UX/UI | Uns app "Refugees in Berlin"

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Uns App

The Problem

Hundreds of thousands of asylum-seekers fled from their war-torn countries and entered the European Union in the last several years to claim refugee status. In Germany, the current application process is a long, gruelling experience. Each host country has their own sets of rules and regulations that asylum seekers have to follow in order to claim their refugee status. In Germany, sometimes this process can last from weeks to months, and within that time, refugees have nothing to do but wait.

Uns app focuses community building between refugees and the natives of their host country. There are many organizations and projects out there targeting to refugees in hopes to helping them integrate into the community. Some of them help refugees build new skills, and others invite refugees to share their skills with the community. The current issue is that these organizations have a very weak web presence, and as a result, many people do not know these resources exist.

The Solution

Moving into a new country is a terrifying thing, and doing so as a refugee is even more overwhelming. My objective is to make integration
a simpler, and stress-free process. Therefore, I designed Uns App, an events hosting app where people and organisations can advertise and join refugee-friendly events around the city.

I want my solution to become a one-stop shop for the community to use. It is a place where they can look up upcoming events, opportunities, and places to visit. At it’s core, the app would focus on creating friendships through shared interests & events. I also want to eliminate the agonising process of having to scour the Internet to find programs that suit refugee needs so that they can join in and be apart of the community as soon as they arrive in their new homes.

Personas

Wireframes & Architecture

I wanted my solution to be adaptable to fit my users widely variant needs.

The user can sign up for the app using Facebook or an email account.

A. The app can be used search for events in their area or host their own meet-ups. Events can be filtered according to interests. There will also be a discussion thread where people can organise smaller events such as football games or coffee meetups.

B. The app will have a gamification aspect where users can earn ‘points’ by attending events, which will then be displayed on their profile. This works in a similar manner as ‘References’ in couch surfing. These points can be redeemed for concert tickets (provided by real-life refugee ticketing company HiMate) or food/coffee and restaurants

C. Organisations such as Arriving in Berlin, Give Something Back to Berlin, Let’s Integrate etc can host larger volunteer events.

Final App Screens

Prototype

In order to view the design on an actual device, I developed a working prototype in Origami Studio. The prototype was used for the first and second round of user tests to determine the strengths and weaknesses of each iteration.

The demo video demonstrates the user journey from the homepage to joining an event.