Designing a Digital Service for Users with Low Understanding of a Language : A Case Study

Abstract: During the last decades Europe has seen an increase in the number of refugees coming to the region. When arriving in a new country one faces several challenges to overcome. In Sweden, a lot of the services the government provides regarding immigration, social insurance, and health care are digital. This can on some occasions create a situation where the user of these services can not speak or write any of the languages available in the service. This thesis aims to investigate what aspects of user experience design that could support a user completing tasks and understanding context in a digital setting even though the language might not be fully understood. By looking at the aspects of cross-cultural design, design for illiterate users, and understanding icon design, a prototype was developed and tested on users not literate in the language used. The results showed that the users were able to complete the task given, and understand the context.