UNITE
Youth Advocacy Platform
We, Team Neptune, were tasked by UNICEF to ideate engaging solutions for youth advocacy using an online platform.
UNITE is an app that not only helps promote and provide resources surrounding youth advocacy, it provides a way for users to take action and discuss issues with other youths around the world.
My Role
I collaborated throughout the whole design process with Team Neptune. Mainly contributed during the ideation and prototype stages; sketching, designing, prototype building, and testing.
Simrit and I wireframed and designed the lo-fi and high-fi prototypes. I also helped make the final presentation.
Team
Atif Hussain
Emily Xiao
Olivia Albin
Simrit Dhillon
Vishaldip Dhillon
Duration
Jan - Apr 2021
(4 months)
Tools
Figma, Miro, Google Slides & Docs
Client
Problem
The COVID-19 pandemic has changed the way young people are able to engage with civil activism.
No strong online option for young people to learn about and support activism efforts, including government policies.
Design Challenge
Research and develop an online platform for youth (age 13-24) to promote and discuss youth advocacy topics with others around the world.
Provide a place for government/UNICEF to safely and directly collaborate with youth on issues regarding youth advocacy.
Solution
After multiple iterations and user testing, we created a high fidelity prototype.
The below video showcases a walkthrough of the UNITE app; from the login page to annotating an article. (28 sec)
Login Page
Enter as a guest (for those under age 16)
Register with anonymous username
Learn
Locate and view various topics
View articles & videos to learn about foundational concepts of each topic
Discuss
Ask questions and respond to others
Questions moderators/officials respond to are emphasized
Learn
Locate and view various topics
View articles & videos to learn about foundational concepts of each topic
Annotate
Add comments & opinions on individual lines on articles & briefs
Easily view and share opinions
Process
Research
We conducted primary research using surveys and remote interview with youth (ages 18-24). With the three interviews and 40 survey responses we found discovered the following insights.
80%
Lack of awareness of
advocacy programs
50%
Easier to engage in online activism
(but less impactful)
66%
Mental health decline during COVID-19
100%
Interest to learn more about advocacy
Personas
We identified user groups and created two personas accordingly.
Sarah Albin
Grade 10 | 14 years old
“I love school, but doing my classes online has been really tough, and I feel like I’m not learning anything at all.”
Worried about her opinion not being valued due to her age
Fear of sharing her opinions
Feels helpless to contribute and help with various causes and movements
Percy Xu
Trades | 19 years old
"With everything going on, I don't have time to educate myself on these complex topics"
Feels online activism is isn't effective compared to in person
Doesn't feel like participating in advocacy directly benefits him
Pain Points
Disconnection with decision makers such as the government, and with other youth
Difficulty to make impactful and meaningful contributions
Fear of being judged and having their perspectives and opinions being used against them.
Unaware of the direct benefits of how advocacy can help them in the long term, and how it would affect them.
Goals
Peer interaction
Create an online community for youth with direct peer interaction to help foster discussion and learning.
Engaging format
Keep users interested in using the platform with informal and fun content.
Tangible input
Space to give tangible input on real-world issues that is critically examined by UNICEF and government officials.
No required parental input
UNICEF is determined that users should not require parental approval to access platform and resources.
Sketches
We diverged and converged back together after making sketches on how the prototype would look like while keeping in mind of the pain points, goals and objectives we've made earlier.
My sketches (along with Simrit) were focused on the gamification aspects and solutions to keep users engaged with youth advocacy.
Wireframing
From the sketches made by every member at Team Neptune, Simrit and I designed the basic layout of the application and created low-fi wireframes in Figma for user testing.
User test
During the user tests with out low-fi design, three participates had think-out-loud tasks and questions. From the user tests Emily conducted, we gathered some valuable insights that helped shaped our final solution.
Changed the discussion forms to simplify the interface and empathize important elements
Added titles on the bottom of the navigation icons due to navigation confusion
Conclusion
Throughout the whole term, we went through each design phase together as a team and it paid off! Our presentation won first place out of 7 teams for this project!
One valuable lesson I gained was integrating the 5 E Experience model into the research phase. Like a journey map, we used this to empathize a users experience; from the beginning of what entices them to how they feel when they exit that experience. I enjoyed prototyping and figuring out how each interaction would link to each other (and incorporating charming login avatars to ensure privacy!). I've learned a lot from this client project and hope to continue to work on more impactful projects such as this one!
