CONFLICT RISK DASHBOARD
AN ORGANIZATIONAL TOOL

Organization: United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) Lebanon
Role: Head of Experimentation; UX/UI Designer

OVERVIEW

The Conflict Risk Dashboard is a tool that brings together various conflict indicators in Lebanon so experts within the development sector can better inform and recalibrate their projects in these turbulent times. Organizations like the UN produce a great deal of valuable information, but the platforms and formats used to disseminate this information are often clunky. They are not designed with different users in mind. Often, the people most directly affected by this information – and the ones who should have easy access to this information – are excluded. The Crisis Risk Dashboard, thus, integrates UX design into humanitarian and design work.

THE PROCESS

The prototype for the Conflict Risk Dashboard (CRD) was developed as a multifaceted political, financial, and public-health crisis unfolded in Lebanon. Within this context, our user research required ingenuity for two reasons: (1) it needed to take place virtually and (2) our users were stretched thin as they adapted to new work modalities. We deployed a variety of formats – from video conferencing to WhatsApp groups to low-fi prototyping tools – to engage UNDP employees about their needs for the dashboard. For example, we used paper prototypes in designing a user interface for the dashboard. This low-tech option had many advantages. Not only was it fun, it also allowed for rapid changes and iterations, and most importantly, it invited honest and relevant feedback. Because users could see that this was not a real, finished website, their feedback was more about the concept, their experience, expectations, flows, and functionalities rather than the visual aspect such as the colors, fonts, and motions.

MAIN TAKEAWAYS

Designing the CRD revealed two important takeaways. For a top-down organization such as the UN, our participatory approach broke new ground, because it brought people from different programs and levels together to have meaningful exchanges and come to a consensus about priorities. Second, it highlighted the drive to impact humanitarian and development efforts by introducing user-centered, context specific, and needs-based approaches.