Doctors Without Borders

• Designed intuitive room booking application for MSF's Stockholm headquarters
• Created real-time availability tracking with visual cues for quick decision-making

Overview

Early 2024 brought an exciting opportunity: helping Doctors Without Borders (Médecins Sans Frontières, MSF) streamline their office operations in Stockholm, Sweden. This renowned humanitarian organization was looking to boost their logistical efficiency through smart technology - and we were thrilled to help!

My role? Guiding the product and UX/UI design for a tablet application that would ease their room booking process. It was a chance to enhance the coordination of meetings and activities crucial to MSF's life-saving mission, right from their Stockholm headquarters.

Crafting a tool for heroes

Working alongside the brilliant minds at Mpya Digital on a pro bono basis, we set out to create an efficiant and easy to use solution. My role spanned product design and UX/UI, focusing on creating an intuitive, efficient system for managing room bookings that would make life easier for the MSF team.

We worked on a few key features designed to streamline office operations:

• Real-time room availability: Users can instantly spot free rooms, with friendly emojis making it a breeze to identify available spaces.
• Flexible booking options: Whether it's a spontaneous huddle or a planned strategy session, the app handles immediate and future bookings with ease.
• Easy cancellations: Plans change, and so can bookings - with just a tap, users can free up rooms for others.
• Insightful statistics: The app provides valuable data on room usage, helping MSF optimize their space for maximum efficiency.
• Interactive office map: New team member? Visitor? The detailed map ensures no one gets lost in the mission to find the right room.

Navigating challenges, finding solutions

Designing an interface that could be easily navigated even in the high-pressure, fast-paced environment of MSF was our main goal. We tackled this through multiple rounds of user flow analysis and prototyping, always keeping simplicity and speed at the forefront. The MSF Stockholm team's real-world feedback helped us refine the app iteratively.

Reflections on a meaningful journey

This project was a powerful reminder of the importance of empathetic, user-centered design. In an organization where every minute of efficiency gained could translate to lives saved in the field, our work took on a whole new level of meaning. It was truly an honor to apply my skills in support of Doctors Without Borders' incredible mission.

The challenge of creating a system that worked for everyone, regardless of their tech-savviness, pushed me to new heights of inclusive and accessible design. It was a journey that reinforced my belief in the power of thoughtful design to make a real difference, even in the most crucial of operations.

As I reflect on this project, I'm filled with gratitude for the opportunity to contribute, even in a small way, to the vital work of MSF. It's projects like these that remind me why I love what I do - because sometimes, a well-designed app can be a small but meaningful part of changing the world for the better.