Chan Zuckerberg Initiative and Adobe hosted a 3-day design sprint challenge to find a solution for farmworkers from the economic shocks of the pandemic. For this challenge, CZI created the International Consortium of Farm Workers (ICFW) as a supportive organization to offer the farmworkers safety net services like legal aid, healthcare, housing aid, counseling and/or food distribution.
Defining our challenges and goals through personas
ICFW needs a digital experience to provide stability and protect the livelihoods of vulnerable members of our society - the farmworkers in this case. Through researching on challenges of farmworkers/immigrants and exploring personas, our small but mighty team of two spent our weekend designing a mobile app concept that is convenient to:
• Verify identity
• Sign up for services like legal aid, healthcare, housing aid, counseling and/or food distribution
• Get access to timely and credible information
• Get the farm working community engaged
• Have a place to store legal documents and resources
As a result, we started with a user flow chart to design all the features we need to meet our goals:
How can we personalize the design solution for farmerworkers?
Onboarding: A trust-worthy first impression
Through research, we found out that the vast majority of immigrants and refugees share a common concern with identity protection trust. So during the onboarding process, we want to assure farmworking users that our ICFW app is made with trust and security. To make the identity verification process as easy as possible, we are using OCR technology to scan documents and autofill the profile information.
We also discovered that common farmers’ challenges include hearing issues, poor labor policies, access to vaccines, and more. There are also many farmworker support organizations out there that support specific ethnicity, gender, and other personal background groups. So we designed a personalization survey during onboarding and added search filters to create an algorithm that caters to the user's resources and search feed.
Onboarding: A trust-worthy first impression
Through research, we found out that the vast majority of immigrants and refugees share a common concern with identity protection trust. So during the onboarding process, we want to assure farmworking users that our ICFW app is made with trust and security. To make the identity verification process as easy as possible, we are using OCR technology to scan documents and autofill the profile information.
We also discovered that common farmers’ challenges include hearing issues, poor labor policies, access to vaccines, and more. There are also many farmworker support organizations out there that support specific ethnicity, gender, and other personal background groups. So we designed a personalization survey during onboarding and added search filters to create an algorithm that caters to the user's resources and search feed.
Profile feature: Easy access to all documents
Farmworkers often deal with numbers of legal documents and contracts for their work and resource sign ups. The profile feature allows the users to keep their documents, personal information, and saved resources all in one place for them to easily find when needed.
We understand that the vast majority of farm works have different native languages and a low literacy gap. So we also made many design choices with accessibility in mind.
Farmworkers often deal with numbers of legal documents and contracts for their work and resource sign ups. The profile feature allows the users to keep their documents, personal information, and saved resources all in one place for them to easily find when needed.
We understand that the vast majority of farm works have different native languages and a low literacy gap. So we also made many design choices with accessibility in mind.
How can we design accessibility for all language speakers and low literacy users?
Resource Pages: Avoid overwhelming users
Resource Pages: Avoid overwhelming users
To cater to the low literacy gap and all language speakers, the first thing we ask before on-boarding is user's language preference. We are also using universal icon symbols and simpler vocabularies in order to make it a seamless and intuitive experience.
Many low literacy users tend to choose the first option they see in a search list because they feel overwhelmed when there is too much information presented to them. So we designed a swipe system for them to have an easier decision-making process. With our personalized resource feed generated by the survey tool and filters, the first resource presented to them should be the most ideal choice.
If users cannot reach the resource contact through call at the moment, they can send the contact a pre-written email generated by ICFW for a call back. There is an option for users to add voice recording for personal questions.
How can we make this a solution that also engages & mobilizes people to take action?
Marketplace feature: Interacting with the community
To promote community engagement, we designed a marketplace feature that allows users to buy and sell items and promotes community interactions. A simple messaging system is designed with pre-made content and a voice recording feature so users can better articulate their needs when communicating with one another.
The Results
Our ICFW app concept was selected for the CZI x Adobe Creative Jam's honorable mentions (top 20) against 90 teams across US, Canada, and UK. Special thanks to my teammate Priscilla Giang!
Some food for thought after this was that accessibility should not be thought as a barrier to innovation. The thought of accessibility in our design process offered us a new set of constraints that sparked new ideas on how to tailor our product better for the farmworkers.
Some food for thought after this was that accessibility should not be thought as a barrier to innovation. The thought of accessibility in our design process offered us a new set of constraints that sparked new ideas on how to tailor our product better for the farmworkers.
