Girl Effect

TEGA Web Platform

The TEGA project by Girl Effect is a mobile-based, peer-to-peer research solution used around the world. It uses data to tackle gender inequality in a community outreach programme. TEGA empowers females aged 16-24 to conduct interview research within their own communities.

The online platform we helped design helps power the mobile app that enables data scientists to analyse communities and produce actionable measures that help organisations to better understand the reality of girls’ lives, which means developing better designed, more targeted development programmes with a real impact.

The challenge was to design a simple visual system that handles question customisation and routing options, while falling within a complex top-level flow. With its multiple-choice options, simple selection, ranges and multiple scenarios routing logic, the piece was quite challenging from a UI perspective.

A question expanded to show the routing logic

The solution came when we saw the questions as information hubs that could be nested (expanded or contracted) to reveal more information.
If you could add this dimension of layering to the questions then you could look at an individual question and assess what the logical hierarchy would be.

Visualising survey routing

We were tasked with creating data visualisation for the routing to visualise the screener survey in a more user-friendly fashion instead of simple signage.The output turned the vertical version into a fluid horizontal version and we experimented with it sitting in/out of the page, with more structure or without.

We wanted to break away from the rigid compactness of the vertical version and felt we could play with the connectivity while still fitting into the general feeling of the platform.

We created two versions that could show the extent of the routing complexity; one more fluid, another based on a table system. Once the visual system was created, it could be tested with different variations of logic to push the system’s limitations.

Initial example concept of nodes and routes

The original version used a simple two-colour palette. It was based on the analogy of the nodes being compared to stones skimming across a pond, as was the rest of the platform. It could jump one point or numerous points, and the skipping lengths could visually change, based on the content of the question. It was set using a darker shade of grey to illustrate depth but with an open-ended canvas the user could scroll across.

The final version added more structure and consistency, and was a closer fit to the overall platform aesthetic. It allowed controls around the questions, which added greater utility, and labelling to show the section. The screened-in/out functionality was clearly visualised on top of the table structure and accommodated questions of varying lengths.

Numerous options were included without breaking the screen’s viewpoint. This was a risk with the fluid version, as you could have an edge case where one question had only two answers and another with 8 answers plus.

Since its launch in 2016, the TEGA platform has expanded dramatically with success in Nigeria, where it started, Malawi, Tanzania, Rwanda, India, Bangladesh and the USA.
17,000 interviews have been conducted through TEGAs, informing programmes that have had a big impact on over 18 million girls and their communities.
The platform received an honourable mention in the 2017 Fast Company Innovation By Design Awards, won the Best Innovation at the Market Research Society Awards in 2016, and was published by MIT D-Lab as a leading example of Lean Research. We’re thankful for the opportunity to contribute to this and glad that the work we do has impacted numerous lives for the better.

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Brand Design

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Research