Designing for social inclusion of immigrant women: the case of TeaTime

Abstract

We present our design of a digital service supporting social inclusion among immigrant women in an ethnically and socially diverse neighbourhood of a small Finnish town. The aim is to explore experiences and perceptions as well as potential barriers and challenges for using the web-based service. The case study is framed as design research having a strong user-centred design approach. We describe the design process and present the results of a mixed-method evaluation. The results are scrutinized from the perspectives of experience design. The analysis reveals a potential to facilitate social inclusion through the fulfilment of needs related to relatedness, autonomy, competence, pleasure and stimulations as well as popularity. However, some challenges in the interface design and communication of the security and purpose of the site were identified in the study. Significant differences were also found between immigrant women and local people regarding the need for this digital service.

Keywords:

• social inclusion
• immigrant women
• experience design
• user-centered design
• design research

Acknowledgments

We wish to thank the participants taking part in the study.

Additional information

Funding

Our thanks go to the Housing Finance and Development Centre of Finland (ARA) for financially supporting this work.