Laaha, a UNICEF initiative, is dedicated to enabling girls and women by providing safe and accessible platforms for critical information and services related to sexual and reproductive health and gender-based violence. Their mission aligns perfectly with UNICEF's vision of a world where everyone can live a healthy and dignified life.
In a powerful collaboration, we partnered with Laaha, a beacon of hope for women under UNICEF's umbrella, to redesign and rebuild their digital platform. This project exemplifies our deep commitment to human-centric design.
Guided by extensive research and user insights, we focused on ensuring that girls and women in conflict zones with limited internet connectivity can access crucial information on sexual and reproductive health and resources to combat gender-based violence.
Meeting the client
Our visit to their Geneva office fostered a more cohesive team and significantly improved the project in several ways. Our time there allowed us to leverage UNICEF's resources and delve deeper into user needs. We collaboratively identified pain points and planned a strategy for this impactful social digital platform.
Collaborating with their IT and Tech departments unlocked access to their expertise, significantly enhancing Laaha's development and implementation. This partnership harnessed the collective strength of both organizations, creating a more impactful and effective solution.
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By interacting closely with the UNICEF team, we gained valuable insights that streamlined our processes, ensured smoother execution, and kept us on track with project timelines. Additionally, their expertise proved instrumental in tackling potential technical hurdles, particularly regarding Laaha's functionality in low-connectivity areas.
The visit also focused on understanding user needs. Through the initial discussions, we gained crucial data on the target audience — women and girls who might benefit from Laaha. This knowledge directly informed the platform's features and functionalities, tailoring them to better meet specific user needs and challenges faced in conflict-ridden areas.
This visit solidified our shared commitment to a meaningful cause. By aligning with UNICEF's vision, we're working together to help women and girls, combat gender-based violence, and make Laaha a beacon of accessible information and support.
Understanding user’s needs
To delve deeper into the challenges faced by Laaha's users, we crafted a comprehensive research strategy. This involved facilitating workshops with stakeholders and users, incorporating a variety of exercises
Through these exercises, we identified
These methodologies, combined with rigorous user testing across various countries, provided a deep understanding of the target audience's nuanced needs and pain points. This rich data informed our design strategy, allowing us to not just meet, but exceed user and client’s expectations by creating a truly impactful platform.
Discovery Report
Building Laaha, a platform for women in conflict zones, hinges on a deep understanding of user needs and potential obstacles. Through various research methodologies, we identified key challenges and risks that guided our design decisions.
Challenges
Risks Identified Through Research
By proactively addressing these challenges and risks, we aimed to create the Laaha platform that enables women in conflict zones by providing a safe, secure, and culturally-sensitive space for information access, peer support, and access to critical help resources.
Final thoughts
Our collaborative research with UNICEF for Laaha is complete, and the insights gained are guiding the platform's design and development. Through intensive user studies, strategic workshops, and innovative UX solutions, we've established a clear roadmap for Laaha that is built on an established human-oriented research foundation.
This approach has informed every aspect of the platform, from the user-friendly interface and multilingual support to the integrated forum and chatbot features. Each element prioritizes accessibility, safety, and user-centricity, ensuring Laaha effectively addresses the needs of women and girls in conflict zones.
To learn more about our research methodologies, you can download our discover playbook, with actionable research templates.