Design Process

Why this particular context?

Protests play an important part in the civil, political, economic, social and cultural life of all societies. They inspire positive social change and the advancement of human rights in all parts of the world.

For instance, in 2019, Ivan Golunov, a Russian investigative journalist, was arrested based on drug-dealing charges. However, the charges turned out to be fabricated as they were an attempt to halt his widely reported articles on Russian government corruption. The only reason why the charges were eventually dropped and Golunov was released is due to an international solidarity/protest campaign that blew up both online and on the streets.

• Protests are very unpredictable. They can expand and start moving through the streets. They can get very violent very quickly. You never know what to expect.
• When organizing and participating in the protests, people risk becoming easy targets as their identity could be easily uncovered.

Design Opportunities We Found

• Support protesters' by providing a platform to coordinate demonstrations, keep each other updated and safe.
• Leverage anonymity to preserve protesters’ identities and personal information.

Research

To derive the application persona and the journey map, we conducted several interviews with the people that come from Kazakhstan and Hong Kong. At the current moment, these two countries are experiencing a lot of political changes, which became a reason for mass protest outbreaks and arrests.

• Hong Kongers are protesting an extradition bill, which if passed, will allow suspects to be sent to other jurisdictions, including mainland China. Protesters worry that the bill could erode Hong Kong's judicial independence, and would be used by Beijing to target critics.
• Kazakhstan’s first president, Nursultan Nazarbayev, has stepped down after a nearly three-decade-long tenure and his successor, Kassym Jomart-Tokayev, confirmed his position after taking nearly 71% of the vote in the election. The demonstration, decrying what protests called a “dictatorship” in the country, is the largest Kazakhstan has seen in recent years.

Wireframes and Mockups

To finalize the application workflow and design, our team went through numerous iterations. At first, to understand and evaluate planned functionalities, we created preliminary sketches and grey box wireframes. Then, we started refining our visual direction and creating interactive-prototypes of the interface workflows for further testing.