2023 Bronze Digital Product

Entrant: Potato

Client: Vodafone Foundation

Entry Title: Zoteria

Executive Summary

Research from Vodafone found that 68% of LGBTQ+ respondents had been victims of hate crime in the past year; 27% had been physically injured by an attack. But 75% of respondents didn’t report the incident because they felt it was too minor, or they didn’t trust the authorities to take action. A reporting journey that was fast, reassuring and instantly connected victims to the best support available was required.

Strategy

Before any building could take place, a deeper understanding of what would really help and bring value to future users was required—so the team could create the right app.

The team validated the outputs of client workshops by speaking with the LGBTQ+ community, providing visual prototypes that allowed users to explore and provide valuable feedback. The iterative process ensured the app’s development aligned with their needs.

With insights gained from the research phase, the structure and product strategy were defined to develop a clear value proposition that would resonate with the target audience.

Creativity

After defining the problem space, the team incorporated their user experience and interface design expertise to create the app.

This involved a process called Protobranding: a lean and fast way to create a new brand identity by focusing effort on what’s needed to design an experience. The team ran co-creation workshops with the client and the LGBTQ+ community to identify a name for the app, its personality, principles, and tone of voice. It built a lean brand toolkit, including logo, typography, colours, and imagery to enable it to design an interface that would effectively communicate the app’s purpose and resonate with its users.

Finally, it made a prototype for a segment of the experience to undergo proposition testing, enabling Vodafone to identify areas for improvement in the concept, offering and visual identity before full build.

Results

Zoteria will provide a more accurate view on the extent of hate crimes across the UK. Anonymised regional and city data will be available to local authorities so they can better understand the issue within their region.

As Vodafone Foundation continues to introduce Zoteria into new markets, the overarching objective remains the same: to foster an increasingly safer world for the LGBTQ+ community and its allies.

The Team

Potato - Bruno Belcastro, Pinto Senior Product Manager - Kevinjohn Gallagher, Delivery Lead Freelance - Esther Brener, Brand Designer Freelance - Gabriela Franke, Design Principal - Lavinia Alexoiu, Product Design Lead - Tamara Lau, Product Designer - Calvin Bowen, Product Designer Freelance

Contributors

Stonewall and Galop