Uni work
Information
Experience Design
Duration: 4 months
Type of work: Group work
Topics: Desk Research, User research,
UI Design, Design Thinking
This project aims to provide refugee families from Ukraine with a positive experience upon arrival in Germany. Through research, empathic interviews and idea development, customised solutions were to be created to understand their needs and create positive experiences. In the end, a prototype was developed and presented that includes all the steps of design thinking and is based on the results of user interviews and research.
Project description
How can families with refugee status fleeing Ukraine be given a positive experience integrating into the destination country of Germany?
Methods
User Experience
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Creating a positive user experience
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Exploring user needs, desires and emotions
Design Thinking
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Interactive, interdisciplinary and user-centered approach to innovation Understand the problem - build empathy - capture user perspective - gather ideas - build prototypes - test prototypes
Lego Serious Play
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Thinking with hands
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Use in experimental interviews & workshops
Goals
1. Understand
Desk research: Background information about refugees and their challenges.
Lego Serious Play: ideal version and horror version of an escape.
Team discussion of specific design challenges
2. Empathize
User research: planning and designing experiential interviews
Searching for interview partners
3. Point of view
User Research 2: Conducting and documenting the experiential interview with 5 different interview partners (refugees)
Completion with Empathy Map (Fraunhofer Institute)
4. Ideate 1
Experience moments with focus on the different needs Reflection with the help of the experience protocol (Fraunhofer Institute).
Creation of a need persona Generation of ideas for positive experiences
5. Ideate 2
Idea Map idea workshop: Collecting ideas in the team workspace
Cluster ideas according to heart's desire, user's desire, degree of innovation and merge and further develop them
Record output ideas
6. Prototyping
Development of a LowFi prototype
Process
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All steps of Design Thinking
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User interviews
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Desk research
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Pitch
My tasks in this project
During our user research, we recorded four needs of our target group in particular, which we included in our prototype:
Physical well-being - In the сонечко planner, there are daily tasks such as "go for a walk in nature and notice your own body and mind". Through these tasks, the user has an impetus to take time for themselves and consciously pay attention to and promote their physical well-being, which might otherwise be lost in a stressful daily routine.
Collecting meaningful things - our target group expressed a need to take things from Germany back home with them, be it objects or insights. In сонечко, users can learn new things like German recipes or write down moments or vocabulary they don't want to forget. When they take the planner back home, they have a book full of memories and experiences they can reread or share with others.
Connectedness - The entire planner is written in Ukrainian, so users feel like they are carrying something from their homeland with them. In the planner, German as well as Ukrainian holidays are picked up and the colors and flowers(wreaths) are also inspired by Ukrainian customs.
Safety - The whole planner is written in Ukrainian, so users don't have to worry about not understanding something. Through the calendar pages, сонечко users always have an overview of private appointments or holidays that may be foreign to them. There is also an SOS page where you can find the most important websites or tips you should know about living in Germany. For example, it answers questions about child support or suggests a website where you can find stores or recreational activities near you.
We also learned from our user research that some of the target groups like to distract themselves with a creative hobby, so we included the option of being able to paint individual elements of the pages and get a little creative with just a few utensils on the mood tracker page.
The Prototype сонечко
© 2024 by Louis Bokowits.