Mano

COVID help center for immigrant farmworkers.

Problem

Farmworkers are the invisible frontline labor force of the United States’ food supply. They are facing a unique challenge during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Solution

Mano is a platform that provides workers accesses to available help, credible and up-to-date information, as well as each others.

Role

Ux designer

Scope

UX/ UI design, interaction, visual

See process ⇣

1. Discovery

Who are the users?

From my initial research,

about 50% of the farmworkers in the US are undocumented immigrants.

Non-citizen are not qualify for the government stimulus packages during COVID-19. The shelter-in-place restriction makes it even more difficult for them to sign up for help as most program requires in person sign up.
‍
Meet one of them Sophia Silva, a middle aged strawberry picker in California with 3 children.

Workers like Sophia

1. don't have adequate access to social services because of their statuses.

2. less informed about COVID-19 because of widespread misinformation.

3. risk their own safety to work in order to support their own family.

2. Design

Upon learning about the different programs and aid available to our users, we were brainstorming to find out the most simple way to deliver all this information to someone.

The primary problem was not the lack of resources, but to connect those resources to those who need it.

Site mapping

Initial user flows to look up food bank

3. Solution

What if there is an app to address all of Sophia's concerns?

A platform that provide workers accesses to available help, reliable information, and other workers like themselves.

Onboarding

So easy even grandma can use it!

Our farmworkers are typically in the middle age with various level of tech awareness. The introduction to MANO was designed with extreme ease of use in mind. Brief description to each main features ensures Sophia knows how to get to where she wants.

Get help

Sophia is more aware of her needs than us,

so the directory offer a quick way to get the help she needs without navigating an overwhelming amount of information.

News

Counter misinformation and lack of awareness

We wants a news feed that would keep Sophia informed on the latest pandemic update and also relevant local and national news.

Social

a way to stay connected with each other

We designed a minimal bulletin board in which Sophia can ask questions and get response from her own community with ease.

4. Reflection

The project definitely confirms my interest in how design can bring about greater social impacts. Given more time, I would focus more on these area:

Questioning the question

I was excited to be part of the competition, however, I do find the brief itself problematic. In particular part of the brief request a feature for the user who are illegal immigrant to sign up using their government ID. In other to create good answer, we need to start with a good question.

Test, and more test

Similar to understanding the user, it would have been tremendously helpful if we got to test our app with real user. User testing would clarify and help us to focus on the right features and improve our flows.

Understanding user

Whether it be in person interview or learning more about the workers would help us to create an experience that adequately address their need.