Ghar-Care
Unlocking fair opportunities for India's Domestic Help Workforce
This Design Sprint focused on empowering house helps in India get better work opportunities which are in accordance to their skillset by designing an user friendly and accessible digital platform which helps them connect with potential employers. (“Ghar” means “home” in Hindi)
Simultaneously, for employers it provides an easy to access list of trusted workers who match the requirements they have.
project associations
Timeline
3 Days (Design Sprint)
Project category
UX Design | Visual Design
MY CONTRIBUTION (GROUP OF 4)
Desk Research to identify similar projects
Rapid Design Ideation
Wireframing for the digital product
User Testing with 3 house helps
Preparing the Pitch Presentation
Accessibility
Multi-Lingual
Cultural Diversity
Usability Testing
the sprint process
The design sprint was split into 3 days with clearly defined objectives for the each day to derive concepts via quick ideation exercises and rapid testing.
problem definition
On the first day of the sprint we went ahead and defined WHO are we designing for, WHEN would they require such a service, WHAT is their context and WHY do they need it. Answering these questions based on our quick primary interviews helped define the problem statement.
the challenge
Majority of the house helps in India are migrants, semi-literate and lie below the poverty line. A lack of-
decent wages,
poor work conditions,
undefined work time, and
in some cases violence and harassment
forces them to continue being in this position. Thus, as the industry is poorly regulated their work is undervalued and they remain underpaid.
Conducting interviews with House Helps from different regions gave us an insight into their day-to-day challenges.
unpacking the problem
By crafting the user personas based on research and mapping the journey of a house help seeking a job we identified the following key opportunity areas:
Opting for the tasks they wish to perform and preferred locality
Pre-defining their charges
Ability to view relevant jobs in an organised manner
Contacting employers & tracking the status of their application within the digital portal
Hence,
How might we empower house-helps get better work opportunities which match their skillset and give a fair and continual compensation?
ideation & prototyping
Day 2 was all about generating as many ideas as possible by conducting activities like Crazy 8s and brainstorming sessions. Further, voting and discussion within the team and interim testing with target users, helped us refine our ideas.
IDEATION EXERCISE- CRAZY 8s
This helped us come up with the most obvious and a bunch of wild ideas to explore and build on further. My focus was making it inclusive for the culturally diverse audience.
failure of the web version
On running a quick test with our target audience with our web prototype we got the following insights:
Never used a laptop/ PC earlier
Does not know how to operate a mouse/ keyboard
More comfortable with smartphones and at least one person in their family has it
Hence, we switched to an app first version and refined the interface by using more realistic images which were easier to comprehend.
concept refinement
Day 3 was aimed at detailing our design direction and presenting it to the team. We decided to come up with a storyboard and key screen mockups to communicate the ideas. I took lead in designing and prototyping the mobile screens.
storyboard
Sketching out our service in the form of a storyboard helped us understand how the users would interact with our service. It eased communicating our idea to the wider audience in the panel.
digital mockups
At the end of the sprint I came up with the key screens for the flow of the house help and the employer highlighting all main features of the flow.
feedback & reflections
We presented the concept to our design team and the team at HFR&D to seek feedback and also presented it to potential target users to understand their reactions.
feedback from testing
Testing with the House Helps
They were able to complete most of the tasks in the app but still had a few doubts on the way and were a little under-confident with their actions.
They reported that this is the most comfortable they have been with a digital product and were glad they were able to operate it without any help.
Testing with Employers
Job postings were quick and easy however they would prefer to have an open section where they could add additional tasks.
An existing background check helps build a level of trust.
They would love to have some feedback from previous employers added to their profile to make the shortlisting easier.
Learnings & Reflections
Discovering the Power of Design Sprints
My first Design Sprint experience made me realise how this method can jumpstart a project with incredible efficiency. The combination of daily goals and unconstrained thinking led to genuinely innovative ideas. This approach has since become a valuable tool in my design process, allowing me to tackle challenges with renewed creativity.
Navigating Remote Teamwork
Working remotely with unfamiliar teammates presented unique challenges. However, we overcame differences through well-defined individual tasks and impartial idea evaluation techniques like blind voting. This experience honed my virtual teamwork skills, preparing me for the evolving landscape of remote design work.
Mastering Time Management Under Pressure
The sprint's tight deadlines helped me learn the value of starting each day with a clear plan: reviewing progress, creating focused to-do lists, and setting check-in times. This approach not only kept us on track but also reduced stress and improved our overall productivity.
Let's get Designing !
ayushi.saxena@network.rca.ac.uk
