MigrantHelp

Bringing you one step closer to home.

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Inspiration

Migrant workers around the world experience severe social inequality due to lockdown restrictions, unfair workplace treatment, and the lack of basic resources during the COVID-19 pandemic (Migration Data Portal, 2021). Specifically in my home country, the Philippines, there are several news stories of Overseas Filipino Workers who are stranded in airports, unable to come back home to their families, and could not seek help during emergencies because of the inaccessibility of support services. These issues concerning migrant workers are also rampant in other countries such as India and Pakistan, among others (Asian Development Bank, 2021). This inspired me to create an application that can alleviate these global hardships and provide migrant workers with a safe space to seek for the help that they need.

What it does

MigrantHelp aims to provide more accessible resources and create an inclusive community for migrant workers during times of crisis. It has three main components:

FLIGHT TRACKER

  • Includes a search engine where users can browse available flights based on their selected location and flight dates
  • Displays specific travel guidelines and restrictions for each flight to avoid misinformation upon arrival
  • Shows the latest news stories that can affect travel guidelines, along with a catalogue of particular locations with available flights

CURRENCY CONVERTER

  • Easily allows users to convert values to the currency of their home countries
  • Regularly records the everyday expenses of the user according to specific categories
  • Automatically transfers the converted currency values into the expenses tracker upon selection of the user

REPORT PAGE

  • Lets users create emergency reports based on particular categories (workplace abuse, illegal recruitment, etc.)
  • Translates the write-ups of users if they’re not fluent in the language required for filing a report
  • Submits reports to the government agencies of the home country of the user

How I built it

All of the features of the MigrantHelp prototype were developed through Figma. The wireframes, layouts, and app animations were created through this website.

Challenges I ran into

  • I found it difficult to narrow down the features that I wanted to incorporate into MigrantHelp, since I really wanted to address several hardships that migrant workers face. I have not created a prototype before which covers wide-scale issues such as those of migrant workers, which it made it quite challenging for me. Additionally, I struggled in choosing the specific kinds of emergency reports and news stories that should be the most accessible to users, because these elements required careful planning to ensure the user’s maximum convenience.
  • I am not that experienced in manipulating Figma animations before, especially for the Smart Animate feature which creates transitions depending on the hierarchy, position, and naming conventions of particular objects. I had to watch several YouTube tutorials and experiment with my prototype file in order to fully grasp the mechanisms of the Figma animations and transitions that were used in this project.

What I learned

Throughout the experience of building the prototype, I learned how to carefully select the functions and information to be included in the application. I realized that having too many functions would not be beneficial for app developers or the potential users of the application. It’s better to expand on the features that you currently have instead of trying to add meaningless functions that might further confuse the people using your application. This understanding helped me focus on the true essence and significance of the product that I was creating.

Accomplishments that I'm proud of

I’m very happy with the way the prototype turned out, especially for the animations since I truly wanted to create a smooth user interface despite the fact that I didn’t include any code for the prototype. I’m also proud of myself for being able to create a project that can hopefully support any migrant worker going through social, financial, or personal hardships during these trying times. Being able to conceptualize an app that can contribute to the long-term safety of migrant workers is already a very big fulfillment for me.

What's next for MigrantHelp

MigrantHelp can be further developed to become a fully functional application with additional features such as the following:

  • An advanced budget tracker to incorporate both the expenses and income of the user, which also provides a more detailed and accurate graph to show recent transactions in the past week, month, or year
  • An interactive community page to connect with other migrant workers and learn from the experiences of like-minded individuals
  • Coordinate with more global authorities to incorporate high-quality services and promote the app to more migrant workers who require professional assistance

References

Built With

  • figma
  • filmora
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