soho: Supporting Local Businesses by connecting them with customers and government help.



Made in Soho is a service that helps local business owners who want to save their businesses from the impact of covid-19 by providing connections with local government support for financial help, and customers, for maintaining the community around the businesses.






During the pandemic



On the one hand, local business owners can seek support for their business and get community support around other local businesses experiences

On the other hand, local business owners have a public "profile" where they can show the status of their business (if they are closed, doing delivery, fundraising or other) to customers.






During the pandemic



On the one hand, local business owners can seek support for their business and get community support around other local businesses experiences

On the other hand, local business owners have a public "profile" where they can show the status of their business (if they are closed, doing delivery, fundraising or other) to customers.







After the pandemic



The second step of the service is to go from informing customers about what is happening to their shops to incentivise buying from them again. For this a loyalty card is created, where customers can get special deals in their favourite shops as well as donate to the ones they love.






Scalability



This is a service that was designed for Soho, but because of its platform nature, it is meant to be scaled into other neighbourhoods in London too.






Research



During the pandemic, we had to apply remote user research to develop our project. For this Clare Lynch, a long time resident, gave us a walking tour around Soho's streets and its local shops.





Prototyping



For prototyping, we created an Instagram account where we posted updated information on local shops in Soho. Also, we created a newsletter with the full list and information about all Soho shops status to whoever needed it.






Media presence



We were invited to talk about our project in The Soho Hour, the local show from Soho Radio. Check it out here!