It is easy to ignore a homeless person as you walk past them on the street, but after having one on your phone for three days Depaul UK hopes you will see the complex and varied issues behind youth homelessness.
This free app was created pro bono by Publicis London to raise awareness of Depaul UK, a charity devoted to youth homelessness in the UK.
Three days with a person you cannot swipe away
The mechanism is designed to feel like responsibility, not content. Over three days, the app keeps returning with prompts from a single “virtual homeless person”, pulling you back into their needs and decisions at inconvenient, everyday moments. That works because repeated prompts turn passive sympathy into felt responsibility.
In UK urban life where homelessness is visible but easy to mentally filter out, sustained micro-interruptions, small prompts that arrive during ordinary routines, can create empathy better than one big, easily-dismissed message.
Why it lands
The idea works because it weaponizes time. You do not get a one-minute burst of sadness and a clean exit. You get repeated friction, enough to feel the difference between “seeing” homelessness and “living alongside” it, even in a small way.
Extractable takeaway: If you need real attention for a complex cause, build a short, bounded experience that returns to the user repeatedly, then make the “I did something” step simple and immediate.
What Depaul is really trying to change
The real question is how to make someone feel ongoing responsibility for a problem they usually pass in seconds.
This is fundraising logic disguised as experience design. Depaul is trying to reach people who do not respond to posters and leaflets, and to do it on the device they check constantly. The app turns awareness into a relationship, then uses that relationship to make donating feel like a natural next step.
What cause campaigns can take from iHobo
- Use duration as the persuasion. Three days is long enough to form a habit, short enough to try.
- Design for interruption, not bingeing. Timed prompts beat long videos for sustained attention.
- Keep the user’s role clear. Caring, deciding, responding. Clarity prevents drop-off.
- Bound the experience. A defined end reduces resistance to starting.
A few fast answers before you act
What is iHobo?
A free mobile app created for Depaul UK that asks users to look after a “virtual homeless person” for three days to build awareness of youth homelessness.
What is the core mechanism?
Time-boxed engagement. The app returns with prompts over multiple days, creating repeated contact that is harder to ignore than a single awareness message.
Why three days?
It is long enough to create attachment and repeated friction, but short enough that people will still commit to trying it.
What makes this different from a standard charity film?
It turns passive viewing into ongoing responsibility. The message arrives on your schedule, not the campaign’s.
What is the most reusable lesson for other causes?
If the issue is complex, do not rely on a single emotional peak. Build a short series of small, repeated moments that accumulate into understanding and action.
