Emma
2023
Moving to a new country faces many challenges: From administrative tasks with immigration to organising the move itself, and finally settling down and finding new friends.
Moving to Austria in particular, has additional hurdles due to language barriers and hard-to-find information. A lot of information about immigration is spread over various websites, with hard-to-understand legal language and unintuitive website designs.
Process
Breaking down the project
The project involved several important steps. We conducted 10 qualitative interviews with expats who moved to Austria within the last 5 years. As assumed, moving is a highly individual experience with various pain points ranging from social aspects to administrative tasks. We created personas, user journeys and user flows to establish the exact pain points. One of the biggest challenges was to isolate the most important features for such multifaceted problem.
Building on strong foundations
The prototyping process went through several phases, with an initial paper-prototype for fast iterations, to electronic prototyping in Figma ranging from low-fidelity to high-fidelity. Overall we had 5 major iteration cycles. We conducted 3 usability tests during 1 month. Even though the app was easy-to-use in our final test, user missed an even more advanced guide for administrative tasks - which was then adapted accordingly. Because the app should be like your "Austrian best friend" we incorporated warm colours and friendly illustrations in selected places in the app. The style guide was finalised and prepared for handoff to the developers.
Result
The redesigned app features a friendly, customisable interface, making it easier for users to organise their move effortlessly. Users can take an initial quiz to help them understand different immigration options and will then receive a customisable checklist and timeline to understand and structure their move. In addition, the app also includes a social feature to meet fellow expats at meet-ups. As such, the app is truly a "best friend" when moving to Austria, helping in various aspects of moving and settling.
