Bridging Gaps
Responsive Design User Experience for First Generation Immigrants looking for local causes they identify with
Project Background
Bridging Gaps is the organization whose goal is to help first-generation immigrants find local causes they identify with. With the help of diverse content, this application is aiming to provide tools for the individuals to locate and join events and groups that share their values and purpose. It is envisioned as a social media application and a webpage with its main focus on connecting this population to organizations and advocates that are building and improving various communities nationwide.
My Role
Lead UX researcher and UX designer
Our Users
Our users are first generation immigrants ages 20 to 85. Most of them are individuals who immigrated on their own or together with their families. The users can be anywhere between high school age and senior citizens who were forced to move quickly or who reunited with their families after years of living in different countries.
Research Findings
Based on the research findings we constructed multiple personas that helped understand the needs of our users. One of our user personas is Marija, 26 years old nurse who came as an au-pair, enrolled in college and received her nursing degree. Her fiancée is Asian and though she loves his culture she would like to get involved in other cultural activities that are closer to her background. The frustration she encountered is that her local church was not well connected with other organizations and she was not sure how to locate and join them.
The Problem
The problem Building Bridges is trying to solve is to help immigrants and individuals who are not well-connected within their area, find causes, groups and events they identify with.
Ideation
During the ideation process we came up with a few quick ideas using the “Crazy Eight” method. This gave us a solid notion for the direction we are going to take moving forward.
Based on the ideas generated in ideation part of the process the following paper wireframes came about.
Digital Wireframes
For building digital wireframes, mockups, low and high fidelity prototypes in this project we used Figma. Below you will find the first digital draft of paper wireframes. As you can see these wireframes include a path the user can take in order to find local communities and advocates they might want to connect with. The link to this early stage low-fidelity prototype is here:
Research Plan and Usability Study
We conducted a remote, moderate usability study between May 29th and May 31st 2021. The research included five participants who tested our low-fidelity prototype and answered various questions regarding its usability and process flow. Each interview lasted 10-15 minutes.
Our participants
We included first generation immigrants, ages 20 to 65. These participants came from various ethnic and cultural backgrounds, both urban and rural areas. In this research they went through a signing up process where they were able to filter search criteria based on location and their personal interests. We have recorded each session with participants’ permissions and offered a free illustration design as an incentive.
For organizing our notes, we used Miro to create the affinity diagram. Below you can see how we sorted through our findings after conducting the interviews.
https://miro.com/app/board/o9J_lAVcQrs=/
Based on our findings a few changes were made to our wireframes. We took out the age question, since most research participants expressed that it was not necessary. We also took the gender question out for the same reason. The biggest update was changing the location option. In the original low fidelity prototype, we used zip code for users to find their preferred communities and advocates. According to the research insight participants would prefer to go beyond their zip code and see what is available for them in a wider radius. Below you can find an updated version of wireframes and low-fidelity prototype.
Updates:
The following link can take you to the updated low-fidelity prototype:
Mockups
After successfully conducting usability study research we started building mockups. We added buttons, colors, appropriate typography and content that would complement the overall feeling and functionality of the application.
After completing all the mockups we connected the screens, carefully choosing how screens interact with each other and what type of animation is being implemented. Below you will find the link to high-fidelity prototype to test it yourself:
Accessibility
Accessibility is of extreme importance to our cause. One of the ways we follow this policy is that all our color contrasts are in accordance with Web Content Accessibility Guidelines.
We provide our services in a few different languages and we will continue to expand in that field.
We designed Bridging Gaps to be accessible on desktop, tablet and as a webpage on the mobile device, for those who are not able to access the application. Below you will find high-fidelity prototypes for our responsive web design.
Bridging Gaps Web for Mobile Mockups
Bridging Gaps Tablet Mockups
Bridging Gaps Website Mockups
"This is such a wonderful execution of a marvelous idea. I love how easy it is to navigate and to reach your goal. Social media apps can be overwhelming at times and finding exactly what you need is soo effortless with this app. "
Danijela Knez
"My God, I absolutely love this website. I have been living in Manhattan over a decade and finding local causes that align with my interest and culture was not an easy task. Now I am starting to be soo well connected. Love it. You have to try it!"
Biljana Oh
Takeaways
Being a first generation immigrant myself, working on this project was so inspiring to me. I deeply enjoyed talking to people, discovering their frustration and finding solutions for problems we have in common.
Moving forward I would love to reach out to local advocates and community leaders in order to build more content and widen the people network. This would, ultimately, lead towards expanding responsive design structure across all platforms.
If you liked the work you just reviewed, please say hi whether to share your feedback or you would like to collaborate.
I am happy to hear from you any time at jrlogoanddesign@gmail.com.
Thank you for your time. Have a wonderful day filled with kindness! :)