04 — SOJOURNER BROTHER · SINGAPORE · APRIL 2022 · 3-WEEK MVP
Designing trust between employers and the workers they hold power over
“How do we incentivise employers and workers to adopt a digital solution amidst conflicting interests?”
Central design question — Joshua, Sojourner Brother founder
Role
UX Lead · Generalist UI/UX Designer
Context
General Assembly UX Immersive Capstone
Timeline
3 weeks · Apr 8–29 2022
Output
Trust MVP across 3 interfaces
Sojourner Brother is a Singapore social enterprise helping employers hire, manage, and care for migrant workers through accessible technology — reducing unfair practices and agent fees. The client wanted a digital tool that could foster genuine trust between employers and the workers whose livelihoods depended on them. The challenge was designing something both sides would voluntarily use.
WHAT I DID
Led all UX research — interviewing 4 employers and 5 migrant workers separately, then bringing both groups into co-evaluation to surface conflicting mental models in real time.
Reframed the central design problem: not "how do we track workers" but "how do we create a record both parties choose to trust?" — the reframe that governed every subsequent decision.
Defined three design principles — mutuality, transparency, low friction — and applied them explicitly at every decision point, not as retrospective labels.
Designed user flows and wireframes for three distinct interfaces — a migrant-worker mobile app, an employer mobile app, and an employer web dashboard — on a shared design language to reinforce the trust the product was built to create.
Made the scope call to cut the full Work Manager down to an Attendance Tracking Tool after usability testing showed it was the one feature both sides trusted enough to adopt first.
Ran it end-to-end as UX Lead in a 3-week General Assembly capstone — client brief, research, design, prototype, and two rounds of usability testing.
RESEARCH — DUAL USERS, CONFLICTING INTERESTS
I interviewed both sides separately, then built personas for each. The same situation read completely differently depending on who you asked — so the design had to hold two truths at once.
THE PROCESS
Discover
Interviewed employers and migrant workers to map the trust gap. Both sides wanted accountability — but defined it differently. Employers wanted visibility; workers wanted dignity. Not in conflict, but no existing tool had been designed to serve both at once.
Define
Reframed the problem from "track workers" to "create a record both parties choose to trust." Defined three principles — mutuality, transparency, low friction — and synthesised six research themes spanning wage access, employment transparency, and administrative burden.
Develop
Explored solutions in design-studio sessions; prototyped attendance and wage-access concepts. Tested with both employer and worker participants in single co-evaluation rounds — the only way to surface conflicting mental models and see which design minimised friction for both sides simultaneously.
Deliver
Scoped from a full Work Manager to an Attendance Tracking Tool — the scope cut itself once testing showed attendance was the one thing both parties trusted enough to start with. Shipped the MVP across three interfaces; roadmapped Earned Wage Access and geo-tagging for Phase 2.
WHAT I DESIGNED — THREE FEATURES
Three interfaces on one shared design language — a worker mobile app, an employer mobile app, and an employer web dashboard — anchored by three features. Attendance became the MVP beachhead; EWA and SSOT were designed and tested, then roadmapped.
SSOT login integration
A single sign-on across Sojourner Brother and external apps (FWOMCare, SG Work Pass) — cutting login friction for workers already juggling multiple government and employer apps.
Earned Wage Access (EWA)
Lets workers request early access to wages they’ve already earned, with employer approval. After testing, monthly withdrawal limits and a stepper-progress flow were added — the stepper to build confidence, the limits to support financial responsibility.
Attendance tracking
Mobile + web sign-in / sign-out designed for real, less-than-ideal worksite conditions. Reduces admin overhead and builds a shared, verifiable record. "Check in" was renamed "sign in" after testing showed it read more clearly to workers.
OUTCOME
The Attendance Tracking Tool gave workers a verifiable record of their hours and gave employers a low-friction compliance tool. More importantly, it gave both parties a shared artefact — something neither side had to take on faith. The MVP was delivered in three weeks; Earned Wage Access and geo-tagging were scoped and documented for Phase 2, with employer interest confirmed during testing.
worker mobile · employer mobile · employer web — one shared design language across all three
4 employers + 5 migrant workers across research and two usability-testing rounds
brief to tested MVP (8–29 Apr 2022), with EWA + geo-tagging roadmapped for Phase 2