Overview
The tribe has been losing it’s traditions and language due to not being able to write it down. The reason for this, is the tribe is still considered to be at war with the United States government. No formal truce has ever happened. Due to this, the tribe has not written anything down out of fear it will be used against. While the tribe is a federally recognized tribe, it still harbors great distrust when it comes to outsiders. This lack of being able to write things down, peoples varying learning styles and older generations dying off have lead a large role in to the traditions of the tribe dieing off.
The tribe has a long history of distrusting outsiders. The newer Generation while westernized, wants to keep its traditions and pass it down through use of current tech. The older generation wants things to stay the same. This combined with hundreds of years of not writing any of there language down, created an up hill battle.
Key Objectives
The key objectives for this project was to create a mobile application that could be updated by the tribe. This application would be B2C, take about 3-4 months to complete, and only open to tribal members. Its core adjectives are to educate tribal members about their language and traditions of the tribe.
Goal
Develop a mobile application for iOS and Android exclusively for tribal members. This app will educate users about tribal history, language, cooking, dancing, and clan traditions. After conduct large amounts of user research became apparent that most of the target demo, learns through doing and watching. This made a mobile application the best way forward.
Role: Product Designer
Tools: Figma, Miro, Adobe Creative Suite, After Effects
Timeline: 3 months
About the Miccosukee Tribe
The Miccosukee Tribe of Indians is a federally recognized Native American tribe in the U.S. state of Florida. Together with the Seminole Nation of Oklahoma and the Seminole Tribe of Florida, it is one of three federally recognized Seminole entities. the Miccosukee are generally distrusting of outsiders and the government, because Andrew Jackson chased them out of modern day Georgia to the everglades trying to commit mass genocide. To this day there has not been a formal peace/truce among the tribe and the US government.
Role: Product Designer
Team: 1 Product Designers and 1 Engineer
Methods Used: User Research, Competitor Analysis, User Interviews, Storyboarding, Personas, Agile.
User Research: Extensive interviews and surveys were conducted with over 100 tribal memebers infront of tribal council
Market Analysis: A thorough examination of existing apps revealed While other language applications exist, few if any touch upon culture, food and dances.
Persona Development: Detailed personas were created, including "The Reservation teacher," "The Young Student(reservation school)," and "The Middle School Student(private School)," each with unique needs and motivations.
User Testing: Testing was created, including "The Parents care about eduction, Parents who care more about survival skills, Reservation Teachers and children who will be using the application.
83% of people surveyed said their kids are plugged into Tablets or video games.
100% of participants wanted to pass down their culture and heritage.
Equal mix of those who value education, those who value self-sufficient life skills
Carefully structured to provide an intuitive user journey, balancing educational content, interactive features, and community engagement.
Early wireframes led to interactive prototypes, which were tested and iterated on. This phase was crucial for refining user flows and interface elements.
Focused on creating a visually appealing and emotionally engaging experience. The design incorporated clan inspired themes, intuitive icons, and an easy-to-navigate layout.
Special attention was given to making the app accessible to all users, including those with disabilities. Features like screen reader compatibility, color blindness modes, and scalable text were included.
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👤 User Goals:
Learn the Language and pronunciation of the Miccosukee People
Learn the history of the tribe to give a better understanding of the traditions
Learn the dances and traditional cooking of the tribe
Get an explanation of the clans and the history/where they came from
Get a deeper connection with heritage, and the land
💼 Business Goals:
Create an infrastructure that can be utilized for other languages and tribes to be licensed out.
🙏 Common Goals:
Have a wonderful learning experience
Stoke and develop, and save the users culture for future generations
Catalog and preserve the Creek words, phrases and language.
Teach the younger generation to preserve the culture.
💻 Technical Specifications:
Ability to login and sign up
UI that works under iOS material design
Accessible and usable to all groups
Product Feature Priorities:
A game Feature to make learning fun
An interactive history feature to help teach the history of the tribe
A Podcast feature to help reinforce auditory learning
A simple breakdown of the clans with history and explanation
A video element showing the dances and how food is traditionally prepared
The launch of My-Tribe App was preceded by a strategic launch revealed at the general council meeting. We leveraged being able to connect with all the tribal member's and getting them aware of it pre-launch. The beta version of the app provided us with critical user feedback, leading to final refinements before the official launch. The launch was implemented by the School and slowly spread to only tribal members.
Post-launch, we closely monitored user engagement and app performance. The app quickly gained popularity. We continually collected user feedback, leading to several updates that improved user experience and expanded app functionalities.This lead to the App bring brought to the gathering of the tribes, where the infrastructure was presented to all the native american tribes and could be licensed to help save other cultures.
The journey of the My-Tribe App, from its inception to becoming an educational tool used by tribal members, exemplifies the impact of user-centered design and agile development practices. It has transformed from a basic app into a platform that nurtures a community passionately dedicated to advancing the language and culture. The My-Tribe App is more than just a product; it's a testament to how technology can be harnessed to drive positive change and save indigenous cultures. This Application was brought to the gathering of the tribes, and will be used to help save countless other native languages and traditions.