companio

 FH Vorarlberg | Summer Semester 2021 | Supervisor Alexander Rufenach

Created with: After Effects,  Adobe XD and Protopie

Initial situation

Against the background that the unaccompanied minor refugees come to a foreign country, do not know the language and have to deal with a lot of confusing bureaucracy, it is especially a problem that there is no platform that explains to them all the processes, the country in which they now live and their possibilities and rights in a bundled way.

Vision 

In order to counteract this, I would like to achieve with my project that my application takes them by the hand and makes their new start in Germany easier and optimally takes away their fear. 

At a time when unaccompanied minor refugees are arriving in Germany, we believe that they need a buddy in the form of an application for the first time in Germany. We imagine a world in which the unaccompanied minor refugees have an easy and uncomplicated start in Germany.
That's why we are the application for "umr", not find their way in Germany, the help in all important questions and problems and give the support they need. In contrast to other help offers is that we adapt to each "umr" individually will not stop until all "umr" will quickly find their way in Germany and are advised in all questions quickly and easily.

I tested and elaborated my solution principle by creating user journeys in Miro, analog wireframes on paper and elaborating and designing digital wireframes in Adobe XD.

Initial mind map of the research results on Miro to get a good first overview of the topic. I learned much of the information mentioned here in a personal conversation with Lilli Stahl, a friend who herself works in a shelter. She accompanied me through the whole project and was available to answer my questions.

Methodical presentation of the process that the umF go through after they are found by the police or report to the police until they are placed in a residential group of a youth welfare facility or a foster family. In this process, my app is involved from the point of taking into custody until the distribution to a youth welfare facility or foster family.

The information architecture of the application is divided, as there is one area for the social workers and one for the umr, this is because both user groups need different access to information and user interfaces. However, these two areas belong to the same platform. In the next step, I have deifniert UseCases and these first only in writing and then transferred to analog wireframes.

Social Workers Area

Here is the main menu of the social workers. You can see who from the team is there today and which appointments the umr have to be accompanied to.

The overview of the current residents of the shelter. A filter was not necessary here, because this place has a maximum of only 30 residents.

Here you can see the profile overview of an umr with all relevant information. I created this in consultation with Lilli Stahl. The creation process can be seen in the prototype.

Unaccompanied Minor Refugees Area

Here is the main menu of the umr. Here you can see a preview of the current state of the process. Furthermore, who of the social workers is in the house, as well as which next appointments are just pending.

This is the first screen of the menu item "Setup" is again to see who is there, a tile to the house rules and a preview for the meal plan.

Here you can see the profile overview of a socialworker. Here you can see where the socialworker has his office, when he works, which areas of expertise the socialworker has and which languages he speaks.

Here are the house rules listed again. You can also search for them in the search bar to find the right one faster.

This screen shows a scanned form and its description. The umr can now decide whether he wants to translate and/or save this.

Here the umr can see where his clearing process is at the moment, where the documents are at the moment, what the next steps are for him and how much road still lies ahead.

In the menu item Environment, the umr is shown a map in which the most important facilities such as youth centers, football fields are displayed.

Here is an example of a facility that the umr has found. Here is the offer, the address and the opening hours.I have omitted contact information, since this is the socialworkers in most cases take over.

Use Case 1:

Create a new account of an umr by a social worker.

Use Case 2:

Requesting the current status of an asylum procedure.

Use Case 3:

Scan of an unknown document.

The design of this application is very minimalistic, in order not to further complicate the content and to keep the app clear and calm. Also I have worked with a lot of white space and few colors to give the whole thing the serious character it needs. This I have broken up by some color fields in some places broken up and next to blue, my highlight color yet green as an accent color. In addition, I have on the I worked with a tiling system on the main pages, which can be can be extended at any time if necessary.

For the font, I chose Circular Std Bold because it is easy to read and harmonizes well with the box system from a design point of view.
In a continuation of the project, however, the design system could be supplemented with some icons or illustrations that could explain various processes or, if necessary, be animated.

Black 

#00000

Blue

#1350F5

Grey

#98A0AC

Green

#26AD4B

More

In the course of my project, we should also think about a dissemination or marketing strategy. However, since my target group is so small and is unlikely to see or understand the usual media in Germany, such as TV, Instagram and newspaper ads, I deliberately decided not to do this. However, I thought that on the one hand you have to reach the social workers and providers of the shelter. This could well be through advertisements in trade journals, for example, or targeted letters to the agencies and umbrella organizations such as Caritas or the Ministry of Migration. In addition, I thought that it would make sense to hang up posters and flyers in the facility, or to distribute them. Thus the umF would have seen "companio" already once and could build up thus if necessary already something confidence to the mark. 

A draft for a poster that could be hung up in the facility and thus build up trust in the umr through its presence.