Joseph Gray Designs | Project: Testimo

Project Overview

I collaborated with the Human Rights First Refugee Protection team to create Testimo, a custom WhatsApp chatbot that empowers migrants to discreetly, securely, and anonymously report harms and human rights violations.

Jump To Solution

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Platform

WhatsApp Chatbot & Web Application

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Organization

Human Rights First

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Sector

Civic Tech

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Timeline

Q2 2023 - Q4 2024

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Role

Lead Product & UX Designer

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Tools Used

Figma
Miro
Google Drive
Notion
WhatsApp

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Responsibilities

Project Discovery
Define Requirements
Stakeholder Management
Assisting Project Management
UI Design
UX Architecture
Prototyping
Engineering Collaboration
QA Testing
Plan & Facilitate User Research
Validate User Needs

Haitian asylum seekers set up camp in an abandoned gas station while they wait to attempt to cross into the U.S. by an appointment through the Customs and Border Protection app, called CBP One, at a makeshift camp, in Matamoros, Mexico June 21, 2023.

Photo by Daniel Becerril/REUTERS

Problem

In recent years, Human Rights First has documented the devastating impact of U.S. border policies that restrict access to asylum. These policies have left thousands of migrants and asylum seekers stranded in dangerous conditions in Mexico, where they face extreme risks including kidnapping, sexual assault, and other forms of violence.

To date, the organization had tracked over 16,000 individual cases of harm, but this represented only a fraction of what was truly happening on the ground. The vast majority of incidents go unreported, and the Refugee Protection team faced significant challenges gathering data for their advocacy. The unique challenge of the situation was because the regions of Mexico that need reporting the most also pose the highest safety concerns because of organized crime groups.

To continue their advocacy for more humane policy, the Refugee Protection team needed a secure and scalable way to remotely collect sensitive testimonies from survivors. And do so without compromising privacy or increasing the risk to those already in vulnerable situations.

Research

Performing thorough user-research early on in the project was difficult because our target users were migrants that had not yet accessed safety (crossed into the U.S.), therefore access was extremely limited and we had to get creative. We relied on HRF subject matter experts and consulted with people that worked closely with our target population, such as staff from shelters.

Key Insights

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People want to tell their stories in their own words

Users don’t want to type out their stories, they want to speak it in their own words. We learned that voice memos would be the most effective way to do this.

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Shorter surveys are better

Keep quantitative questions to a minimum and only ask what's essential. This way users will remain engaged and not drop off.

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Getting people to participate requires the right access points

Migrants coming through Mexico are hesitant to trust digital platforms they don’t know. If they are recommended to use something by someone they already trust, they’re much more likely to use it.

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Reduce barriers to access

If possible, utilize a platform your intended audience already uses. Having to download a new app or sign up for a new service will often discourage users from participating.

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People want to help others

We were at first uncertain if people would participate in our questionnaire if we weren’t offering any incentives, but offering incentives seemed unethical. We discovered people were happy to participate once they learned that sharing their story could potentially help people coming after them.

Field Research

In Fall 2024, our team conducted a week-long research trip at shelters in Texas and New Mexico. We collaborated with staff to prepare a small pilot. Together, we identified the key moments of their intake process in which to introduce guests to the Testimo. This trip enabled us to conduct interviews and user testing with migrants for the first time. These valuable conversations revealed many insights listed above.

My team conducting user testing with a guest at the shelter, and speaking with a shelter manager about their experience integrating the survey into their intake process.

A research participant encountering a bug with the application when trying to restart the survey.

Solution

Designing Testimo came with unique challenges, especially given the high-risk context in which it would operate and the real dangers it could pose to people’s safety if they were found with it.By grounding our process in a few core principles—particularly around safety—we were able to navigate complex decisions and arrive at thoughtful, secure design solutions.

Key Design Principles:

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People want to tell their stories in their own words

Accessibility

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People want to tell their stories in their own words

Safety

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People want to tell their stories in their own words

Security

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People want to tell their stories in their own words

Privacy

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People want to tell their stories in their own words

Trust

Chatbot Survey

Testimo is a digital platform that empowers Migrants to discreetly share their story and report harms they’ve experienced.

Accessibility

Available in native languages and built into WhatsApp, a widely adopted platform that only requires an internet connection, so it’s good for migrants & asylum seekers that are on the move.

It's private,
and secure.

WhatsApp is encrypted end-to-end, so messages are private. But if the chatbot got into the hands of bad actors, it could put people’s lives in danger. So, we decided that only trusted partners at safe locations will be able to give migrants access to Testimo. Although this made the UX more clunky, it was an essential ethical decision for security.

Easy to Use

The questionnaire has multiple choice questions & open-ended questions that allow for text or voice responses.

Multiple choice portion of the survey makes it easy to answer basic question quickly and ensures consistent quantitive data.

Another reason WhatsApp was the chosen platform was because business accounts support "WhatsApp Flows", a feature to build forms directly into the chat.

Voice note feature allows participants to speak their responses and tell their story in their own words.

Submission Review Tool

The internal submission tool has streamlined flows that allows the Refugee Protection team to efficiently review submissions, add notes, and redact responses.

Auto-translation

Made with AI, the internal tool automatically transcribes and translates voice notes.

HRF advocates use the tool to quickly review responses to open-ended questions. These stories help the team build narratives around their advocacy and make it more powerful.

Impact & Results

The HRF Innovation Lab decided to outsource the development of Testimo due to limited rescues, extending the project timeline by 4 months.

This new timing was unfortunate, because it itersetd the the 2024 U.S. election. The results of the election led to renewed border closures, and by January 2025, the shelters we partnered with had shut down—effectively eliminating our planned distribution channels. We looked to alternatives, but found none as ethical or safe given the new circumstances.

Therefore, we decided to shelf the project and do not have user impact data to report at this time. Ultimately, we learned that in high-risk, fast-changing environments, speed and reliability often outweigh cost savings.

It may be hard to bite the bullet now, but delayed execution can mean missing the window for impact entirely.