Designers
Lea Evers
Year
2025
Category
New Talent
Country
Germany
School
Osnabrück University of Applied Sciences
Teacher
Henrik Arndt
Three questions to the project team
What was the particular challenge of the project from a UX point of view?
The key UX challenge was to create an experience that evokes positive emotions and reaches people in their daily lives, meeting them where they are in everyday situations. The aim was to create a unique experience that stands out, emotionally engages users and builds a bridge to those in need of support on an equal footing. Achieving this required balancing compelling storytelling and attention-grabbing presentation with intuitive interactions that fit seamlessly into the user's context. Ensuring this positive connection, while maintaining the dignity of those represented in the stories, was essential to a meaningful and impactful experience.
What was your personal highlight in the development process? Was there an aha!-moment, was there a low point?
A low point in the project was the challenge of finding the right tone, leading to moments of doubt. Balancing emotional engagement with respectful representation, while avoiding patronizing portrayals, was particularly complex, especially regarding the ‘White Savior’ syndrome. Building a bridge that connected people through shared experiences to foster positive emotions and commonality added to the difficulty. Through iterative work, research, and feedback, uncertainty turned into clarity. The aha moment came with realizing that fictionalized stories inspired by real-life events and linked to users' moments could create emotional connections while respecting privacy and dignity.
Where do you see yourself and the project in the next five years?
The result of this work is a concept for a product that can be of great value to aid agencies and NGOs, using modern technology to achieve meaningful impact. With further development and testing, the project has the potential to be universally applicable and scalable across multiple issues and contexts, addressing diverse challenges while inspiring users, supporting NGOs in their missions, and amplifying the voices of those in need. By fostering connections and creating a sense of common purpose, the product brings people together and encourages collaboration. My personal goal is to combine empathy and technology and use this synergy to create powerful user experiences.
