M&C Saatchi
Designing a life-saving mobile application in a global context
Context
Client: M&C Saatchi & The International HIV/AIDS Alliance
The challenge: Designing a mobile application to help children with HIV/AIDS in Mozambique and Swaziland manage and adhere to their medication in a low-resource, technologically constrained environment.
Our solution: Led deep ethnographic research in-country, ran co-creation workshops with the children, and designed and developed the MVP of the mobile application.
Key results
Ethnography
In-country research in Mozambique & Swaziland
Co-created
Application designed with children
MVP
Functional mobile application delivered
The challenge: vulnerable audience
In partnership with the International HIV/AIDS Alliance, M&C Saatchi needed to design a highly usable and accessible mobile application to help children with AIDS/HIV in Mozambique & Swaziland manage their health in a low-resource, technologically constrained environment. The core challenge was to design a tool that could build trust and encourage medication adherence with a vulnerable young audience.
Our approach: empathy and empowerment
Our process was grounded in deep empathy. We began with ethnographic research in Mozambique and Swaziland, immersing ourselves in the daily lives of the children to understand their context, challenges, and aspirations. We then moved beyond observation to empowerment, running co-creation workshops where the children themselves became active partners in designing the application's features and feel.
Visualising the approach
Selected artefacts from the project, showing the ethnographic research, co-creation workshops, and the final mobile application MVP.
Immersion in Mozambique and Swaziland culture.
Empowering children to design the features themselves.
Delivering a functional, user-validated service.
The solution: an accessible application
The insights from the research and co-creation workshops were synthesised into a clear design for a gamified mobile application. We then developed a functional Minimum Viable Product (MVP) that brought the core features to life, providing a tangible, user-validated tool ready for further testing and deployment.
My impact on the project
As the ethnographer, I translated deep ethnographic insight into a life-saving application by empowering the children it was designed for, ensuring the final product was trusted, usable, and impactful.
Led deep ethnographic research in Mozambique and Swaziland to build contextual understanding.
Ran co-creation workshops, empowering children to become active partners in the design.
Designed a gamified mobile application focused on building trust and encouraging medication adherence.
Translated research insights and co-creation outputs into a functional MVP.
Delivered a tangible, user-validated tool ready for field testing and deployment.
Provided a critical asset that enabled the Alliance to secure further project funding.
The results: a vital tool for health management
The co-creation process ensured the final product was not just a tool, but a companion that was genuinely useful and trusted by the children it was designed to serve. The delivery of a functional MVP provided the Alliance with a critical asset to secure further funding and scale the project, demonstrating the power of user-centred design to create life-saving social impact.
Social Impact
Delivered in a global context