Chineme Ozumba
Collage of pictures from The HarDDA Initiative activities

The HarDDA Initiative

How research informed the design of a new communication program.

The Challenge

African nations could build wealth from their massive huge youth populations. This wealth is known as Demographic Dividend(DD). However, DD and related concepts are not easily understood.
There is extreme ignorance about DD. College students. are well positioned to understand and share information about the concepts of DD to their peers, younger people and the workforce which they will be joining.
How can DD information be communicated in ways that are engaging and easy to share by  college students in Africa?
  • Program Design
  • User Research
  • Gamification

Strategy

Leverage the Stanford d.School design thinking model in three iterative phases.

Phase 1: Review existing materials for communicating DD and determine the pain points to the user (college students) and create a game to teach the principles of DD through gamification.

Phase 2:  Get user recommendations on program content and structure. Also get feedback on the game and other materials, through a design workshop. Analyze data collected.

Phase 3: Prototype and test the program and its elements. 

Phase 1 

Review of materials and gamification

Empathizing with the user (college students) 


Secondary research: reviewed known literature and videos about DD.  
Findings: Few academic papers and YouTube videos targeted at policy makers. 
Pain points: The materials were not ideal for easy consumption and dissemination by the target users.

  

Problem definition 

  • Students are busy with classes or assignments or social activities and do not see why they need to sit through yet another hour or two of lectures
  • Not all students engage with lengthy technical lectures filled with futuristic statistics.
  • Not all students can breakdown abstract theories into easily comprehensible format for easy communication. 

Ideation  

I brainstormed with people in my networks and came up with gamification as one of the means of communication of abstract theories.  

Prototyping

  • I designed the DD game, an obstacle run which had players representing the enablers and detractors of DD. 
  • I worked with a multimedia professional to design the logo and branding of the HarDDA Initiative, reflecting elements of the drivers of DD. 

Personas

The users were identified as university or college students. However, characteristics of college students differ. Three groups of students were identified and personas were created to represent them below:
Sofia

Sofia

1st year Sociology 

Demographic Dividend? Sounds like something about numbers and technical jargon ... definitely not for me, I would be totally bored. 
Michael

Michael

2nd year Law 

I would like to know what Demographic Dividend is, but I'm busy with classes and assignments. I don't have time to sit through another hour or two of lectures.
Chika

Chika

3rd year Public Health

I know what Demographic Dividend is but it is quite abstract. I find it difficult to explain it to my friends in a way they can understand. 

Phase 2

Design Research Workshop

I collaborated with a team of volunteers from Red Drop Monash, the school Public Health Club to organize a program design workshop.

I invited a team from the United Nations Population Fund East and Southern Africa Regional Office (UNFPA-ESARO) as facilitators and observers.

42 users, students of the school of Health Sciences and the School of Social Sciences of Monash SA,  participated in the workshop. These participants represent 12 countries on the African continent. 

The DD game and other materials were tested in context.

User input were collected through brainstorming, focus group discussions and surveys.
The DD game session being played
Playing the DD game prior to its discussion session 
Participants listing to a presentation by UNFPA
A presentation by UNFPA, before its discussion session
The DD game session being played
Focus Group discussion on one of the sessions
Group picture of participants
A section from the unstructured questionnaire 

I applied contextual and thematic analysis on data collected and reported the findings of the research
The DD game session being played
Thematic Analysis
Participants listing to a presentation by UNFPA
Some of the 42 users  
A group of participants brainstorming

The Findings

User research revealed that college students in Africa would like to learn about DD and share information about it. They made several recommendations which included the following:
  • A full day or two-day workshop to allow enough time for topics to be covered fully with enough time for Q and A.
  • Shorter sessions to retain attention.
  • Shorter videos 30 second to 3 minute videos.
  • More rounds of the DD game.
  • More youth friendly videos (e.g. using animations).
  • Online presence for the initiative e.g. Website, Facebook page, Twitter, Instagram, WhatsApp accounts.
  • Using Prezi for more engaging presentations.
  • Formation of campus cells. 

Phase 3

Prototyping and Testing

In this phase,

  • I  prototyped, tested and refined various elements of the workshop identified from user research.

  • I collaborated with a multimedia expert to produce the Mama HarDDA character and the animated video.

Prototyping
Mama HarDDA character

The Mama HarDDA character
HarDDA Monash cell group members
Monash SA cell members 
Screenshot of a Prezi presentation titled The HarDDA Initiative: from zero to infinity
Prezi presentations
3-minute video

Testing 
Screnshot of facebook page showing the HarDDA Storm event
HarDDA Storm - A Facebook brainstorming event between students of Monash SA and Makerere University Uganda - 2016
DD game being played at Afriyan Workshop
DD  game at the Afriyan Leadership forum, Sandton, South Africa - 2017
REgisteration Desk at workshop in Makerere University Uganda
HarDDA Youth Sensitization Workshop, Makerere University Uganda - 2017
Mama HarDDA DD video being played at Workshop in University of South Africa
HarDDA Youth Priming Workshop at University of South Africa - 2018 
Participants at Mini workshop in Monash South Africa
HarDDA Mini Workshop at Monash South Africa - 2019

Reflections

Three key lessons I have learnt in designing and coordinating this program are:

  1. Applying design thinking to development programs will ensure that programs are relevant to the users and help to improve the reach and impact of the programs.
  2. The importance of understanding the uniqueness and dynamics of each team. Teams are influenced by organisational and cultural factors. Understanding the orientation of each team and how to tap into their strengths, contributed to the successful design the program. When working with several teams, it is important to have a plan for keeping everyone user centered.
  3. I have also learnt that there is always room for improvement. Over the years, with each round of user testing, I got more insights into how to improve the program. 

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