Restless Development's Career Spark
Young people in Uganda face many challenges. 90% unemployment rates is one of the hardest to overcome. Restless Development and the Forward Foundation are tackling that by introducing a new kind of internship.
Mobile is the main way for Ugandan youth to access the internet.
I have been fortunate to work with the team in Uganda to provide methods, support and advice for name generation and logo design, which created Career Spark.
We followed a Lean process. Within a week we designed the site on paper, user tested the paper prototypes, and co-designed the logo with other users.
Many of the young people we interviewed during user research carried at least two - often more - mobile phones to take advantage of local network deals. Designing for mobile was a critical requirement.
A variety of bright, colourful options were needed for the logo to be presented on.
We applied the new branding to a mobile-friendly website design which will support the young people and employers in this new venture.
During the web design stage I was mentoring one of the Restless Development staff through the design process, so the local team continued to have a full sense of ownership over the project.
The internship project was in its first phase during 2013, and has evolved significantly since then. The team is now taking advantage of Facebook groups, rather than maintain a separate website.
My hope is that our approach of introducing human-centred and Lean processes, and a focus of mentoring rather than doing, has set the team up for continued success.
Paper prototyping was used for initial rounds of user testing.
The co-design process highlighted how important it was for Career Spark to be colourful. In particular, red is seen as a positive, engaging colour.