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Due to the excess of information that foreigners find when looking for information to obtain their legal documentation when migrating to Spain, we created Migracheck.
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An app where you can find all the legal procedures you need in a simplified and clear way. With the possibility of being assisted by a legal team of lawyers during the process.

EVERYTHING HAS A BEGINNING

Going back to February 2023, at Nuclio Digital School, when I started the UX/UI Design Bootcamp, my group and I had to start a project from scratch, using the Design Thinking methodology. Going through different phases to solve a real problem and come up with a creative solution.

DISCLAIMER: the project was originally designed in Spanish. Everything has been translated for this purpose except the wireframes, prototype and part of the Desk Research.

EMPATHIZING
For this phase we started brainstorming and making a mindmap to select the topic of our project.
1.1. Mindmap
My team and I realized that the three of us had migrated from Latin America, so we decided to follow this path and find out what had been the biggest obstacles for Latin Americans migrating here.
1.2. Interviews
We carried out 10 interviews of 16 questions to obtain qualitative information about their experience, both prior moving to Spain, and once they arrived here, and their current situation.

The common problems that the interviewees had in common were the following:
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1.3. Desk Research
To complement our research, we accessed secondary sources of information such as reports and statistics.
As we can see in the following table, among the nationalities with the highest rate of foreign residents in Spain we find several Latin American countries. Among the top 10 are Ecuador, Venezuela, Colombia and Bolivia.
Estadística de residentes extranjeros en España (Observatorio Permanente de la Inmigración de la Secretaría General de Inclusión, 2020)
In addition, we know, according to the study "Foreign Population by Nationality, Communities, Sex and Year" conducted by the National Institute of Statistics, that in 2022 there were a total of 5,542,932 foreigners, of which 1,571,651 were from Latin countries, which makes up more than a quarter of the global population.
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From this data, we would later focus on this target audience.

On the other hand, we obtained some interesting insights from reports:
"A high percentage of the migrant population accesses residence and work permits when they are already in Spanish territory."
Retos de la inmigración en España (Red Acoge, 2021)
"In the countries of origin, information about the migration process, documentation and future prospects is scarce and not very close to reality because the propaganda received from Europe is misleading and utopian."
Retos de la inmigración en España (Red Acoge, 2021)
“47.67% of the non-EU citizens surveyed do not have their degrees accredited, mainly due to lack of financial means or lack of knowledge on how to obtain such accreditation..”
Estudio sobre las necesidades de la población inmigrante en España: tendencias y retos para la inclusión social (ACCEM,2020)
1.4. Surveys
Later, we surveyed a total of 79 people to finish validating the insights extracted from the previous research, which were the following:
1.5. Benchmark
We conducted a competitive analysis as part of our research to find out what initiatives exist to address the problem we want to solve.
Although later we would focus on analyzing apps that could be direct competition. However, we realized that they were quite obsolete interfaces, with poor usability as you could find buttons that did not lead anywhere or links to external pages to view certain information.
DEFINITION
2.1. Problem Statement
Latin American migrants try to undertake bureaucratic procedures in order to migrate legally to Spain, but the information they receive is not clear enough because there is a lack of information or even over-information, which makes them feel frustrated and confused.
2.2. Value Proposition
We provide personalized support and structured information through filters focused on the different users' needs.
2.3. User Persona
In this phase we begin to define who would be the target user. We can differentiate them in two:

  1. Latinos who are still in their country of origin, but have the intention of migrating to Spain.
  2. Latinos who are in Spain and do not know how to process their legal documents.
Next we can see an example of the first case:
IDEATION
3.1. User Story Mapping & MVP
We use Jeff Paton's technique, User Story Mapping, to organize the Product Backlog. On the one hand, horizontally we find the user's activities and tasks. On the other hand, vertically, there are the user stories or functionalities ordered by priority.
For the MVP we discarded some features that did not seem so relevant for a first launch, the red ones.
3.2. Sitemap
From this step we start structuring the information architecture. We defined the content of the app and made an inventory, grouped and labeled it to facilitate navigation in our app. With this we were able to create the Sitemap:
3.3. BUSINESS MODEL
After implementing these techniques, we already had a clear idea of the content and structure of our app and we also thought about the product strategy and how to monetize it. Below is a summary of what MigraCheck offers:
  1. Freemium app. Users will be able to access information on every procedure and its requirements free of charge. Besides having a migratory guide with the first steps to follow once you arrive to Spain.
  2. Subscription plans. If the user chooses a personalized assistance during the process, they can pay a fee depending on the procedure they want to undertake with the help of our legal team. Or quick consultations for a very affordable price.
  3. Contacto with a legal of experts. Once you pay for one of the subscription plans, a chat button will be added to the home page so that you can contact our legal team whenever you need to.
  4. Information filter. From the beginning you can filter the information in the app to receive only the information you need. They can also select their country of origin or even the type of procedure that best suits the user.
  5. Access to a community. A space where users can share their concerns with people who are going through the same situation.
PROTOTyping
4.1. Wireframes Mi-Fi
Finally we got to the point of translating our ideas into a design. First, we started with Lo-Fi (low fidelity) wireframes through sketches. Later, we would start with Mi-Fi wireframes (medium fidelity) screens which we started designing in Figma.  This is an example of the main screens.
Before several iterations we had a problem of excessive features, so these wireframes regarding the final Hi-Fi changed quite a bit.
4.2. Branding & Style Guide
For the naming of the app we chose a name that explicitly transmitted what the app was about and that included some of the keywords to facilitate its search in the Play Store.

We chose a modern, geometric, sans serif typeface to make it easier to read.

As for the colors, we chose blue tones as they transmitted confidence, security and commitment. We also chose some pastel tones as secondary colors. Among them, purple, which expresses authenticity. All these qualities are what we wanted to capture in the brand.
We chose the Freepik's Storyset illustration kit because it is quite complete and helped us to humanize the app a little more.
Finally, these are some of the components that were used in MigraCheck.
4.3. Hi-Fi Wireframes & Prototype
Next, we can see the final high-fidelity wireframes and a prototype video.
TESTING
5.1. User Testing
To conclude the project, we conducted a test with 3 users who tested the prototype in person. After listening to their comments, we were able to make the following improvements:
  1. Remove a section with little relevance to the home page.
  2. We chose to include the 'Required Documents' section in the onboarding questions so that we could prioritize the procedures on the home page.
  3. Split the procedures according to their status:
  4. BEFORE:the main idea was to show the process on the home screen when reaching the last step of it and having the option to delete it by clicking on the 'delete process' button.
    AFTER: when the last step is completed, it will be classified directly as a 'completed procedure', besides having the option to view any other procedures you may have in progress.
  5. Add a chat for direct contact with the legal team:
  6. Only people with access to the premium version will have access to this chat to contact our legal team for any questions.