May 28, 2014 — REFUNITE’s mobile platform has always been refined and modified on the ground, encouraging the refugees who registered with us to share their ideas and allowing our staff to meet their changing needs. Though the years, Kakuma Refugee Camp in Kenya has served as an unofficial lab where we test new features and solicit the opinions of the refugees using our platform.

That’s why our Copenhagan-based IT Director Julie Rix Bagger and Nairobi-based User Experience Designer Henry Ngari recently traveled to Kakuma Refugee Camp: to learn from the refugees themselves. They were able to touch base with refugees who register on the platform and consult with Outreach Volunteers about strategies to modify and adapt the app to be even more accessible.

Below are six key reflections that emerged from these conversations, as well as photos of the team in action.

1. Explore opportunities to create portable power banks so refugees can easily recharge their phones.

2. Make the registration process even faster for new users.

3. Continue testing our automatic follow-up messages to new users to make sure they can navigate the platform easily.

4. The response to our efforts to reach out to current users was overwhelmingly positive – going forward we will continue to make communication with existing users a top priority.

5. Organize fun activities, such as soccer matches and communal meals, to attract refugees to our platform.

6. Allow users to upload photographs, if they wish, to increase chances of finding and recognizing a missing loved one.

Photos: Julie Rix Bagger. 

CONTACT

Carolyn Nash, Communications Coordinator for REFUNITE (cn@refunite.org)