DWW - Part 3: Week 3

Our project started with a research based on the following theme: "protecting the poorest populations from climate-related extreme events" which we based mindmaps on. We learned a lot from this first research, from the lack of adapted infrastructures to, sometimes, necessary climatic migrations... It also showed us the extent to which these populations were suffering from a "double whammy" and the urgency of an intervention. To help them, we have decided to use new technologies to have a stronger and more sustainable impact. We had several ideas given the dimension of the issue : building better infrastructures, creating an alert system to save victims...

During our research work, we had to define the structure of our project by focusing on the identity we wanted to give it and segmenting our target to offer them the most adapted service possible. Another goal was to study our competitors to distance ourselves from them. Our company is humanitarian and therefore non-profit, but we still have to offer a brand new service to make it worth the development, and, above all, useful for those in need of a solution. We noticed how NGOs who help victims of floodings and earthquakes lack homing solutions for those who lost their house, and we thought that helping victims find a shelter was probably the most useful thing to do. This step helped us shape our project and give it a safe foundation. We have decided to go for an app which victims of floodings and earthquakes could use, with the help of NGOs, to shape a temporary 3D-printed house depending on their needs (number of family members, number of rooms needed...). As a company, our role is to build the house as fast as possible thanks to 3D printers.

Our Wireframes

Our wireframes were developed with the idea of being as clear and manageable as possible. Firstly, our concept had to be as little detailed, yet, as understandable as possible, given the fact that we chose to develop an app, which makes writing long texts impossible. We had to get to the point as efficiently as possible. We also wanted to give information about our partners and to give our future users the impression that their possibilities were infinite, with our contributors' creations : it is the humane aspect, as we really wanted our app to hold this project's main value, hope. Thanking the donors who allow us to realize this project was also important to us.

You can see our wireframes here.

Testing our app

To know whether our app was clear and enjoyable, we then conducted tests with several types of potential consumers (of different ages and profiles) to obtain qualitative feedback. We tried to improve our application by taking it into account. This work allowed us to make our application clearer and to be closer to the users' needs. We realized how much more hindsight they had compared to us, who obviously loved our app which was entirely built on our tastes and perceptions.

The detail of our test is here.

Our Mockups

We wanted the design of our application to be as professional as possible. Users liked the look and feel in the tests. They were able project themselves in their future shelter with the images and comments given by people who "used" our application to find a home quickly. They also liked the color scheme which we chose to be as neutral as possible, yet appealing. We tried to take their impressions into account : when something was not as logical or clear as we thought it was, we modified how you get from one page to another, until there was no doubt anymore. We hope you like this project and that you will support us in this human adventure!

If you want to see our final mockup, here it is!

Curious about the technology we use?

Here is a little explaination of how a 3D printer can build a house faster than light, based on ICON, the start up we got information from!

How could we go further?

We know our project is already attractive and makes you want a 3D house even if yours is perfectly fine. But we still have some needs to make it really conclusive! Firstly, like ICON does, we should have 3D-printing experts to make sure the design and the building are completely safe. Also, as we are not experts yet, we would need the help of developpers to link our app with our printers, which is the very last step to make the app work. Finally, we would need a communication team to make the link between our company and NGOs, which are absolutely indispensable to make our project a non-profit organization, and to help those who really need us!

Here is a list of the NGOs we have thought about to help us :

Acumen, which main goal is to fight poverty.
Red Cross, which helps populations in need when they suffer a crisis.
Ashoka, which helps social entrepreneurs developing projects.
The Skoll Foundation, which helps implementing technologies useful in times of crisis.