In collaboration with Medici Senza Frontiere & Oblo
Momenti Senza Frontiere; Stories without Borders
June 2023
Frameworks Used
Desk Research, Card Sorting, Co-designing, System/Value Map, User Testing, Competitor Analysis
Role
Service Designer | Brand Designer | Web Designer | Workshop Faciliator
Team Members
Soukarni Barai, Dinudey Baidya, Enrico Lanfranconi, Ying-Jie Chen
Context
In a 5 person team, in a 2 week workshop with Medici Senza Frontiere and Oblo, our job was to create a new service concept for collective engagement, participation and activation of Italian civilians for Medici Senza Frontiere. More specifically, we had to create a plan for an evento di piazza; a form of activism that physically brings together people to make themselves seen and, by doing so, make their opinion heard.
Solution
Momenti Senza Frontiere is a community for the young adult Gen-Z of Italy to learn, engage, share and take action collectively towards causes they care about, through storytelling. With the yearly festival, Momenti in Festa, Momenti Senza Frontiere brings together events and activities that approach awareness and cultural connections with empathy and joy.
Discovery
MSF’s Key Challenge
There are not enough younger people who are involved in the MSF community. How can they be engaged? Do they even want to be engaged?
Approach: Interviewing Them Gen Zs
Part of our research involved trying to get a better understanding of what moved the Gen-Z community, especially the Italian Gen-Z crowd. We asked 3-4 Italians detailed and focused questions based on their online presence, their attendance to large scale events, what causes are important to them, and what they have done about the causes they are passionate about. It was critical to understand their level of involvement in the things they are passionate about and how they came to be interested in these causes.
“ I have South American friends and they must have faced discrimination but I don’t know, they never shared. I want to support them by behaving appropriately and being sensitive.”
“ I am speaking from a place of privilege and I don’t like seeing people I love suffer from issues that I was privileged to not have to worry about - like visas and a home. ”
“Gen-Z show better results in coping and responding with crisis and change, as their self-confidence is strong and so is their willingness to be protagonists of change.”
Define
What’s Our Concept?
Momenti Senza Frontiere is a community for the young adult Gen-Z of Italy to learn, engage, share and take action collectively towards causes they care about, through storytelling.
Who are these people?
Based off of our research and interview insights, we created archetypes that reflected the values and notions of the current generation to better cater to their needs.
The Better Citizen
Seeks awareness about the worldrelies on social networks for information, finds belonging in their personal social groups and is moved by global movements and causes
The Cause Champion
Wants to see their actions have real impact, shares and discuss causes in social circles, motivates peers and contribute for a cause and is moved by personal values and learnt experience
Card Sorting: How good are our ideas?
Part of being in the community included providing events and activities that the younger generation could engage in. We conducted card sorting exercises filled with different kinds of ideas to determine the quality of our ideas and whether they held merit. From Escape Rooms, film screenings, food exchanges and blind booths to talk and open up on different issues… we covered an array of activities that could engage people.
Additionally, we also asked them how they represent their values: from joining communities, to wearing clothes, how do Gen Zs present what they believe in?
Card Sorting: Verdict
From our card sorting exercises, we found out that Gen Zs wanted to engage in more meaningful activities that allowed them to empathise. It was the storytelling, and mentally engaging activities that users constantly picked as it allowed them to actively participate.
What’s in it for everyone?
We also outlined a system value map, defining all the kinds of stakeholders we could have, what they would be putting in, and what they would be getting in return for collaborating with MSF, as well as the value they would be giving to MSF as well.
Develop
Building a Brand: The Tone
To approach the Gen Zs, it was crucial to create something that spoke to them: to make sure it had all the rizz, but also, the visual language and ability to resonate with them and their beliefs. We went with some bold colors to reflect the Gen-Z people, and also to compliment the MSF brand colors as well.
The logo is inspired by the “m” in momenti, in which two speech bubbles intersect with a smile at the intersection, to show that only with communication, we can achieve positive connection and change.
Deliver
Making Some Noise, Online & Offline
Our service offerings included online and offline channels that would allow ongoing engagement throughout the year, as well as the annual event, Momenti en Festa, that brings people together to talk, engage and immerse themselves in causes that align with them and MSF.
The Website
Evaluation
Scaling be difficult.
Since this was an event, and moreover a service geared towards people in the same age group as our team, it was hard not to go all out on all the craziest, fun, intense, ideas and experiences we wanted to offer because it was important to remember how to bring in all the stakeholders and how they could make the community thrive.
All said and done, money really does make the world go round, and we still needed to ensure that the events we created contributed to something.
Key Learnings
Generate Value For All Parties.
Gen-Zs are not a target audience to have a lot of monetary support to provide to organisations such as MSF. However, they have the ability to physically support and rally allies in their own community. By showing the long-term value all stakeholders would get just by supporting Momenti Senza Frontiere, we show how to create an eco-system of support, care and more physical engagement with MSF.