An app to spark immigrant family conversations
Helping immigrant children and parents to initiate and engage in meaningful conversations with each other.
By learning that many children and parents within immigrant families are continuously struggling with communication challenges, we decided to design a toolkit to bridge their gap in communication.
My Role
User Research
User Interviews
Wireframing
Screen Flows
Interaction Design
UI Design
Visual Design & illustration
Prototype
Year
2019-2020
Problem
The number of individuals who think of themselves as a “typical American” doubled in the second-generation, compared to the first. A culture gap as differences between two cultures that can hinder mutual understanding and close relationships.
Research
Survey & Interview
We conducted various surveys and interviews to gather data on these challenges in order to better analyze how cultural differences can be challenging to our target audience.
Affinity Mapping
After gathering quantitative and qualitative data, we used affinity mapping to analyze and categorize them and identify key findings. This helped guide our design process.
“I always knew that there was a huge communication gap between my dad and me, but I don’t know how to address that.”
Key Findings
01
Culture Gaps
Culture gaps can be common between first and second generation immigrants, which can have negative impacts on the child.
02
Communication Challenges
Many immigrant parents and children may not communicate effectively with each other due to the culture gap.
Our Opportunity
The gaps in mutual understanding and open communication can create opportunities for us to design more effective and meaningful communication.
Our goal:
We aim to create a toolkit for immigrant children (aged from 18-35) to easily jumpstart meaningful and effective conversations with their loved ones.
01
Storytelling
Many studies have identified storytelling as an effective way to improve family communication and relationship.
02
Empathic Listening
Empathic listening facilitates the family’s ability to express emotionally charged materials while they share stories about difficult topics.
03
Digital Platform
It is a powerful tool that brings family stories to life through pictures, narration, video, and audio.
What did users say
I don’t know how to start conversations
Many immigrant youths reflected in our interviews that they barely talk to their parents. Some of them are even worse because they only talk when they have to, topics regarding financial support. For immigrant children who don’t know how to start conversations, we provide relevant topics and easy-to-play games in the app for them to start it in a less stressful way.
I don’t know if I do it correctly
Having limited understanding about starting conversations was brought up frequently by the people we interviewed. In order to guide them to have friendly and empathic conversations, our app provides guidelines and tips for users to prepare before they go to talk to their loved ones, especially for those topics that might be controversial or might result in conflicts.
Set up the structure
Discuss & Sketch
We brainstormed and discussed for so many times about the app’s features, identifying our desired outcomes, and sketching initial ideas of the app.
Wireframing & Interaction Design
We iterated several times about the wireframing to make sure all the features are functional. I was in charge of designing the screen flows and wireframing.
Spark App
Personalize the journey
Quick Onboarding questions so that the user can personalize their experience. All information added in here by the user will be confidential.
Start different conversations by playing games
Offer an opportunity to play, and ease into communication. Link family member’s accounts to each game so results and reflections can be shared.
Prepare for meaningful conversations
Helpful tips on how to facilitate an empathic, open, and honest dialogue. Supplies the viewer with the tools they need to create meaningful communication with their loved ones.
Record special experiences
Record conversations with their loved ones so they can share records with other family members in the future.
Track personal progress
Helps users see their progress while trying to improve their communication skills.
Design System
Our team considered many decisions during the design process including information structure, color, typography, style, and illustrations.
Colors
We chose neutral colors with low saturation to emphasize the calm, peaceful, and open nature of empathic family conversations.
Typography
We chose the Lexend Deca type family as our primary fonts and set rules for using different sizes in titles and paragraphs.
UI Kits
Components
illustration
I created all the illustrations displayed on various screens throughout the app. I went through multiple iterations to ensure that the illustrations capture the accurate emotions of the content, explained the different scenarios accurately, and created a consistent look and feel throughout the entire brand.
High Fidelity Prototype
User Testimonial
“We live in such a fast-paced environment. Spark offers a way to slow down and get to know the people around us better. ”
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