EXPÄTI: tackling immigration to Germany (Iron Hack UX/UI boot camp project 1)

As part of the Ironhack UX/UI bootcamp, us students explored the UX/UI process through a series of projects. For the first of these projects, students selected a “wicked challenge,” so named for the perceived difficulty or complexity of addressing the problem, from a list of preset options. Our class was split into teams, named after various districts within Berlin. Team Moabit, consisting of Nikoletta Sheresh, Cat Yen, and myself, chose to address immigration. Specifically, immigration to Germany. What better issue to tackle than one we have a personal connection to? That is with all being from different countries.

Cat is originally from Taiwan, and Nikkolete is originally from Ukraine. Though both have lived in more than one country. And I had come to Germany the previous year from Arizona. So all together, we had a very international team. Between us there were 5 citizenships and 6 languages!

Our goal was to simplify the immigration process, or at least ease the complexity for those arriving in Germany. But how to make a long, bureaucratic process less painful?

We had about one week to complete the assignment. That, plus this being the very first project of the course, meant that not all of the steps one might expect were carried out. For example, we had not yet had the lessons on competitor comparison or market positioning. However, it is my feeling we ended up with solid deliverables.

Getting started

Where to begin? With research of course!

A great thing about Team Moabit was our varied backgrounds, Nikki coming from the business world, Cat from graphic design, and myself a historian. So naturally we took different approaches. But with my background in research, it made the most sense for me to take the lead in this first stretch.

The other two took the classic millennial / Gen Z route, and turned to social media. YouTube, Facebook, Instagram, etc.. From this, we gain insight into what real people are thinking and saying about the immigration process. For me, this was eye opening to realize the value of this avenue of research in a non-scholarly environment.

Coming from academia, I looked into articles, reports, and government documents. From this I learned that 1 in 8 people in Germany migrated to the country. Further, the number of migrants has increased noticeably in the last 15 years. Being the data fiend I am, I enjoyed all the charts and graphs put out by the German government on the topic. It feels, to me, like getting a small window into the world and how it works.

Based on this information, we created a survey to get further insights into the topic. Though our sample suffered from selection bias, as it was sent largely to our classmates and friends (this is a first round class project after all) we got solid data as a result.

Our key findings were the following:

It turns out that out of those who responded to our survey, an overwhelming majority were young, college educated, non-EU citizens. Furthermore, 58% had more than 3 years of professional work experience, and another 20% had at least one year. Their top 3 complaints about their immigration experience were the language barrier, the difficulty of making institutional appointments, and issues relating to required documents.

Who are we doing this for?

This left us with a fairly clear demographic to address: young, college educated, professionals who were coming from outside of the European Union. In our survey, we also enquired about what brought them to Germany. The top reasons can be categorized as the following: a stable and prosperous economy, a free lifestyle with lots of opportunity, and a high quality of educational opportunities.

With this information in mind, we created out interview questions:

• What's were the reasons you moved to Germany?

• How old were you when you moved to Germany?

• Did you come alone? Or with family or friends?

• What was your financial situation when you arrive

• Did you know anyone before you move

• How long have you been staying in Germany ? Are you planning to stay longer?

• How did you know what type of visa you need to come here?

• Did you do the application alone or someone helped you?

• Was it clear for you which documents you need to apply the visa?

• What part of the process was challenging for you?

• How was your experience going to the visa office?

• Did you get the visa right away?

• Did you have any language issues at any stages of visa application?

From the interviews, we further learned that people were also having some cultural issues while getting their visa. Many felt that it would be useful to have someone go with them to their institutional appointments. Further, it emerged as a theme that people were generally dissatisfied and confused with the outdated German government websites. How could they know what documents were required if they could not even navigate the website successfully to find the information?

Taking all the information we accumulated from the survey at the interview process. We created a small affinity wall to analyze this qualitative data. The small scope of the diagram was due to the very compressed timeline of the project, leading the course instructor to advise a scaled down version of the research step.

We began by each writing down what we felt the most important points were from our research, and placing them on affinity notes. We then cauterized the ideas by topic, such as “making appointments,” “paper work,” and “language.” With this, we were able to begin to map out a rough user journey, and find where the different pain points were in the process.

