Dovely

Background

Action Foundation aims to explore and prototype mobile learning experiences for young refugees and asylum seekers (YRAS) during outings around the city. These experiences are intended to help maintain and develop their learning skills, encourage peer collaboration, and combat the isolation often felt due to exclusion from formal education systems.

Who Are We Designing For?

Our user group comprises 11- to 15-year-old refugees who have immigrated to the UK from various countries. These individuals face barriers to joining formal schooling, and as a result, require alternative learning opportunities to maintain and develop their educational skills and foster social connections within their new environment.

What Considerations Must Be Made?

While we did not have direct access to our users, we were provided with research papers and representative personas that our users developed. These materials provided us with key insights to guide the development of our application.

• Users possess varying levels of English-speaking ability and confidence

• All children own a phone, but not all have access to data

• Must be respectful of gender, culture, and race to avoid potentially triggering users and driving division

• Users demonstrate a preference for creative activities such as drawing and music

Drawing Inspiration From Group-Based Learning Tools

Our team conducted a comparative analysis of applications that align with the two core aspects of our project: educational and collaborative content. We drew inspiration from role-playing games like Mafia to implement fun and engaging group-play mechanics to include in our application.

Bodystorming: Exploring Roles and Interactions

To explore how our mobile app could be used in real-life situations, we conducted a bodystorming activity that allowed us to step into our users' shoes. We assigned ourselves various tasks at the local library, such as “Find a book about Newcastle.” By walking through the different steps needed to complete these tasks, we were able to identify potential challenges that children might face. This process also enabled us to examine various roles and their interactions. The insights we gained helped us develop sample activities for the app.

sketches created from our bodystorming activity

Introducing Dovely: An App for Collaborative Learning

Our final design employs role-play to teach social/environmental cues. Users are assigned roles such as translator, leader, and navigator, and they learn through active participation in assigned roles. Dovely will include the following features to maintain a comprehensive and engaging mobile learning experience:

• An onboarding tutorial introducing key features and functionalities

• Gamified learning via role-playing elements

• Guided activities to enrich their experience while exploring the city

• Opportunities for creative input, such as drawing your own avatar

• A reward system that encourages users to try out different roles

Mockup: Role Assignment

To effectively present our vision for Dovely, we developed a clickable walkthrough of the app from the process of joining a game up until users are assigned individual roles. Our visual mockups are shown below.