SettleAway! – Networking Platform

Project Type

New Business Development
(School project)

Role

Design Researcher
Workshop Facilitator
UI/UX Designer

Team

3 students in one team

Duration

15 weeks
(Aug 2022 – Dec 2022)

00 Context

As the Covid disaster settles in, more and more people are beginning to travel and live abroad, and we are part of that group of people who have moved to New York to study at Parsons.

Why is relocating to a new country so daunting? How can we solve this problem?

01 Research

Overview

Survey Result

Interview

We interviewed more than fifteen people to gain a better understanding of their experiences of relocating to a new country.

02 Synthesis

User Journey

Key Insights

Opportunity

Through surveys and interviews, we found that the period between arriving in a new country and adjusting to local life (we call this the Transformation period) is the most intense and stressful. However, it seems to be less stressful for those who have a family member or close friend in the country. From this, we hypothesize that there may be a great business opportunity in reducing stress during this period.

How Might We Questions

We formulated three HMW Questions for ideation.

“How might we help relocators settle into their new home?”

“How might we foster trustworthy connections in new countries?”

“How might we make moving as fun as traveling?”

03 Ideation

Workshop

To get lots of ideas, we conducted an activity called the Chili Table.

Ideation Workshop

Ideas gained

Idea Development

We brushed up on the ideas from the workshop and came up with the concept of a platform that supports the building of new local networks (friends and mentors) through a bucket list.

04 Prototype

Prototype Ideation

Rough Sketch & Initial Feedback

We discussed as a team the services and functions necessary and created rough sketches. Initial feedback confirmed that there was a solid need for our idea.