Project 1 : Wicked Problem (Immigration)
The new century has experienced an exponential increase in people’s mobility all around the world. Even if migration has always been a recurrent phenomenon across history, never before has humankind seen such a variety of destinations, motivations, and setups.
Along with the experience of migrating — possibly having to adapt to a different culture or language — come a number of bureaucratic tasks that need to be fulfilled within a certain period of time to legalize the journey in the host country.
Ironhack gave us the mission to solve a problem, related to the migratory phenomenon in 1 week. The goal is not to present a finished and polished prototype by the end of the week. We have to focus on isolating, researching and understanding a specific problem.
How Might We help migrant people find the information, complete the tasks and successfully get their paperwork done to start their life in a new city.
Our group therefore looked into the process of obtaining a visa / residence permit for foreigners wishing to come to France as well as foreigners wishing to upgrade their visa (to change it from a student visa to a professional visa). For this, we had to go through several major stages.
I. Empathize
The process of coming to live in France for a short / long term is complex to address the issue because many information channels exist on the web and are sufficiently scattered to become a little headache.
Nous ciblons donc les personnes étrangères qui entrent dans le processus de demande de visa pour venir en France ou bien ceux qui sont déjà installés et qui veulent faire évoluer leur visa. La phase de recherche a été importante pour comprendre les problèmes rencontrés par ces personnes et nous avons effectué nos recherches secondaires sur Internet via des sites gouvernementaux (donc sources officielles) et d’autres en complément qui informent sur le sujet comme par exemple des associations qui se battent pour rendre le processus plus léger et moins dissuasif. Car il est facile de rapidement se perdre dans la tonne d’informations générales qui ne conviennent pas forcément à tous les profils de demandeurs. Par ailleurs, il était également important de voir quels étaient les dernières statistiques en terme d’immigration pour mieux comprendre le phénomène. Nous avons cherché chacun de notre côté et, pour gagner du temps, nous avons partagé nos recherches via Google Doc.
We therefore target foreigners who enter the visa application process to come to France or those who are already installed and who want to upgrade their visa. The research phase was important to understand the problems encountered by these people and we carried out our secondary research on the Internet via government sites (therefore official sources) and others which provide information on the subject such as associations which are fighting to make the process lighter and less dissuasive. Because it is easy to quickly get lost in the ton of general information that does not necessarily suit all profiles of applicants. In addition, it was also important to see what were the latest statistics in terms of immigration to better understand the phenomenon. We each searched our own and, in order to save time, we shared our searches through Google Doc.
It is important to specify that one person in our group (there were 4 of us in total) has already gone through this visa application process in the past. It was invaluable to us in order to contact people who had been in this situation and to collect their testimonies.
Nous avons décidé, après nos différentes interviews, de nous concentrer plus particulièrement sur le changement de type de visa, d’étudiant à travailleur. En effet, durant cette étape, il a été remarqué que les délais étaient particulièrement long alors que la personne a déjà intégré la société française en l’occurrence et dispose déjà d’un dossier dans l’administration française. C’est peut être l’étape la plus complexe en terme de mode de traitement et elle a été la plus douloureuse pour nos interviewés.
We decided, after our various interviews, to focus more particularly on the change of visa type, from student to worker. Indeed, during this stage, it was noticed that the deadlines were particularly long whereas the person has already integrated the french society in this case and already has a file in the french administration. It is perhaps the most complex step in terms of treatment mode and it was the most painful for our interviewees.
« Each prefecture has its own law, (…) each file is different. Even if the request is the same, the answers may differ depending on the individual and their situation. »
The nationality and the individual situation of each of the applicants can have a significant impact on the outcome of the process, this is particularly the case for Algerians (3 out of 7 interviewed) who are a separate category, with very specific criteria to complete the documents.
« When you migrate somewhere, you have a lot of papers to do, as long as I’m not European, it’s always a lot of papers, I’m quiet an expert now »
The end of interviews are often gold mines for us because it is a moment when the interviewees feel at ease, confidence reigns more than at the beginning and they let go, express themselves on things that we had not thought of or come back to certain points to highlight important and often painful elements for them. All the interviewees had a bad experience coming to France to study.
« I had to wait 6 hours outside in the rain to get the information, people were crying. »
« You have an appointment, they take your papers and you never know if you have all the right papers… (…) It’s note sure to have a positive reply, it’s a very anxious period ! »
It is common to have to justify your presence in France permanently and this is tiring and psychologically trying, especially as the appointments are stressful because all you need is a missing piece of paper to have to leave, resume an appointment and come back another day. Moreover, our interviewees all had a very good level of French and had clearly integrated French culture either before coming or very quickly when they arrived.