Our Key Finding were as follows:

1. Primary age range : 26-35.

2. Mostly Non-EU citizens.

3. Have higher education.

4. Main issues: language, get an appointment and find information.

5. Mostly skilled workers with more than 3 years of experience.

6. Most came with no very low knowledge of the German language, but improved after arrival.

7. Many came for better lifestyle.

8. They needed visa or residence permit.

9. Visa types: work, freelance and study.

10. All needed help with visa application. Most of them got it from friends and family

Based on this data, we created our user profile: Abhishek. Abhishek is a 25 year old mechanical engineer from India, who wants to move to Germany to get a masters degree. He has already been working for a few years, but believes moving to Germany will offer him more opportunities. Of course, being a younger person, he is not too excited about dealing with the piles of physical paperwork that is required for his application. Overall, he finds the visa application process pretty stressful.

With all this in mind we came up with our problem statement and hypothesis.

With this in mind we brainstormed some How Might We statements:

• How might we digitize the visa process, and make it more accessible to younger people?

• How might we address the language barrier and cultural issues?

• How might we make the process less overwhelming?

Based on this premise, we came up the following user flow:

Creating something new

With our research and background in mind, we began to brainstorm way to address the issues we had identified. With such varied backgrounds, we had a wide variety of ideas.

Initially, we decided to go with a peer to peer connection service. That is, we planned to create a system that would connect potential migrants to those who had already moved to Germany. Ideally, a user would be able to connect with someone from their same home country, or at least someone with the same mother language as the. This person, who we termed “mentor” as a placeholder, would help guide our users through the application process, the paperwork, and could go to their visa appointments to translate from the user. And while this system seemed a pretty good idea, it did not address all of the issues we had in mind.

So after a break over the weekend, we had another brainstorming session. In this session we came up with our final idea. We could create an easy to use, gamified online portal that would connect users with both document translation services and with a “buddy” who could accompany them during their visa appointments.

Wireframing and user flow

First we created some Lo-fi wireframes...

Once we were happy with the flow, we moved onto Mid-Fi frames.

And finally to our Hi-Fi frames.

The Name and the Look

We decided to go with a retro video game aesthetic for the app. Our idea was to make the whole process more friendly and approachable for applicants. While visa applications are a bureaucratic government process, the reason behind the applications is far more human. Nearly all of the people we interviewed expressed that they were not just coming to Germany for practical economic or career reasons, but also out of something like a sense of adventure or otherwise seeking change in their lives. With this in mind, we came up with the idea that, given the age range we were looking at, this aesthetic would be both comfortable and familiar to users. Further, if one is moving also with a sense of adventure, how better to convey that feeling?

After we made out initial mock-ups, we conducted user testing. Based on the feedback we received, some buttons were added and the flow altered slightly. We also update the UI aesthetic to what is shown in the pictures above.

The name was also a conscious choice on our part. In Berlin, the hub of the young international crow in Germany, their are a type of convivence stores called Spätis. Spätis are known for being open late, and are ubiquitous in the city. We wanted to bring in the idea of convivence, but give it a local twist. So Spätis were of course the first thing that came to mind. We combined the word Späti with "exapt," and EXSPATI was born.

The color choice was also based on the idea of bring in local elements. Red, Gold, and Black are the colors of the German flag. This color palate gives the app an immediately distinct feel, and ties it closely to the location of its target audience.

The result

In the end, we developed a system to address as many of the issues we identified as possible. Users first answer a series of question prompts to direct them to what type of visa our service would recommend for their circumstances. Then, a list of required documents would be generated. Users would then upload scans of their required documents into the portal, so they are all in one place. A separate window indicates which, if any, documents need to be translated before being submitted. The app would link suggested, partner translation services. We identified this step in the process as being one from which revenue might be derived.

Once both of these steps were completed, as indicated by the progress icons, users would be able to find a “visa buddy” within the portal. This being another point from which revenue might be derived. Applicants could selected a contractor, based on factors including the languages they speak, to accompany them to the visa appointment. This being necessary both for in-person translation while in the visa office and to offer guidance. The language barrier in the visa office was the most commonly identified issue that respondents to our survey had.