For my undergraduate capstone project, I explored how an app could help new Vietnamese immigrants in the United States navigate integration tasks. Over the course of the semester, I researched the integration experience and available resources for new immigrants, designed a mentorship app, and prototyped the concept to bring MỹSpot to life.
Problem + Outcomes
Helping new immigrants move through integration tasks.
Problem: Integration tasks such as learning English, obtaining a driver's license, finding employment, and finding community are often challenging for new immigrants to navigate. Mentorship and support are helpful, but can be difficult to find due to geographic location (proximity to similar folks), among other reasons.
Outcomes: Designed an app idea that makes it easier for new immigrants to find mentorship from others who have immigrated from Vietnam. Gained experience with creating and distributing a survey to 10 folks, conducting in-depth interviews with 2 folks, and creating over 100+ prototype screens to fully imagine the app's functionality and iterate to find the most helpful solution.
UX Research
Finding common themes among people new the United States, especially those from Vietnam.
Secondary Research: I started the research process by creating a list of questions regarding immigration, the integration experience for new immigrants, and the immigration experience of people from Vietnam. I gathered information related to these questions by first conducting unstructured, informal research, with a goal of understanding areas of the integration process where folks could use additional support.
After my initial research, I delved deeper by focusing on relevant academic papers. In doing so, I also learned more about the systems that affect the integration/immigration process.
Notable Findings • Younger and older generations experience immigration differently. • Habits that one had in their country of origin often transfer when they move. • When immigrants are able to fully participate in the economic and social life of their adopted country, it benefits them and their communities. • Common areas that are particularly difficult to navigate are finding employment, finding insurance, learning English, and immigration laws.
Primary Research: I initially intended to gather more information about the integration experience of recent immigrants through a survey. Results of this survey were very mixed, making it difficult to draw helpful insights. I pivoted to conducting two in-depth interviews over Zoom with individuals who had immigrated to the U.S. from Vietnam.
Notable Insights • Fellow Vietnamese individuals are perceived as more willing to help, assuming a shared understanding due to similar immigration experiences. • Being able to share the integration and immigration experience with others who are going through the same thing helps recent immigrants feel more supported. • Various aspects of individuals' lifestyles in Vietnam carry into their lives in the United States. • The integration process becomes easier and less overwhelming when someone close has already experienced it and can offer guidance.
Process Work
Using mentorship to help new immigrants receive advice and support from those who share common experiences.
With the information gathered from my research, I created the following problem statement to frame my focus for the design process.
People who recently immigrated from Vietnam to the United States could benefit from sharing their integration experiences with people who have similar backgrounds because this will help them receive meaningful support, guidance, and understanding.
Next, I conducted an informal competitive analysis of other resources available for new immigrants, as well as resources specifically for new immigrants from Vietnam.
The most common gaps in available resources were resources not being available in areas without a large Vietnamese population, and resources not being available in Vietnamese.
After sketching out a few different approaches, I decided to pursue creating an app that promoted mentorship for new immigrants to the U.S. from Vietnam. The winning approach was one that was gamified and centered around Vietnamese folks familiar with living in the U.S. providing guidance to Vietnamese folks new to the United States. To further visualize this, I created an info architecture map. This version is modified from feedback I received on my initial proposal from my professor and classmates.
Design
Combining mentorship, gamification, and a community forum in one app.
The next step was to move to my low-fidelity prototypes. The approach: • A task-focused, gamified structure brings something new to the table and helps motivate users to complete tasks and continue using the application. • Points earned from completing integration task checkpoints and various tasks that contribute to the MỹSpot community can be used to buy power-ups, earn rewards, and purchase character upgrades. •Connecting users to in-person resources and other immigrants from Vietnam (online and locally) enable the app to be helpful regardless of geographic location.
For my high-fidelity prototype, I reorganized some of the features in my low-fidelity prototype to have more intuitive placement and created a mini design system to keep my app visually consistent. I also implemented different user flows for mentees and mentors in the "missions" tab.
I made a pivot when it came to deciding what features would best help community members connect. In my low-fidelities, I had both forums and an Instagram-like feature that would allow users to share photos and updates. I wanted this to help incentivize community participation, as users could use points earned from completing tasks to give their posts more visibility.
Upon showing this to a few interviewees, I learned that this social media feature actually distracts from the value of the forums, which provides more space to give support without having the platform focus on popularity. There are also other apps available for similar social media sharing (Facebook, Instagram, etc.), so there was not a need for MySpot to have this feature. I felt that getting rid of the social media feed would help the app better achieve its goal to provide mentorship. As I moved into my high-fidelity, I focused more on building out the forums page to include a "super mentors" feature and scrapped the social media feed. This gives mentors that have been particularly helpful in the MySpot community more exposure across the app (particularly in forums) - indicated by a badge of trust.
Learnings + Next Steps
Presenting the idea to grow as a storyteller.
During this project, I gained more experience with gamification and was able to pivot my design direction based on feedback received in order to keep my design more aligned with the project mission. For the final deliverable of this project, I created a 3x3' informative poster outlining my research, put together a few small booklets highlighting the style sheet, and created the video above for the BFA Exhibition at UIUC. In creating and presenting these deliverables, I was able to grow in my storytelling.
If this project continued, my next steps would be to conduct usability testing and collect feedback from users to continue iteration.
