Balancing Expertise: Designing an Eviction Defense Web Tool with Legal Experts and Tenants

This paper investigates a long-term collaboration between students and service organizations in a context that relies heavily on experts while engaging with a marginalized and gate-kept community. The project was motivated by the Atlanta Volunteer Lawyers Foundation (AVLF)'s initiative to address the eviction crisis in a southern U.S. city by leveraging the organizational expertise, the knowledge of computing and design graduate students, and engagement with those who have faced eviction. This paper chronicles the journey of a student team as they adapt to changing personnel and project objectives. It analyzes the distinctive challenges and opportunities encountered during this collaboration and offers recommendations for effectively planning, designing, and developing products that require expert knowledge and for long-term student service projects.