06 — 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
Attendance Tracking Tool MVP
Sojourner Brother is a Singapore social enterprise that helps employers hire, manage, and care for migrant workers through accessible technology — reducing unfair practices and eliminating agent fees. The client, Joshua, 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 — conducting interviews with both employers and migrant workers separately, then bringing both groups into a single co-evaluation session 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?" This reframe governed every subsequent design decision.
Defined three design principles — mutuality, transparency, and 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 — all with a shared design language to reinforce the trust the product was trying to build.
Made the scope call to cut the full Work Manager in favour of an Attendance Tracking Tool after usability testing revealed it was the one feature both employers and workers trusted enough to adopt first.
Ran the project end-to-end as UX Lead in a 3-week General Assembly capstone sprint — client briefing, research, design, prototype, and usability testing.
Discover
Conducted interviews with both employers and migrant workers to map the trust gap. Found that both sides wanted accountability — but defined it differently. Employers wanted visibility. Workers wanted dignity. The two were not in conflict — but no existing tool had been designed to serve both at once.
Define
Reframed the problem: not "how do we track workers" but "how do we create a record both parties choose to trust?" Defined three design principles — mutuality, transparency, and low friction — that governed every subsequent decision.
Develop
Prototyped four attendance-tracking concepts ranging from biometric to QR-based. Tested with both employer and worker participants in a single round of co-evaluation — the only way to surface conflicting mental models in real time 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: usability testing showed the attendance problem was the one both parties trusted enough to start with. Shipped the MVP and documented the roadmap for Earned Wage Access and geo-tagging in Phase 2.
OUTCOME
The Attendance Tracking Tool gave migrant 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 3 weeks. Earned Wage Access and geo-tagging features were scoped and documented for Phase 2, with employer interest confirmed during usability testing.
SCOPE DELIVERED
1 mobile interface for migrant workers — attendance sign-in and earned wage access
1 mobile interface for employers — attendance approval and finance management
1 web interface for employers — workforce overview and request management