Co-Design with SASANE
As part of a study-abroad class at OCAD University, thirteen designers came together to offer their specialized design services to Samrakshak Samuha Nepal (SASANE), a survivor-led organization dedicated protecting and empowering female survivors of human trafficking. We were split into four teams, each with a different area of focus. My team of four focused on service analysis and optimization.
Pictured: SASANE location, Pokhara
Objectives
Our goal was to aid SASANE in improving their for-profit services, revamping their brand identity, designing their merchandise, and increasing their outreach.
Deliverables
Four master documents with detailed implementation plans from each team in order for the organization to easily implement suggested changes.
Duration
This project took place over the course of three weeks in Pokhara, Nepal from May 11th to June 2nd, 2024.
Contributions
I evaluated SASANE’s programming by conducting research on tourism in Nepal, interviewing stakeholders, and running co-design sessions with employees and survivors to identify service gaps. From this, I developed service recommendations aimed at increasing the organization's revenue and created customer journey maps to visualize user experiences and pinpoint key touchpoints for improvement. My team and I held weekly check-ins to keep our classmates and stakeholders informed on our service analysis progress and improvement strategies.
Pictured: co-design session with stakeholders
Customer journey map of SASANE's cooking class offering.
Outcome
The project concluded in a presentation that outlined our research findings showing that SASANE’s core focus should be their cooking class offering, selling their merchandise, and focusing on outreach in order to bring in more donations, instead of focusing on their female-led trekking program that they did not have the means to continue. Our suggestions revolved around upping the frequency of their cooking class, along with two iterations of the cooking class at different price points, and suggestions on how they could make their classes more accessible, comfortable, and culturally enriching in order to make them a worthy competitor in the Pokhara tourism industry. The implementation document was then created to give them step-by-step instructions on how to run these new iterations of their service offering.
Through engaging collaboratively with my co-designers, I learned to embrace the privilege of learning from them, gaining new perspectives that enriched our design process.
Working with SASANE taught me to develop culturally relevant program improvement suggestions that aligned with the goals and limitations of the organization.
Working in Nepal highlighted the importance of presenting my findings in an accessible way, especially when communicating with stakeholders whose first language is not English.