Settly
UI/UX Design
A prospective design thinking approach to help migrants and expatriate settle abroad.
Moving to a new place is a fascinating experience. Settling in a new country can present new opportunities and help expand your horizons. At the same time, this move out of your comfort zone can be daunting. There is a lot of bureaucratic red tape to get through. And before moving you might end up spending a lot of time researching and trying to figure out what your new life might look like.
Project vision — a product helping people to relocate to a new country
Introduction —
Moving to a new country is no small feat. There are multiple things to take care of before moving so there can hardly be a single tool to assist an immigrant in every step along the way. Being in a new place surrounded by new people can be extremely intimidating. At some point in our lives, we could be in such situations. Moving to a new city for work or higher studies for instance. Starting afresh can be challenging in a new environment! From my own experience, a person preparing to start a new life abroad is most in need of reliable sources of information and local contacts.
As a budding designer, I have taken up this design challenge to
· Help users search and book for services they need ahead of relocation
· Create a tool that is easy to use and feels positive, uplifting, and personalized
Primary research —
I chose the survey method to get the quantitative data as well as conducted personal interviews for qualitative information.
- The interviewees were really willing to share their own experiences: people seem to remember their experiences of moving abroad well, even if they were some while ago.
- Participants are open to the idea of looking for an app to find all the necessary information and are also ready to pay for expert help.
- Having someone to talk to, who went the same way or had similar experience, seems to be an option that would be welcome
Understanding the users —
While globalization opened doors to new countries for people from all walks of life, the largest part of voluntary migrants are students and young professionals moving abroad for studies or work.
User Journey —
By creating and exploring the journey maps of the personas and their typical tasks, I uncovered key emotional/procedural moments that Settly needed to address.
Creating structure —
This information hierarchy map, informed by surveys and interviews, organizationally depicts the three key task streams that the high fidelity prototype would focus on: 1. Join (events, communities) , 2. Connect (members, experts), and 3. Services and search-related functions. The framework the site map provides, along with the user insight collected thus far, would guide design decisions moving forward.
Navigation flow —
Visualizing a User-Centric Experience —
Personas —
User Journey —
By creating and exploring the journey maps of the personas and their typical tasks, I uncovered key emotional/procedural moments that Settly needed to address.
Creating structure —
This information hierarchy map, informed by surveys and interviews, organizationally depicts the three key task streams that the high fidelity prototype would focus on: 1. Join (events, communities) , 2. Connect (members, experts), and 3. Services and search-related functions. The framework the site map provides, along with the user insight collected thus far, would guide design decisions moving forward.
Navigation flow —
Visualizing a User-Centric Experience —
Before developing the first version of UI, I created most of the elements in the UI kit. For the brand, I wanted to create a refreshing, minimalist and clean UI that conveyed trustworthiness and progression for future-oriented individuals. I created a simple set of icons, buttons, and a color palette using different shades of the logo.
Hi-Fidelity Prototype —
UI Kit —
