BASSA
"Find your community, one question at a time."
Imagine starting a new life in a foreign land with nothing but your cellphone, luggage, and dreams. Whether an international student, refugee, or just a vacationer, adapting to life in the United States can certainly be a daunting challenge for anyone not already accustomed to it. Bassa was designed to ease this transition and connect immigrants with the in-place communities in their new home, enabling them to find answers to the questions we might consider trivial.
Tools
XD, Photoshop
My Roles
Project Manager, Lead UX Designer
Background
Confusion. Loneliness. Isolation. This was Terry’s experience, a 19-year-old international student from China who came to the University of Washington in search of an excellent education. Initially having few friends and limited knowledge of the systems around him, Terry would feel lost, but strove to learn more. Enter the Bassa project.
Bassa immediately sources the user's language preferences and geographic location during account creation and lets them ask questions anonymously of users that feel comfortable answering. There is no search function. Users cannot visit answers submitted to other user’s questions, but instead must ask their own, in the language they’re most comfortable with. Users may however, revisit previously answered questions.
Responders can designate a time and subset of topics they feel comfortable answering. Once a question asked falls into that allotted time and topic, they’ll receive a notification that a new question has been asked, to which they can then freely answer. Expedient, accurate, and helpful answers are then read by the questioner and selected. Inappropriate behavior can be reported for moderation and answers chosen by the questioner grant the respondent points based on the aforementioned expediency, accuracy, and helpfulness which can then be redeemed for rewards, such as discounts at local eateries.
If a user has been brushing up on a language different from their native one, questions can be submitted in the desired language. If Terry asks a question in English as opposed to Mandarin, he can increase fluency by not only practicing his English, but understand potential colloquialisms and learn from those that might not speak his language.
Design Process
Research Methods
To gain an understanding of the problems affecting the identified target group, immigrants, I and my team conducted in-person interviews with a variety of people representing different subgroups – international students, refugees and social service employees who work with this population. These interviews were supplemented with the collection of relevant statistical information covering a variety of areas including poverty rates, skill sets and reasons for immigration.
Interviews
Between April 26th and April 29th, our team conducted a total of seven interviews. Three interviews were with international students currently attending the University of Washington while four were with refugees and social workers familiar with the problems facing the immigrant population.
Results
Our research found that immigrants come from a wide variety of countries and are employed in the US in an assortment of industries and fields. China represents the largest originating country, with 304,000 arriving from 2014 – 2015, followed by India and South Korea. Once in the US, 31% of employed foreign-born workers hold positions in the management, business, science and arts positions, nearly matching the 38% of native-born workers. Unemployment, however, is still an issue for immigrants, despite improving from 5.6 percent in 2014 to 4.9 percent in 2015.
Insights
Insights gleaned from the interviews lead to two somewhat related areas of interest.
Language
While the five immigrants we spoke with had various levels of English language proficiency prior to moving to the U.S., they each referenced the language barrier as a primary issue. One, for example, found taking written exams in English to be immensely difficult and favored multiple choice. Another found that if he forced himself to practice his English, he saw results, but at home and in his community, he still spoke his native Somali out of fear and lack of confidence.
One interviewee found understanding the different transportation systems in the US problematic, noting how the systems can vary between locales within the U.S. Despite these differences, however, it was never difficult for him to learn how to use another system. Others placed a strong emphasis on the language barrier, they also noted that with enough patience and gesturing, getting around wasn’t nearly as hard as most people might imagine.
All three student interviewees brought to light that although the United States had tools for removing the language barrier, these tools were often slow and translation systems were seldom accurate. Furthermore, if they needed to utilize tools or services like Google which package many translation features into one platform, they would need to formulate an accurate representation of the question in their mind before submitting it into a search query. A student mentioned that, “When I was applying for jobs I couldn’t just look the Chinese version of ‘UW HFS jobs’ into Google, that would have given me results for jobs in China, instead I need to figure out what to type in English and that’s hard." Another student in his interview added that if there was something personal (he used the example of a family death) or some sort of medical emergency, he would not want to ask his friends on a platform favored by the Chinese international student community, WeChat, but instead would like to do so anonymously.
Forms and Paperwork
Somewhat related to the language difficulties described by the international students was the difficulty refugees faced when filling out job applications and other formal documents. Since job applications are generally done through a digital format, they often lacked the equipment or assistance needed to fill out the form to the best of their understanding. In fact, accessibility to information and people seemed to be the biggest issues immigrants faced. Individuals who have recently moved to the U.S. do not have the luxury of having their own personal computer and must seek resources nearby to utilize such as libraries. Finding jobs becomes increasingly difficult for the refugee population because of modern America’s transition to performing actions online. Immigrants could often find translated information, but the interviewees noted the general lack of proper translations in job applications and other forms.
Personas
Based on the data collected through research and interviews, I constructed two personas to guide the development of this project.
Solution
I determined the solution should ultimately give the user the flexibility to gather resources with anonymity, be it through a forum-like medium or translation service. It should also be location based, forcing the final design to provide local resources for user’s needs and not resources from another city or country. Finally, the solution should provide services when requested and should never impose services or assistance, as independence and pride were both important to this group.
Examples
Account Setup - Language Selection
The list of available languages would always include English, any language detected on the device in use and the two most common languages in use in the geographic area excluding English and the installed language.
Account Setup - Availability
Part of setting up a new account includes indicating when you would be available to receive new question notifications. The two-part slider for each day gives users granular control over this.
Account Setup - Knowledge Domains
Another aspect of account setup includes designating knowledge domains the user considers themselves qualified to answer. This lets the user focus their capability to help and minimizes the fatigue of seeing questions they can't answer.
Answer Review
When a user receives an answer to one of their questions, they have an opportunity to indicate if the answer was helpful (which gives the respondent redeemable points) or not. Answering no leads to a secondary dialogue for reporting any malicious behavior.
Ask a Question
When asking a question, users can specify the knowledge domain to focus the potential answer space, which is shown in the number of matching members online. This reinforces the sense of community integral to the app.