Overview

Bangladesh has been one of the largest exporters of ReadyMade Garments (RMG) products in the world. The biggest advantage for the manufacturer is primarily the availability of cheap labours. This may sound unbelievable that the minimum monthly wage in Bangladesh is just $17 which in contrast is almost the minimum hourly income in the US. Workers, especially women, are being highly neglected and often exploited by their employers. In order to get their voices heard, they needed a channel to reach the global audience. Success of this project would be measured if these painpoints are minimized by telling their stories to the world.

Understanding the painpoints

• - Discrimination of wage towards female workers and ineffectiveness of labour unions
• - Female workers are not aware of their legal rights
• - Unsafe workplace conditions has been a major problem but often overlooked
• - Lack of advocacy and community support
• - Lack of digital identity to attract International donations, a website was needed to reach global population

Process and the steps taken

Research data

We were extremely lucky to have received some case studies and contents from the client. However, as a UX researcher I had to take some in-person interviews to members of the foundation as well as some female workers regarding their work conditions and overall well-being. Some of the questions asked would include- how familiar they are in using the internet and how a website can contribute in telling their stories? etc.

Goal

As a whole their stories and case studies needed to be heard, as the word “Awaj” means voice in Bangla. They needed this website to represent themselves in the global platform.

In order to make an impact, Awaj Foundation depends on global donations and the easiest way for the donors to learn about it would be through an impactful website that will tell stories.

Technical challenges

Accessibility and optimization: The website needs to be highly accessible and optimized without compromising aesthetic values. A website that doesn’t cost much data since the internet speed in Bangladesh is still very slow.

Maintenance: Non-tech savvy users need to be able to update and post new contents on a regular basis, therefore, the admin panel needs to be easy to use for the clients.

Branding & UI Design

Typography

 

Atomic design approach

 

Outcome

Although the minimum wage in Bangladesh remains to be $17 a month, the minimum wage for the RMG workers was increased to $65 a month.

Awaj Foundation was able to raise a considerable amount of donations after launching this website that enabled them to stand for the underprivileged female workers.

Accomplishments

Clients were extremely happy with the stellar project delivery under a crunch timeline. The most satisfying aspect of this project was to be able to contribute for the underprivileged workers rights. This website was being presented to them as an educational tool to create awareness as well. I keep this as one of my favourites for the milestones we have achieved together. Besides, I'm grateful to my team for the collaboration.

 

Key learnings

• - Empathy brings us more satisfaction than anything else.
• - Team work is important for outstanding results. In this case, I had one more team mate who helped me with WordPress Development.
• - We finished the entire project within 10 weeks although our estimation was 12 weeks. Delivering before deadline is always better than delaying in launching. Keeping extra time helps.
• - Adaptive web design is better than responsive web design.