HUMANITARIAN RELIEF

Problem:​

MercyCorps, one of the largest humanitarian NGOs in the world, built and implemented a global information sharing system. It was falling far short of expectations. MercyCorps wanted to know why.

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Action:

Through a series of interviews and field work funded in part by the National Science Foundation, I designed and executed a study of humanitarian users around the world and in settings as diverse as cubicles in office towers and tents in refugee camps.

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Result:

I found that different users were using the same system for entirely different tasks based on their context and job description, preventing the intended sharing of practice and information. I also found that the degree to which users varied from each other depended on the degree of freedom they had to introduce new technologies into the system. Field users in particular used whatever device they could make work. This bring-your-own-device variable was upending the NGO's goal. 

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They modified their system to allow for multiple devices and crafted new procedures users could follow to ensure success.

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