Among the responses of our interviewees, there is still one positive point that emerges : mutual assistance between people who carry out the same process and this goes through social networks in particular. In order to get more detailed information, some respondents naturally turned to Facebook groups, forums and friends.
« You can get information from peers that could really save you … to know that in this prefecture, the process takes less time for example »
« There is something cool … Facebook groups where you can exchange information about the visa process, it can be misleading from time to time … but in general it works »
Subsequently, we produced an Affinity Diagram via Mural platform in order to pool the results of our interviews, to categorize them (see the blue post-it notes).
And then vote for the main pain points that you can see in black.
We finally voted for the main pain point by using dot voting method. The problem : bad interface of the official website and the lack of centralized information.
We have gathered this main problem + 1 profile (foreign student wishing to change Visa status in order to work in France).
II. Define
- User Persona
Sara is a paperwork expert despite herself. She is familiar with digital tools and administrative tasks. She is Algerian and came to Paris to study. She has almost graduated and has successfully completed a recruitment process to work in a french company. But in order to be hired she needs to change her visa status (still a student).
- User Journey
The user journey was created from Sara, the persona we created. Here are described the stages of the visa process experience, from the good news of the offer letter from the company that wishes to recruit her until the moment when she manages to find the precise information for her visa change.
On constate que Sara est moralement dans une pente descendante tout au long du processus. Il y a un clairement manque de communication via les sites web officiels pour des informations personnalisées. Sara doit utiliser un canal différent pour obtenir une seule information (site officiel, réseaux sociaux, amis, préfecture), trouver des informations génériques en ligne et bénéficier de l’aide mutuelle d’amis ou des réseaux sociaux représentent cependant des étapes plutôt positives dans son parcours du fait du sentiment de ne pas être seule dans cette situation et de voir que les gens parlent et s’entraident.
Sara is seen to be morally on a downward slope throughout the process. There is a clear lack of communication through official websites for personalized information. Sara has to use a different channel to get just one piece of information (official website, prefecture, social networks, friends), find generic information online and benefit from mutual help from friends or social networks, however, are rather positive steps in her journey because of the feeling of not being alone in this situation and seeing that people talk and help each other.
- Problem statement
III. Ideate
- Solution
The application that we are proposing will have to respond to the lack of fluidity in navigation, in particular due to the fact that all the people interviewed are familiar with digital tools. The difficulty of finding reliable information on the official website is improved thanks to the chatbot service. It is certainly an artificial intelligence, but which could initially guide the user through the application and provide him with information more adapted to his situation. The ability to get a date online would improve user well-being by reducing emotional pressure, user stress, and waiting for a response.
- Storyboard
- As you can see, Sara is at home in her small studio and she first tried to find information on the internet in vain because it was too scattered, too many sources, too general. She therefore refers to the app that one of her comrades told her about ! (at the moment she is quite curious and full of hope)
- She first fills out a small general form on her current situation and the application she wants to make and of course registers for the app.
- It then directed towards the first information which remains quite generic …
4. … But despite some advances, she turns to the Instant Chatbot service to get more answers to her questions.
5–6. The Chatbot has informed her well but the doubt remains on certain points.
7–8. She is then encouraged to make an appointment with a “Godfather” (we could also say a “guardian angel” if you want), so an appointment in person or online in order to lift the veil on the few questions left unanswered. She must then choose a subject, the date as well as the time slot available to attend a sort of collective “questions / answers” meeting led by the “Godfather”.
So in this case, Sara chooses the physical meeting because it was important for her to have this human bond in her approach in order to reassure her.
She then receives a confirmation via the app, sms and / or email and she will receive a reminder the day before the appointment. Indeed, it includes a calendar just like DoctoLib app !
9. A few days later, she goes to the meeting and finally obtains the Holy Grail : the information that she lacked, in order to send her complete file via our app by scanning her papers and sending it with progress monitoring !
We can see that they are both wearing a mask due to the pandemic, but obviously the smiles are there! Especially for our student Sara who sees the future brightening a little more! Happy ending !
What I learned ?
- I learned how to use collaborative online tools
- Design thinking process methods
- I learned how to work with people that I hardly knew with different backgrounds
- I learned how complicated & painful it is to get a french visa…
