Briefing

During a week, we developed a design prototype with the Dark Horse method. Our final product was intended to contribute to the concept of “Digital Cities”, a development model that envisions the improvement of communities through disruptive ideas.

Afara (Bridge in Yoruba) is created as a tool that reduces the gap between newcomer students and the steps needed to establish themselves into a new society, which has different and very complex rules, a language hard to understand, and many other difficulties that most of the international students in this program have experienced into Germany.

For this project, we collected different personal insights about the difficulties and obstacles that we have experienced during our stay in Germany as international students. As a result of this process, a Persona was created to understand in depth the needs of the user for our digital product.

Research

According to statistics, around 400.000 international students enroll per year in Germany, from several different countries that do not speak the language, or do not have such a complex legal system. We can say that it is a growing community if we compare the data from 2013/14 (301.350) to 2020/21 (416.437).

From our personal point of view, it is difficult to find help when the language is the major barrier to any inquiries needed to resolve in order to settle in. It is also important to remark that many of the services that the university has to offer to the students because the portals are difficult to navigate, or some information is only available in german.

Persona

Raz has a double role in our customer journey. They are both the person who makes the question and answers it. The difference is basically that each of them is in a different stage during their studies. A newcomer needs a lot of help to go around, find a place to live, find the most efficient transportation method to go to classes, and so on. The mentor here has already experienced some of these difficulties and can be relied on to give useful information to the newcomer.

What is Afara?

In Afara you can book mentorship sessions with tutors to talk about your struggles settling down in this new country, such as: Health and Wellness, Legal Affairs, Job Information, Transportation, Life and Culture, and what else do you need assistance with.

Our platform makes it possible to find the perfect match based on your shared interests, language, background, goals and more.

Using this app, the mentor and pupil earn points that can be exchanged in rewards inside the university environment.

Let's be the bridge between home and a nice stay in Germany!

Rewards System: Gamification

We want to encourage users with the use of prizes, with which they can acquire different services or discounts inside and outside the university.

With this, the tutors will feel that their time is rewarded and will encourage them to help more students. This exchange will be displayed under gamification tools such as points and medals.

Customer Journey Map

Service Blueprint

The Product

Our prototype developed is a mobile app that serves as a bridge between new students and seniors, helping the former get reliable information about key topics to settle in and the student life, and for the latter to get different incentives that will get them more engaged into the university services as rewards.

We analyzed the features needed for both tutees and tutors, and which were the most efficient ways to get both parts in contact. Our app would also have a profile for both parties, with slightly different features.

The tutee would be able to make inquiries, find tutors for guidance, and set up meetings according to the tutor availability, and afterwards reviewing and rating the tutor.

In contrast, the tutor would be able to check boxes about the topics that they master and want to help with, meet with the tutees, get ratings, and sum up points that would be redeemed afterwards in different university services.

More than an informative tool, we believe that this is a powerful tool to build connections between students, and also strengthen the university community bonds.