Girl Effect iPhone App

How Girl Effect could develop a digital currency to fund NGOs that supports girls in developing countries.

Service Design

At a glance

Company

Nike Foundation, The Girl Effect

2014

Role

Service Design Lead

Team

Service Design Team lead for a team composed of a creative technologist and a designer.

Responsibilities

Discovery, service design, concept diagrams, customer journey mapping, sketching, and iPhone app concept design.

Goal

Discover how Girl Effect could develop a digital currency to fundraise for girls in developing countries.

Outcome

Led discovery, a service design narrative, concept diagrams, and sketches for an iPhone app concept.

Led the team at Wieden + Kennedy in using Service Design to identify the touchpoints a girl would encounter to benefit NGOs in developing countries. The project involved discovery to learn how the concept would work. Then explore a touchpoint, an iPhone app, that would help track actions a girl would take that would help them earn "Girl Coin", a digital currency focused around helping NGOs for this non-profit foundation.

Concept diagram of the girl currency — A high-level look at the girl currency economy; for every action a girl takes, part of its value goes to NGOs and the rest goes to her.

Discovering the vision

Girl Effect, Nike's nonprofit foundation, asked how a digital currency could raise money for NGOs supporting girls in developing countries. At Wieden + Kennedy, I led the team through discovery to understand how the concept would work. We targeted a globally connected girl, aged 16 to 24. When a girl takes a world-changing action, she earns "Girl Coin," and corporate partners donate money to NGOs. Every action is tied to one of six categories: Health, Safety, Education, Citizenship, Economic Security, and Child Marriage.

First draft of the concept map showing how the girl spends, earns, and channels girl currency — The first concept map: girls flex their superpower through actions, earn girl currency, and spend it with corporate partners.

Exploring how girl currency could work

I used my diagrammatic skills to simplify the economy into a single picture, then found the touchpoint a girl would use every day. How might we engage the globally connected girl to exchange her services for Girl Coin that will be donated to girls in the developing world? We tested options on the whiteboard, from discounts at partner stores to matching programs, before settling on a model.

Flow diagram in which a girl's action earns Girl Coin while corporate partners donate money to the Girl Hub and its NGOs — Girls redeem coins for a discount on partner products, and partners match each action with a donation to NGOs. Different actions are worth different amounts.

Mapping the girl's journey

Service design helped us find every touchpoint a girl would encounter, not just the app. We followed a 16- to 24-year-old girl named Anna from first hearing about girl currency to seeing the difference she makes, and kept the research and concepts on one wall as we worked.

Customer journey map following Anna through awareness, consideration, onboarding, taking action, earning and investing, feedback, and success — Anna's journey runs from awareness to success, across marketing, people, and digital touchpoints, as she moves from passive to active.

Making every action count

The challenge was to make actions active, not passive, and to show a girl where her money goes and how she is helping. I mapped the app flow from download to tracking, so that each step connects her actions to girls in the developing world.

Sketching the app

I sketched how a girl would discover actions, see which friends are involved, prioritize what matters to her, and track the currency she earns. The sketches led to a prototype of the core screens.

Sketches of the menu, an Activate your superpower screen, and location confirmation — Onboarding asks the girl to activate her superpower and connects her with other girls around activities that earn currency.

Sketches of choosing an action, tracking completed actions toward a goal, and selecting interests — Choosing an action, tracking completed actions toward a goal, and tapping interests to tailor the list.

Sketches of an action list, prioritizing actions, and customizing a selection — The action list shows each action's value and friends nearby who are involved, and lets her drag actions to prioritize them.

Sketches of browsing actions, a questionnaire, and news about actions, with notes on earned and spent currency — Ideas for browsing actions with friends, a questionnaire worth one coin per question, and news about girls taking action.

A story the client could tell

The service design narrative gave Girl Effect a clear way to describe the touchpoints a girl would encounter. As we explored how the program would work, I designed several concept diagrams to explain the girl currency economy. A customer journey map across marketing, people, and digital touchpoints helped us identify which option to test.

Service Design Moved the Project Forward

Sketches and a prototype of the iPhone app concept helped communicate with the client; they used them in their presentation to describe the touchpoints a girl would encounter. Wieden + Kennedy incorporated service design into their work with Weight Watchers, which helped move the project forward during a major rebrand.