RE-DESIGNING A GLOBALLY SCALABLE SYSTEM TO HELP STRENGTHEN COMMUNITY LED DEVELOPMENT AND CITIZEN ENGAGEMENT.
Role:
User research, strategy planning, scalable system design, visual storytelling.
Team:
Katrina Keane, Bora Shin, HeeJin Suh, Jessica Wen
Duration:
4 months, 2015
Link:
__________
Description
In 2014, I joined the verynice team in partnership with UNICEF Innovation Unit. The challenge was to re-designing UNICEF’s civic engagement platform: UReport. On the front-end, UReport is a social messaging tool that allows anyone from any community, anywhere in the world to respond to polls, report issues, support child rights and work as positive agents of change on behalf of people in their country. On the back-end, this is a mobile SMS-based polling system that portraits data visualization to analyze community’s current voice.
UReport was technologically mature enough for upscaling on a global level— however it urgently needed to revitalize the user experience and brand identity.
Original branding and collaterals.
Scope
My role as the Lead Graphic Designer focused on producing a visual research and design solution for UReport's global brand Identity.
The goal of this re-design was to help better engage end-users, the UReporters, and to provoke their interest. There were 6 partner countries that implemented the new identity system as an initial launch: Indonesia, Nigeria, DRC, Zambia, Burundi, Uganda.
The final deliverables include a holistic identity system from logos, fonts, patterns, print collaterals, and digital collaterals; as well as a final brand guideline in a PDF format in effort of easy onboarding for UNICEF’s central and country offices in future scaling.
Research on original brand position and social media presence.
Key Challenge
Upon in-depth research on regional cultural and visual habits, considering the micro (local community) and macro (global scalable potential)— the challenge surfaced to be "how might we develop a customizable identity across all nations to aggravate the sense of ownership and pride, while maintaining a cohesive brand image on behalf of UNICEF as it scales?"
Secondary challenges include: language translation in layout (i.e. Roman languages vs. Arabic vs. Chinese), production strategy for low-tech, low-cost collaterals.
Worksheet showcasing all 6 countries are taking ownership in the UReport brand in different ways.
Testing & Validation
I worked closely with the verynice on-site field researcher, who based in Kampala, Uganda, to perform assumption testing on the visual prototypes. The iterative process ensured the final design solution can best represent our end-users: the UReporters.
Sample of one round of early stage logo sketches.
Final Solution
Identity System: Logos + Patterns
Print Collaterals
Digital Collaterals
Project Value & Results
UReport was presented at the UN General Assembly 2014. The re-design led to a successful scale-up and helped UReport expand from 6 to 18 countries reaching 1.9MM users as of January 2016.
