JUNO
-
Figmathon at University of Washington Seattle Campus, Social Category
-
24 hour turn around
-
Justin Yang, Sonia Yeh, Tiffany Lu, Dennis Ni
-
Team members worked in both roles
Overview
Juno is an application that allows users to discover new businesses and services that are open to the under represented groups or are owned by them. Options are also given to read specific news about activist movements and provide opportunities to participate in volunteer, protests, and other events.
Within a twenty four hour time frame, we developed this project in a Figma hackathon (Figmathon). Due to the tight time frame we focused our design based off of online research as well as first hand experiences.
The Problem
Underrepresented groups such as minorities, women, and the LGBTQIA+ community are typically overlooked and discriminated against within our society. There is also a growing demand for LGBTQIA+ oriented applications and services that are not yet offered. With the lack of attention that these communities receive, there is an increase in the equality gap in our society.
Problem Statement
How can we help the LGBTQIA+, minority, and the underrepresented communities shine better under the spotlight and gain exposure?
Our Solution
JUNO is a social app that helps individuals access LGBTQ+ friendly resources in business, news, and community involvement. With a wide range of eateries, community events, and other activities at their fingertips, any person can easily access these resources, which are just a few taps away.
Our aim is not only to tackle one aspect of our dynamic social culture today. While our main scope of focus is devoted to The LGBTQ+ community, we also provide resources for other distinct minority and ethnic groups and issues, including but not limited to BLM, women’s rights, and civil rights causes. Our goal is to connect these communities together and provide them options that won’t come at the expense of negative consequences.
Key Findings
A 2022 Gallup poll revealed that 7.1% of American adults identified as belonging to the LGBTQ+ community (around 18.72 million people identify as LGBTQIA+), which is a significant demographic of individuals.
Entrepreneurship is key to boosting earnings for Black women and reducing the racial wealth gap. Reducing the wage gap for Black women translates to a huge win for our entire economy, with the potential to create 1.2 to 1.7 million U.S. jobs and increase GDP to $300 to $525 billion.
Design Goals
Accentuate the importance of supporting LGBTQIA+, minority, and the underrepresented communities.
Narrow down user research according to their preferences and needs.
Encourage diversity, equity, and inclusion among all.
Lo-Fi Mockup
We created our lo-fi mockups based off of our design goals and what we expected our target users to find the most beneficial. This iteration greatly helped as it served as our blueprint for our hi-fi prototype.
A Reflection of my Experience
I am extremely proud of my team and I creating such a in-depth project within a short twenty four hour time frame.
It was an amazing experience and I am especially proud of our teamwork. Although there were only four of us, we were able to communicate with each other while still respecting each individual opinion. We learned to depend on each other’s strengths instead of falling where we were individually weak. Though a short time frame, we were able to create something that we were proud of.
The biggest challenge that we faced was the lack of time that we had. Since there was such a sparse amount of time, we had to simplify or skip parts of the design process as well as rush through our lo-fi and hi-fi prototypes.
If given more time, we would go back and conduct a large scale survey to see what individuals within underrepresented communities struggle with the most. We would also create more frames for setting, user preferences, and search filters for a more personal experiences. Ideally we would also like to revamp the UI to look more modern.
This project was overall a great experience and I am glad I am able to share JUNO and how it came to be.