Challenge

Choose a less-developed country and design a mobile application that increases the community's ability to thrive.

Goal

Create an Android application/launcher that caters to users in northern Uganda (Gulu) as they seek out normalcy in a post-war landscape.

Design

The initial portions of Kupima Angani (Swahili for Measure the Sky) was designed through approximately 20 hours of brainstorming, prototyping, and iteration. Design for the app was first inspired by a few different locations; existing knowledge, existing resources relating to Gulu, and the Android Design philosophy (Circa 2011). The application packages a custom launcher with a few other applications that assist in connecting users to agricultural and cultural resources. Our research uncovered that 85% of Gulu's economy relies on agriculture. Giving farmers access to weather information as well as an almanac will help farming thrive in this area. Because of recent wars in Uganda, many local cultures have been wiped out or put into a state of near extinction. Giving users in Acholiland access to cultural resources will help to restore culture to the people.

The application was designed to conserve battery- all unused pixels are black, which means that AMOLED screens will not turn them on, which will conserve energy for users who live in an area where electricity is not always available. We decided to rely heavily on iconography and images, because we cannot be sure what language a user will speak and read, or even if users will be able to read.

Early Designs

Prototype Screenshots

Future Development

Languages- Port application into two key languages; Luganda (mother tongue of Gulu) and Swahili (for the larger African audience)
Customizable Application Home Screen- add "widgets" to home screen for favorite football team, Agriculture tip of the day, favorite radio station, etc.
Crowd Sourcing/ User-Generated Content- Check-ins at sporting events, concerts and other social events, integration with social media, report weather emergencies on-site.

Resources

Kupima Angani

Full Design Report

Read the Report