SwAppp is an app designed to exchange services and create a network among immigrants in Berlin.
This is a personal project I decided to develop to get a better understanding of the immigrants situation in my (previous) city.
MY ROLE: UX/UI designer
TOOLS: Figma
DATE: May-June 2021
Before working on the concept, I started analysing the market
- AirBnb and Couchsurfing are not really meant for immigrants, but mostly for tourists. They offer events based on entertainment, nothing about the struggles people have to face when living in a foreign country.
- MeetUp is great to create a network, but doesn't focus on practical problems.
- Through Facebook groups people can try to connect and ask questions in order to get some help, but it’s definitely more about sociality, than solving individual problems or getting a service.
- InternNations was created to connect expats who live in the same city and to solve problems related to moving and living abroad. Different services are available, under payment.
So basically the options available were either based on empathy/sociality or on a pure work relationship.
There was nothing that combined the two things and gave the opportunity to fulfill the need of integration while solving practical problems.
I launched a survey in some Facebook groups for expats in Berlin and 180 people answered (thank you!).
I also asked the participants to do a follow-up interview, when possible, in order to have a wider picture of the psychological and emotional situation of my potential users.
I organised the answers I gathered from my interviewee in affinity maps and I realised the problem had 2 main aspects:
on one side, immigrants struggle with paperwork and with the language, on the other side they can't find a place in the community and feel marginalised.
1) How Might We help immigrants go through the bureaucracy smoothy?
2) How Might We help them feeling understood in a foreign country?
