U-Speak
UNICEF Australia
Elevating the voices of young Australians by connecting them with policy makers.
Expertise: UX, Product Design
Industry: Not-for-profit
Role: Innovation Designer
Date: 2021 (9 months)
CHALLENGE
How might we bridge the gap between youth priorities and government policy by creating a scalable way for children and young people to be heard, turning sentiment into structured, decision-maker-ready insights for UNICEF.
CONSTRAINTS
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Early-stage ambiguity as a venture generated from scratch
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Navigated complexity of the youth space, which required deep alignment with safety and confidentiality requirements
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Required strong C-suite stakeholder buy-in for venture endorsement
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Required to translate a initial concept into a deliverable MVP that worked in a live event environment.
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Needed to scale the opportunity for long term use for the Youth Engagement team, requiring long term strategic vision
MY ROLE
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Led design discovery to understand the youth engagement gap, designing and running mixed-method research
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Established team ways of working and used the Double Diamond to structure divergent exploration and convergent decision-making
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Reframed the problem into a clear product challenge, translating research into insight themes
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Designed and ran Safe-to-Fail experiments to validate assumptions quickly
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Defined MVP concepts and feature priorities
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Designed the U-Speak solution end-to-end, combining a digital platform and physical facilitation
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Produced the core artefacts to secure buy-in and delivery
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Supported real-world launch and adoption, delivering the MVP used at the 2022 Better World Youth Summit to facilitate conversations with 100+ students
Discover
Human-centred design research
We explored the problem space using structured design-thinking methods to understand why young people feel unheard and what they truly value. We set up an Agile Team Charter and followed the Double Diamond to guide divergent and convergent progression. Through qualitative interviews, quantitative surveys and expert input, which was supported by Rich Picture mapping, 5 Whys and Empathy Mapping, we unpacked core insights and built a deep, evidence-based understanding of the youth engagement challenge.
Problem mapping
Empathy mapping and gap analysis
Agile team charter and rich picture mapping
Define
Establishing the opportunity space
With discovery complete, we moved into convergent problem-reframing, where we synthesised our primary and secondary research into core insights that informed a refined problem statement. We articulated a clear design challenge: “In the context of a lack of youth consideration in decision-making, how might we create a platform that collects real-time views to empower active participation and engagement for Australia’s youth?” Using this reframed problem and our insight themes, we identified gamification and incentivisation as a key opportunity space for our target intervention.
Quantitative research excerpt
Qualitative research excerpt
Research insights
Identified themes
Re-framed problem statement
Develop
Designing an aspirational concept
With our opportunity area defined, we moved into divergent ideation, running creative sessions with UNICEF stakeholders and BCII students, and conducting Safe-to-Fail experiments to test key assumptions. These experiments included social-media sharing tests, gamification trials using the 2048 app, anonymity validation, “guess-who” style activities with students, and incentives linked to the UN Sustainable Development Goals. We then distilled the strongest themes into MVP concepts, identifying essential features to attract young users and assessing risks tied to each idea.
Safe to fail experiments
MVP ideation
Concept development
Deliver
Delivering an MVP and launching U-Speak
We identified that young people feel most comfortable sharing their views through conversation, which led us to design U-Speak: a digital platform and physical tool enabling UNICEF to understand what young people want and need from our policy makers. Our aspirational concept took the form of a gamified mobile experience that captured opinions through interactive activities. After presenting the concept to UNICEF’s CEO, we were hired in a contract role to deliver an MVP centred on SDG-themed “convo cards” that facilitated guided discussions in schools and communities, with insights logged on the U-Speak website to inform UNICEF’s formal reports to government. The initiative launched at the 2022 Better World Youth Summit, where U-Speak enabled impactful conversations with 100+ students across Sydney.
Target state concept pitch
Presenting to UNICEF Australia team and CEO
U-Speak at UNICEF Better World Youth Summit (Taronga Zoo)
Impact
Giving young people
a seat at the table
Since the MVP launch at the Better World Youth Summit, UNICEF’s Child and Youth Engagement team has continued using the U-Speak conversation cards to capture meaningful data that informs government proposals and submissions. The long-term vision is to evolve U-Speak into a mobile app where SDG-specific convo-card decks and real-time submission features live in one platform. We aim for U-Speak to scale into the education system as an accessible entry point for young Australians to learn about civic participation and advocate for inclusive, progressive policy.
