Details:

Problem Definition

The people mainly in the urban areas of Myanmar need stable access to clean water because clean water shortages hit the hardest in densely populated areas. Therefore, Atutu needs a platform that gathers testimonials of the Burmese people regarding access to water, because then they can use this platform to help with the big picture solution of solving clean water inequities.

Background

Our focus for this project was on the country of Myanmar, where the Burmese people do not have easy access to water, which should be a necessity for anyone. Past efforts to increase the amount of clean water has also failed. Based on our team's research, we found that technology has become very popular in Myanmar, leading us to use this to our advantage and build a website.

Our Solution

• Create a website to collect data on the Burmese people's access to water
• Since date collection will take about a year, prepare different questions for the 3 Myanmar seasons
• Users can post publicly or privately, but only the public responses will be shown at the end
• For those without technology or those who prefer an in person option, Atutu’s community volunteers would host an in person workshop in various regions. There would be tablets for people to use, and a volunteer to assist them if needed. This could be implemented after social distancing requirements are lifted.

Existing Solutions

We took a look at 3 different existing solutions, summarized below:

• Google Forms

Easy to collect data because it can be easily shared using a link, but needs to sign into an account to upload files. Also, only people with access to internet would be able to use it, which could make the collected data biased.




• Next Gen Pen Pal

Proposed by 100 For All to raise awareness about the water crisis. Students in Indonesia able to share personal stories/experiences with others, but language barriers and unstable technology can make video chatting difficult.




• Mobile Phone Panel Surveys

Conducts interviews over the phone to make collecting data easier and more time-efficient and low-cost since no travel is needed. However, because they are not conducted in person, there is no way to examine their body language and facial expressions.

User Personas

We created 2 user personas showing the importance of clean water access.

These personas show that rural farmers are dependent on clean water to be able to grow rice and other foods to be able to feed their family. Their access to water also affects how much profit they can make from selling it. Agriculture is important for Myanmar's economy, but floods and droughts can make it more difficult for them, since rice needs a lot of water to grow.

Our Solution

• Create a website to collect data on the Burmese people's access to water
• Since date collection will take about a year, prepare different questions for the 3 Myanmar seasons
• Users can post publicly or privately, but only the public responses will be shown at the end

Wireframing

Before making the actual website on Wix, we started creating quick wireframes of our product on Figma

Prototype

Website Prototype Here

Home Page

Because our project is focused on water access and water is blue, we made our background light blue. To make it clear to users what the purpose of this website, we included a box with this information on the home page. Because we want users to sign up or log in next, we provide 2 places for them to do this: either on the navigation bar or the main body of the website to make it hard to miss. We used a vectorized image of Myanmar because they are the users of the website.

Log In/Sign Up/Demographics

We require the user to log into their account or create one to collect some demographic information before they are able to make any submissions. When meeting with our client, we learned that many Burmese people don't use emails often, so we kept this in mind by just having users create their own username and password, rather than using their email.

After signing up, users have to fill out a quick demographic survey asking their age, city, and occupation. This information lets Atutu know who is using the website and where they are from. We kept the questions very general so that the user's identity is still kept private.

Post

Before letting them answer any of the submission questions, we let users decide if they want to post publicly or privately. We added this option because we want to respect the user’s privacy, but still want them to be able to honestly write and submit how they feel about the water access.

When posting, users can talk about and share their stories about their daily experiences with water in Myanmar. On the first page, the ‘Water Questions’ page, there are 7 hard data questions, ranging from multiple choice, yes or no, to rating scale questions. We designed these questions with the community of Myanmar in mind because we know their access to water experiences are different from ours. The next page, the ‘Questions’ page, has 3 free response prompts that correspond to the current season in Myanmar. Users have the choice of imputting their response in the text box or uploading PDF files and images.

View Submissions

After submitting, they can view each question’s results from everyone who chose to submit publicly. We displayed the questions in a table format with a pagnation.

User Testing

Using our prototype, we conducted user testings to determine what changes we could make to improve the website. User testings were conducted remotely through Zoom where we had them share their screen and navigate through the website.

We also wanted to get feedback from the Burmese people as well, since they would be the ones using the website, however, it was not easy reaching them since they are in Myanmar. Therefore, we posted on Facebook groups such as Subtle Burmese Traits and Yangon connections, since Facebook is the most commonly used social media platform in Myanmar and many Burmese people are in those 2 groups.

General thoughts:

• Website was easy to use and understand
• Users were worried about mistyping password
• View Submissions page should be more user-friendly
• Add pictures to make it more friendly
• Should add Data visualization charts for quantitative data questions

Final Design

Final Website Here

Home Page

• Cleaned up the overall look of the home page to make it more appealing
• Changed home page image to a green color version of our vectorized map of Myanmar, and placed a textless version of our team logo on top
• Added pictures of community volunteers working on projects with Atutu to add credibility to the site

Log In/Sign Up

• Required users to re-enter their password after user tests revealed that they were worried about any possible mis-typing errors. Also prevents any slip errors

Post

• Combined functions to post publicly and post privately
• Added a progress bar to the top since there are 2 form pages and users were unsure how many pages there were without it
• Finalized our questions. Also decided to have different prompts depending on season (dry, cool, rainy)

View Submissions

• Added data visualizations based on client's feedback. Charts are connected to data sheets where it updates the chart, as well as dynamically updating on the website as new data comes in
• Organized the view in a cleaner format. Found that the priginal pagination way would be inefficient if there were many pages to go through

Next Steps / Reflection

In the future, more upgrades/additions could be made, like implementing a comments feature since we want this to be a public forum where users would be able to communicate with each other. It would also be improved on if it can filter out profanity words to prevent any inappropriate content from being shared publicly. Overall, I learned a lot working on the project with our client from Atutu, and I liked that we were able to make a positive impact on our community.