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DESIGN CHALLENGE
Become
Become is a program that helps launch the dreams and ideas of refugee entrepreneurs. Become provides tech, strategy & advice, to teach prospective business owner about entrepreneurship, trains them, provides them with a team to build and take the idea to execution. All of the above pipeline is done on pro-bono and volunteer basis.
Roles
- Research
- Experience Design
- Visual Design
Methods
- Secondary Research
- Ideation
- Rapid Prototyping
Tools
- Figma
- Adobe XD
Time
- 3 Days
Collaborators
Nayana R, Vrinda Dhakad
1. Challenge
The organisation wants work on employees' call to contribute to aid in ongoing humanitarian crisis at Ukraine. The organisation wants to be a catalyst. The Design Festival therefore invites global design teams to come up with prototype of how that might look like.
How might we enable Company Employees to come together and help the refugee entrepreneurs in Ukraine who have been displaced due the invasion by Russia?
2. Process
a) Researching & Insights
Researching major existing problems, sourcing web interviews, accounts, records.
b) Ideation & Task Analysis
Ideation done on a mural board remotely, Starting with big ideas , prioritising & then voting.
Task Analysis represents the user journey in-terms of tasks to be done.
c) Rapid Prototype
Making low fidelity wireframes from the task diagram. Starting from Sketching what possibly the flow could be like. Then turning them into a relatively higher fidelity of wireframes.
d) High Fidelity
Implementing the design system of the organisation into the wireframes
3. Secondary Research
Due to limitations of a Design Challenge, we conducted secondary research via research papers on entrepreneurship and articles documenting refugees experiences, news articles, refugee interviews and tried to identify the target areas as our problem statement
4. Insights
“We lost our home, which means the familiarity of daily life. We lost our occupation, which means the confidence that we are of some use in this world. We lost our language, which means the naturalness of reactions, the simplicity of gestures, the unaffected expression of feelings”
I. Challenges related to the acquisition of new knowledge & skills.
Empirical studies show that refugees face many obstacles when trying to enter the labour market, emerging from policy contexts, social and systemic discrimination, employers’ incapacity, or reluctance to check documentation, and other challenges related to the acquisition of new knowledge and skills.
II. Multiple points of origin, motivations, journeys, and circumstances of new migration and refuge waves.
Moreover, the very fact of being a refugee often imposes ontologically consequential barriers linked to trauma, stress and health problems resulting from torture, separation from family members, or additional circumstances that emanate from having fled. Adding a further layer of complexity to adequate responses, refugees leave from and arrive at various countries asynchronously, thus, they cannot be understood or appraised as a homogenous group.
III. Challenges for refugee women in the workforce
Starting a small business is often discussed alongside the ‘risk-taking’ attributes of entrepreneurs. This characterisation casts entrepreneurship as positive and adventurous, with the promise of rewards. However, some groups have no choice but to pursue self-employment due to their constrained opportunities in the labour market. For many of these women, entrepreneurship has significant risks and is motivated not by opportunity and ambition but by necessity.
IV. Propensity to take risks
Refugees demonstrate many of the qualities stereotypically associated with entrepreneurship, a propensity to take risks & take advantage of opportunities when they arise.
V. Fewer market-relevant support systems
However, entrepreneurial migrants have particular constraints on small business development such as a lack of technical skills and fewer market-relevant support systems and networks
5. Ideation
After a brainstorming session on Mural, our team decided to capitalise on the organisation's massive capability in technical diversity talent and massive workforce.
6. Task Analysis
Due to the rapid nature of the project, we brainstorms ways in which entrepreneurs would interact with such a technology and through a Task Analysis to find out opportunity areas as well.
7. Become
a) BECOME is a FREE programme which provides business training, networking opportunities and mentoring for refugee entrepreneurs.
b) BECOME will provide support, training and advice, to teach the prospective business owner the knowledge, skills and attitudes required to make his business idea a reality regardless of there gender, race, and prior experience.
c) The organisation can come together as developers, designers, strategists and coordinators with an aim to create an environment which is supportive, gender-aware, suitable for those for whom English is an additional language, and responsive to the characteristics of participants.
d) Project Guides mentors will attempt to identify and build on participants’ existing strengths and skills to help them launch their business ideas.
Sketching
This step of rapid prototyping was to imagine a possible flow for an entrepreneur applying for support according to the brainstorming sessions in the form of sketches.
These sketches are low fidelity and help form initial flow understanding of the how the final application could look like.
Wireframing
Turning the sketches into components of low fidelity and creation the whole flow in a digital wireframe setting.
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6.2. Rapid Prototyping II
Entrepreneur View
1. Home
HOME Screen for the entrepreneur gives the room to.
Create Proposal See the work being done by Employees for other refugees.
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2. Applying For Support
On Create, the form appears for the entrepreneur to fill in.
3. Proposals Details
Continuation of the application of support. Further information about the project and supporting documents are asked for.
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Employee View
1. Proposals List
Organisation willing to work pro bono can view the list of proposals, check details, and invite other employees to the project or give feedback to a proposal they want to.
2. Proposals Details
Employees can view individual project details, resources required, statement of purpose and required documents uploaded by support seekers.
Course of action
1) Join the team for the project and 2)send a request, 3) invite others, 4) give feedback or 5) save the posting for later. They can also share the posting for other to view.
3. Next
After proposal is accepted and resources have volunteered, the refugee can now connect with the volunteers. The Project Guide and the team are introduced and an option to scheduled a first meeting is given.
4. Get Updates
The process of development is also streamlined on the app in terms of communication. Getting segmented notifications, and tabbed according to categories.
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7. Reflections
The "Become" initiative presents a scalable opportunity with global potential, extending its reach to support refugees worldwide. It is designed to empower individuals with robust business ideas, providing them with the necessary support, guidance, and resources. By offering extensive networking opportunities and access to critical resources, the program aims to foster entrepreneurial success, enabling individuals to thrive in their business ventures.
