IDEO.org + Alight

Having consulted for 16 months, 5 of those full-time at IDEO.org's San Francisco studio, we worked to develop a refugee feedback system with Alight (formerly American Refugee Committee). We spent three design research and prototyping trips to the field in both Uganda and Rwanda. The goal of the feedback loop systems we create are to help Alight HQ make better decisions that put refugees at the center of their decision making – a powerful goal something not common in the world of global aid.

WHY?

The project has grown from the seed of an idea to a full-fledged functioning pilot program at Nakivale Refugee Settlement in Western Uganda. Starting from prototyping and research, we put refugees at the center from the start. What led was a pilot plan of tools ranging from suggestion boxes to tech-centric buttons at service points to a mobile phone service.

This is all about changing how Alight does business. No longer as just a service provider, but now, as a customer-centered NGO that adapts to the needs of those they are serving. We needed to rethink not just because the work deserved it, but because we were breaking new ground – this level of undertaking had never been tried before.

Design Principles + Outcomes

At the core of every human-centered design project are a set of design principles that lead from insights during our research. Some of the key principles of our work included:

Radical transparency.
We heard this from Alight many times. To truly work differently, everyone involved would need to be willing to be radically transparent in how they worked, and be willing to let anyone around the world see into the work they are doing.

Build continually for scale.
While we were focused on one camp in Western Uganda, this system should be prepped for scale to a global level with every step.

Create opportunity for intuition and collaboration.
Acknowledging that staff, especially at the local level, are the pros we should be relying, the pilot should focus on ways to improve their own natural intuition and ability to collaborate on solutions.

We are now at a place where the pilot is up and running in Nakivale Refugee Settlement. The focus is on a tablet based input prototype and a team of refugee-led staff that works in the community to collect feedback from residents. We'll continue to learn, and let refugees lead the way, to how a 21st century NGO operates with empathy and purpose.