Fair

Migrant workers leave their homes, families and countries to work in Singapore, in hopes of earning an income that can better their lives back home. However, when they encounter issues that hinder them from fulfilling this primary objective, they may not know what recourse is available, or how to navigate the Singapore system that is complex and foreign to them. Even if they are aware of resources like the Ministry of Manpower or the Migrant Workers’ Centre, their help-seeking process can be protracted because of the challenges they face in navigating the system. 

This project aims to tackle the problems that migrant workers face in: 

1. Not knowing where to go for help when facing pay-related issues,

2. Not knowing what to prepare when they seek help.

We wanted to build a product that:

1. Simplifies access to and delivery of information

   1. Seeking recourse is difficult, with multiple channels offering information. 

   2. While government websites offer detailed guidance, we found that it can be overwhelming and confusing – even for our team. 

   3. To simplify this process, we decided to build a chatbot-based solution that would make getting help as easy as texting a friend.
      
      

2. Supports different literacy levels 

   1. From speaking to those who work with migrant workers, we found out that some workers may have low literacy. 

   2. We decided early on that we needed to have a text-to-speech function so that migrant workers with lower literacy could get help by listening to the audio.
      
      

3. Caters to different languages: 

1. The migrant worker population is diverse, with workers coming from Bangladesh, India, Myanmar, China, Malaysia, Indonesia, and other countries. These workers speak different languages, and have varying levels of English proficiency. 

2. Our chatbot supports these languages to ensure accessibility for all.
   
   

1. Multilingual support 
   

2. Tooltips to guide navigation

During initial user testing, we found that it wasn’t clear to users that they could ‘respond’ to the chatbot by selecting from the options on the screen. They were also uncertain about how to navigate especially when they had clicked something wrongly or when they reached the end of a flow. We introduced tooltips to guide users through these steps. 

3. Text-to-speech for users with low literacy 

In earlier iterations, we used a speaker icon for the text-to-speech function. From user testing we found that users did not notice the icon. We changed it to the triangle play button (as is used in WhatsApp voice notes) and found that this was more salient to users.

While the users we spoke to during testing were able to navigate by reading, they expressed that the audio function would be useful for their friends who were less literate.

The intended outcomes of this project are: 

1. Migrant workers know what options are available to them if they face pay-related issues

2. Migrant workers are able to get their cases addressed in a shorter time, as they are more prepared when they come forward to seek help  

3. Migrant worker legal clinic has more capacity to take on cases requiring legal advice, and save time on admin