This document summarizes a presentation about designing financial technology products for underserved communities in developing countries. It discusses how the presenter's team used human-centered design principles like empathy, optimism, and creative confidence to develop an application that provides basic banking services. The application was designed to be accessible through feature phones for microenterprise owners in Senegal who lack access to traditional financial institutions. The team took an iterative approach, testing early prototypes with users to refine the design into a secure and usable application that could empower users with more financial freedom and opportunity.

1. Design for freedom
who changes the world
Aimi McConnell
DiBi Conference – 12th November 2018

2. Say Hello!
@tails_of_mourne
@aimilou1

4. What I will cover…
● Our Story
● Human-Centered Design
● Freedom

5. A Chance meeting
It began with a conversation between two people who were waiting on
their fast food take away order.

6. The Team

7. Let me
introduce Cherif
Cherif Sow was our user – he was
the CEO of the credit union in
Senegal. He unfortunately passed
away earlier this year. This
presentation is in his memory.

8. “ If you aren’t aligned with a human need, you’re just
going to build a very powerful system to address a
very small (or perhaps non-existent) problem.
- Josh Lovejoy

9. MICRO DRIP
Water Efficient Irrigation Equipment

10. The Three Parts of
the Puzzle
● Inspiration
● Ideation
● Implementation

11. 5 billion mobile users
That’s a lot of mobile phone users.

12. Globally 2.5 billion
Living in developing countries have no access to basic
financial services.

13. 1.7 billion unbanked
Are the poorest mobile phone users on earth.

14. Who we designed our product for

15. Microenterprise,
a business
operating on a
very small scale.

16. Some Examples
From the people we met and their microenterprises.

17. The peanut
press
Peanuts are the main crop here,
but people need money for buying
seed, keeping the machinery
intact, paying workers.

18. The local
shop
The heart of any community.
Having to travel great distances to
a banking institution, so isn’t able to
save money.

19. The Ideation Phase

20. The
concept
Donkey drawn delivery for implementation
of a finance application.

21. Becoming human
through human-centered
design
It began with the ambition to bring banking technology into the digital-
’third’ world, to make it accessible, flexible and ready for everyone.

22. How do we do
this?
Empathy
The process is based on
empathy. This is the
roadmap to innovative
solutions.
Optimism
Design is inherently
optimistic – it’s what
drives us forward.
Creative Confidence
Believing in your ability to
create change in the
world around you.

23. Our Toolkit
● IDEO
● Field guide toolkit for human-centered design process
● T Shaped People
● Technology Tools Ionic and Firebase

24. IDEO
ideo.com/eu
🔨

25. Tim Brown’s
T Shaped People

26. Ionic
ionicframework.com
🔨

27. Firebase
firebase.google.com
🔨

28. Implementation Phase
The area is off grid. There is no running water and no electricity supply
but there is 4G phone signal and at least one mobile to each household.

32. Application
login
The first idea, lets the user scan
a QR code from the desktop
application to unlock the device.

33. Application
login
Second more stable idea,
worked in practice.

34. Our process is
secure
first
Comprehensive security
Making sure that data is secure.
Data Protection
Abiding by data protection laws.
second
Firebase
A secure backend for the
application.
third
Tokens
Storing secure data on and
offline.
last

35. Application
dashboard
This was the basic prototype,
first iteration of the dashboard for
the application.

36. Application
loan calculator
The easy to use calculator for loan
amounts.

37. Application
loan groups
Group loans are needed for this particular
application.

38. Design for FreedomDevelopment interventions are often designed in isolation.

39. Who has the Freedom?
Designer? User? Or both?

40. Design for the User
Why we must liberate our users when designing products.

41. Design for freedom
we will change the world
Aimi McConnell
DiBi Conference – 12th November 2018

42. Thanks!You can find me at @tails_of_mourne & @aimilou1