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Building a Community of Change Makers
Launching an Asia-Pacific-wide venture that unites youth and senior policymakers to promote children’s rights
CLIENT: UNICEF
ROLE: UX RESEARCHER AND WEB DEVELOPER AT TANDEMIC
METHODS: EXPERT INTERVIEWS, USER PERSONAS, CARD SORTING, INFORMATION ARCHITECTURE, COGNITIVE WALKTHROUGHS, LITERATURE REVIEW, INTERVIEWS
THE CHALLENGE
Empower youths across Asia-Pacific to innovate and improve the lives of children.
IMPACT
The Youth Innovation Challenge united 950+ youths and senior policymakers from 18 Asia-Pacific countries to promote children’s rights.
AWARDS
Company Award (awarded to only two employees out of the entire company) for my key role in taking the deliverable from concept to launch within six weeks.
THE OUTCOME
The Asia-Pacific Youth Innovation Challenge, a platform for youths to apply human-centered design principles, share innovative ideas with government leaders, and execute transformative ideas.
The Challenge
“Children should be seen but not heard”—although this is an old proverb, this expression still rings true in certain modern communities. But, research has shown that young people can indeed successfully create social change [ref]. Taking that reality to heart, UNICEF, laskjf laj l, believes that young people can creatively address critical children’s rights issues such as XXX.
UNICEF approached Tandemic with an ambitious goal: to unite young people and senior policymakers to jointly promote children’s rights. Together, we explored ways to provide a platform for youths to apply human-centered design principles, share innovative ideas with government leaders, and execute transformative ideas.
The Approach
STRATEGIC RESEARCH
Focusing on our users’ needs, behaviors, and emotions, I conducted expert interviews and a literature review to create user personas for our target population—young people aged 24 and under from 18 Asia-Pacific countries [1].
Insight: UNICEF and my team thought users might need a beautiful website with high performance to attract users and establish credibility, but from the very first research interview, another urgent need emerged. The expert who was deeply tied to field work shared the story of , representative of the general population the countries:
Sitting in the kitchen of a working single mom of four in Tennessee, the IDEO design team heard her story. She couldn’t afford childcare, so she’d organized her home to allow her 11-year-old to watch the younger kids: partitioned snacks, timers on the TV, chore charts on the fridge. The last thing she needed was help with organization or budgeting. What she really needed, she said, was more money, so a surprise expense like a doctor’s visit or stretch investment like a kid’s basketball uniform wouldn't derail her plans. Like many of the people the team visited across the country, she didn't want to take on debt; she wanted extra work and the dignity and peace of mind that come with it.
My user personas highlighted the critical need for the website to be usable by those with limited internet access, computer skills, and English proficiency.
INSERT PICTURE
reference: https://www.ideo.com/case-study/bridging-the-gap-between-paycheck-and-prosperity
Having incorporated the complex technical and business requirements into my research, I then advocated my research findings and recommendations to diverse audiences through a written report and in-person presentation.
Recommendations:
Design and Engineering: Provide users with two submission methods:
Users with limited internet access or unstable internet connection can download the submission form, fill it out offline, and submit their ideas as a .doc or .pdf document.
Users with limited skills in using MS Word or creating PDF files can fill out a self-explanatory online submission form instead.
Content Strategy: Use clear language for form and provide detailed…
Next, I conducted a card sorting exercise with five participants to determine the information architecture for the Youth Innovation Challenge’s website. [DESIGN] to create a clear information structure for our wide range of users, {FIXT HISSSSS}
TACTICAL RESEARCH
To examine the website’ usability, quality, and performance, I conducted interviews and cognitive walkthroughs with eight participants [2]. One of the key tasks during the study session was for participants to: 1) understand their home countries’ challenges, 2) download the Challenge Handbook that lays out how and why human-centered design can impact the social sector, and 3) submit their ideas to the website.
The following are the key insights and actionable recommendations I generated:
Insight: Participants didn’t know why they should participate in the Innovation Challenge
“At first glance, I don’t know why I should join this challenge. I’m busy juggling schoolwork, extracurricular activities, and basketball, and I don’t know why I should take the extra time to participate in this.”—Jenna, 17 yo.
Recommendations for Marketing, Design, and Content Strategy:
Ensure that the marketing materials and landing page highlights the incentives for young people to participate in the Innovation Challenge (e.g., potential impact of their work, a chance to collaborate with senior government leaders, and travel and monetary award)
Insight: Participants were unaware that there was a Challenge Handbook; they started brainstorming and submitting their ideas before learning about and applying human-centered design principles to their ideas.
“Oh, I didn’t see the Challenge Handbook at all. I saw the Challenge prompts, and I immediately thought of some ideas and wanted to fill out the submission form.”—Alex, 15 yo.
Recommendations for Design and Content Strategy:
Help users be aware that there’s a Challenge Handbook (e.g., place the “Download Challenge Handbook” button near the page header; use the shimmer effect to attract their attention)
Provide a clear proposition for why users should consult the Handbook and follow human-centered design principles when ideating and prototyping
Impact
PRODUCT IMPACT
The Youth Innovation Challenge successfully united 950+ youths and senior policymakers from 18 Asia-Pacific countries to promote children’s rights.
Here’s what one of them have to say.
[Show picture of the quote]
“Sed purus sem, scelerisque ac rhoncus eget, porttitor nec odio. Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet.”
— Claire C.
RESEARCH IMPACT
Strategy and product impact
Communication skills and impacts: Having incorporated the complex technical and business requirements into my research, I then advocated my research findings to diverse audiences through written reports and in-person presentations. Compelling ways through inviting them to observe the presentations and using stories and analogies.
Moving fast: In order to create a useful, usable, and delightful product, I led my team of researchers, designers, and web developers to move fast and build iteratively. I created shorter-term project milestones and led multiple review and user testing sessions with colleagues, the client, and external participants.
Communication and moving fast? Due to the aggressive timeline and large project scope, my team faced many time- and communication-related challenges when developing the website. The lead web developer was based in another country, and the time zone differences and language barriers made it difficult for me to accurately communicate my user insights and design recommendations. To overcome these issues, I illustrated my suggestions through mockups and ensured we mutually understood each other’s feedback and progress. In addition, I proactively used my CS skills to co-develop the website.
Award
My research was key role in taking the deliverable from concept to launch within six weeks. Tandemic and UNICEF recognized my initiative, productivity, and quality of work through the Company Award (awarded to only two employees out of the entire company).
Notes on methodology
Leverage user interviews to improve the user personas. As I only had two days to plan and execute this study, I developed the user personas through three expert interviews and literature review. Given more time and resources, I would have interviewed target users from these different countries to get a first-hand account of their experiences and needs.
Conduct remote usability testing to personalize user experience. As I did not have participant recruiting and language translation support, I conducted in-person usability studies with participants who lived close to Tandemic's office in Malaysia. Since this platform is used by people from 18 Asian-Pacific countries, given more resources, I would have recruited participants from these countries for my usability study sessions.
All UNICEF - Youth Innovation Challenge Brine Pickles Death by Xoko
Editing ‘Collection Footer Content’