MIT Hackathon

KYM

Problem

In sub-Saharan Africa misinformation was a major barrier to preventing infections and flattening the Covid-19 curve.

Solution

A text-based game and an Android app to help people learn how to make informed health decisions in an interactive, engaging way.

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My Role

Lead Product Designer

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The Team

1 Lead Product Designer

3 Product Designers

3 Engineers

2 Public Health Experts

2 Community Outreach Leaders

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Our Timeline

6 months

Our Approach

The people affected by the problem would have unique accessibility challenges, and our solution had to reflect this. Our plan included the following:

A native Android mobile app for smartphone users to learn and win prizes

A local radio call-in trivia game leveraging text-based participation

An outreach program featuring Community Champions for in-person participation

Personas Based on Interviews

Two of my team members were public health experts based in Malawi and Uganda. They were able to conduct a series of interviews with different demographic groups, which would help us create personas to keep in mind as we shaped our strategy.

I put together a few illustrations highlighting the different people our solution would need to keep in mind. Their unique living situations would require different technology solutions.

From Concept to Flow

After a few early stage meetings with stakeholders I was equipped to dive into sketches, information architecture, user flows, and an early wireframes.

A Growing Design Team

After I had laid out a plan for both our blue-sky vision and an MVP, I got the green light to put together a small design team of three. I helped the designers find a piece of the puzzle they wanted to work on based on their individual skillset and interests. They were excited to work on the branding aspect, so I helped fill in the gaps by focusing on wireframes and collaborating with the engineers to develop a basic design system.

The Text-based Experience

In addition to working on the MVP for the Android app, we also had to keep in mind our user base without access to smartphones. Our community outreach partners were able to get in touch with a few cellular service providers to start negotiations around a partnership.