Project Overview
Refugees are typically recognized as a faceless, nameless group of people but they are as smart, educated and optimistic human-beings as any other, they have been ripped form their homes by violence and poverty. Their resettlement process is normally described as stressful and tedious with forms, forms and more forms to fill up.
My research interest is around the accessibility refugees have when coming to Canada, the process of adjusting to a new lifestyle. Digital Interfaces can empower refugees to take control of their own Settlement Journey and make the process a more fun and interactive experience.
Design Goal
Transform the Refugee resettlement process to a more user friendly interaction while creating a more personalized experience
🔎 Research
Within my research I sought to understand the current process refugees overcome when moving to Canada and how hard it is for them to find the current available resources. I dug deeper on why this initiative was worth pursuing based on current quantitative and qualitative information provided by the government. I did a couple of conversational interviews with recent refugees as well as read articles and papers related to the topic.
117 Government Assisted Sponsored Refugees
7500 Privately Sponsored Refugees
1 in every 3 newcomers are unaware of support services
The industry can feel soulless
lets give refugees a voice
Day 1
Verified Identity
PR Documents correctly filled out
SIN
First 30 Days
Mandatory Health check
Setting a Back account and credit cards at a Canadian Bank Institution
Orientation about rights and responsibilities
2 -6 Months
Incorporate children on any type of education
Connect with school based settlement institution
Community and Social connections
Language training classes
Employment Assistance, monitoring and training services
Find a family doctor
Ontario.ca gives you a list of all the community centers near your location who will help you through this process
Insight - Driven Personas
Ali Masser
Recent refugee coming from Syria, husband and father of 3 knows very little english
Age 37 years old
Frustrations Language Barriers, Cultural Differences, Communication, Employment Opportunities and Community Integration
Goals
Have a successful resettlement experience and to be able to integrate to the closes Syrian Community
🛠 Design Development
😓 Challenges and Goals
Challenges
Refugees encounter many challenges on simple everyday interactions. How may I relieve stress and anxiety through the resettlement process of a refugee ?
What are the most common factors refugees are unsure about when first arriving in Canada? Which of these are not being tackled by the given resources by the Government of Canada or any immigration office?
Goals
- A platform that recommends the best way to solve the small problems refugees face during their first months of arrival, while also creating a personalized experience of how fast they are progressing since their first day in the country.
- Personalized to each refugee's migration experience, giving recommendations about where things are located based on their live location. Bookmark and plan your future steps to organize on what you are doing related to your settlement process.
Feature
Live location shared &
Personalized Experience
Sharing your live location will ensure that all your recommendations and help provided is accurate and ideal from where you are located. Having a personalized experience will enhance the overall user interaction.
Feature
Find the closest service near based on your preferences and live location
Iter will guide you through your resettlement process by connecting you to the closest service locations based on your wants and needs.
Feature
Bookmark your interests and keep an organized list of your To Do list
You will be able to save what you are interested the most on Iter, maybe you would like to review it in the future and it could be of extreme help further on. Iter will also grant the opportunity to keep track of what you are still pending on regarding your settlement process.
Next Steps
Give it design ethics a bit more thought, meaning what would the user want or not want to share in his profile. Still making it a personalized experience while respecting each users wants.
It would be a great opportunity to be able to conduct user testing on a couple of Canadian Refugees.
As time goes by it would be key if the tool kept growing as new challenges are being encountered. It would be also a good opportunity to measure success, track engagement and retention as well as conduct further interviews to measure the value of the product.
🔑 Key Takeaways
Balance and Hierarchy
Iter consisted of a lot of critical information that was essential to the user. While making it a fun and engaging experience, I had to make sure the user could read and understand the informative content, while being direct.
User Research
Refugee's were a type of user I've never encounter, it was important to really think about their experience while being respectful and empathetic. Some refugee's have suffered a lot in the past and it's important to take that into account.