Our design process was grounded in the following principles:
- User centered: New Migrants and Community-Based Organizations are the designers, our role is to execute what they need. When making design decisions, we ultimately ask the organization with the most relevant domain knowledge and use their feedback to guide the solution. Placing importance on the end user, and actively consulting them when questions arise his helps make sure the product meets their needs, while also reducing unnecessary back and forth and indecision within the team.
- Secure: New Migrants are uniquely vulnerable if their information is compromised. Security above all else.
- Accurate: This tool is providing information that may significantly impact people's life - accuracy and reliability of information is of the utmost importance
- Actionable: Every new arrival faces unique needs and challenges, and this app is just one resource. We will focus on what a website is well-suited for: providing real-time, accurate, and actionable information. The goal is to free up staff and volunteer time to address issues requiring personalized attention and to advocate for systemic changes.
Review our Project Values to learn more how we approach this work.
Our design decisions are guided by our conversations with community partners and end-users. You can view a summary of our meeting notes from our discussions with community partners here and can read more about our design decisions here.
The design process is iterative. You can review various design iterations below:
- Version 1.1
- Version 1.2
- Version 1.3 (Legal & Health Flow)
This design process was made possible by our incredible community partners who took the time to graciously share their knowledge and advice throughout the process:
- City of Chicago - Office of Immigrants, Migrant, Refugee Rights: Marissa Arrez and Jesús Del Toro
- Illinois Community for Displaced Immigrants: Johannes Favi
- The Resurrection Project: Oswaldo Gomez, Laura Mendoza
- Chicago Street Medicine: Saara-Anne Azizi, Dan Dolan