{"id":32470,"date":"2017-07-12T11:38:01","date_gmt":"2017-07-12T18:38:01","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blog.xamarin.com\/?p=32470"},"modified":"2017-07-12T11:38:01","modified_gmt":"2017-07-12T18:38:01","slug":"urban-refuges-refugee-aid-mobile-apps-turn-research-action","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/devblogs.microsoft.com\/xamarin\/urban-refuges-refugee-aid-mobile-apps-turn-research-action\/","title":{"rendered":"Urban Refuge\u2019s Refugee Aid Mobile Apps Turn Research into Action"},"content":{"rendered":"

\t\t\t\tStarted by a group of\u00a0Boston University\u00a0students\u00a02015,\u00a0Urban Refuge<\/em>\u00a0uses technology to improve\u00a0both\u00a0urban refugees’ experience and humanitarian organizations’ ability to coordinate\u00a0resources,\u00a0making aid available via a\u00a0centralized, easy-to-access\u00a0database.\u00a0Urban\u00a0Refuge\u2019s research found that simply making options available on a map on refugees’ personal devices dramatically increased the odds refugees would find and accept vital\u00a0assistance.<\/p>\n

Together with Microsoft Technical Evangelists,\u00a0the Urban Refuge<\/em> team\u00a0translated their findings into\u00a0Android and iOS apps optimized for refugees’ unique needs,\u00a0from localization and graphic-centric UI to geo-tagging and social login.\u00a0Today, we\u2019ve invited\u00a0Urban Refuge\u00a0and their Microsoft Technical Evangelist partners, Gavin Bauman and James\u00a0Sturtevant,\u00a0to share how\u00a0Microsoft technology, including Visual Studio\u00a0Tools for Xamarin,\u00a0Azure,\u00a0HockeyApp, and Visual Studio Team Services, freed the team to focus on user experience,\u00a0easily\u00a0respond\u00a0to user feedback, and prepare to scale to more\u00a0communities.<\/p>\n

Tell us a little bit about Urban Refuge\u2019s mission and how you became involved.<\/h3>\n

[Urban Refuge (UR) Team]<\/b>:\u00a0Urban Refuge\u00a0was born out\u00a0of\u00a0a class taught by Professor Lori\u00a0at\u00a0Boston University\u2019s Pardee School of Global Studies.\u00a0We\u00a0were motivated to use our knowledge about the Syrian refugee crisis to create something\u00a0practical to help refugees.\u00a0When we\u00a0discovered\u00a0that,\u00a0despite greater aid resources in cities, refugees experience lower access to aid in urban settings than in camp\u00a0settings,\u00a0we saw a problem that technology could solve.<\/p>\n

Historically, organizations\u00a0use expensive and time-intensive surveys to assess and allocate humanitarian aid, without sharing information across NGOs.\u00a0As students, we didn\u2019t want to write policy papers that would never get read,\u00a0we wanted to use technology to design and build a digital infrastructure that could serve refugees and<\/i>\u00a0act as a conduit that connects\u00a0local municipalities and NGOs.<\/p>\n

No one in our class was a developer, but\u00a0we quickly\u00a0started learning\u00a0about tools that could help us\u00a0build our app.<\/p>\n

[Gavin Bauman (GB)]:<\/b>\u00a0As\u00a0Microsoft Technical Evangelists, our job is to help other developers deliver industry leading-applications and services.\u00a0James has been developing software professionally for the last decade or so, and I got my start\u00a0more recently\u00a0(beginning in 2014,\u00a0after\u00a0my\u00a0university\u00a0computer science classes and\u00a0spending my spare time\u00a0developing Android apps\u00a0for fun).\n\nUrban Refuge<\/em>\u2019s mission clearly aligns with Microsoft\u2019s\u00a0mission, \u201cto empower every person and every organization on the planet to achieve more.\u201d\u00a0We\u2019re in a unique position; we\u2019re able\u00a0to work with organizations\u00a0to\u00a0turn their visions\u00a0into a\u00a0reality\u00a0and\u00a0reach\u00a0so many people in the process.<\/p>\n

\"Urban<\/p>\n

Tell us about\u00a0the\u00a0app and\u00a0what it allows users to accomplish.<\/h3>\n

[UR]<\/b>:\u00a0Urban refugees currently make up 78% of the 655,000 registered Syrian refugees in Jordan, particularly Amman. Research suggests that the majority of\u00a0refugees\u00a0have mobile devices,\u00a0but\u00a0they\u00a0discover available\u00a0assistance primarily\u00a0via\u00a0word of mouth.<\/p>\n

We used this research to\u00a0create an accessible,\u00a0easy-to-use digital\u00a0mobile\u00a0platform\u00a0that maps aid locations—places like charities, medical clinics, schools, and community organizations—for displaced persons\u00a0and\u00a0enhances the digital architecture of cities.<\/p>\n

We designed\u00a0our app\u00a0to help as many people\u00a0as possible. For example, we use\u00a0more icons than\u00a0text to make sure we\u2019re not excluding anyone who\u2019s\u00a0illiterate\u00a0and<\/i> to avoid creating\u00a0more translation\u00a0work\u00a0for us.\u00a0Users\u00a0click on an intuitive icon and\u00a0immediately\u00a0see\u00a0all\u00a0nearby\u00a0services\u00a0across categories\u00a0(health, education, cash assistance, work, housing,\u00a0etc.).\u00a0Also,\u00a0since\u00a0streets aren\u2019t very well marked in online maps for Amman,\u00a0we\u2019re geo-coding locations to\u00a0provide\u00a0directions to\u00a0exact addresses.<\/p>\n

[GB]<\/b>: Refugees\u00a0use\u00a0Urban Refuge (Daleel\u00a0Amman\u00a0in Arabic)\u00a0to\u00a0reliably\u00a0locate and navigate\u00a0to\u00a0aid\u00a0facilities,\u00a0without\u00a0any\u00a0stigmas\u00a0associated with being a refugee.\u00a0They simply\u00a0open the app on their phones,\u00a0choose their resource type, and\u00a0Google Maps acts as the visual mapping element to show what\u2019s nearby.\u00a0We\u2019ve also\u00a0adhered\u00a0to localization strategies,\u00a0so\u00a0the\u00a0app reads well in Arabic\u00a0and English.<\/p>\n

Currently, we pull from a database of over 160\u00a0aid\u00a0organizations and,\u00a0going forward,\u00a0the Urban Refuge team\u00a0can just\u00a0enter\u00a0new organization or resource details\u00a0in a\u00a0web-based\u00a0management\u00a0portal, making it easy to add aid options and expand to\u00a0more\u00a0global refugee communities.<\/p>\n

Why did you choose\u00a0Visual Studio Tools for\u00a0Xamarin?\u00a0<\/h3>\n

[GB]<\/b>:\u00a0Urban Refuge\u00a0wanted to\u00a0develop a\u00a0solution\u00a0that didn\u2019t\u00a0require\u00a0maintaining multiple complex codebases\u00a0and was\u00a0available in Arabic and English.\u00a0Xamarin.Forms\u00a0allows us to do both, giving us\u00a0performant,\u00a0native\u00a0UI controls that look like they were made for each operating system\u00a0and that work the first time, every time.<\/p>\n

[James\u00a0Sturtevant (JS)]<\/b>:\u00a0Honestly, I wouldn\u2019t have been able create\u00a0an\u00a0Android\u00a0and iOS application\u00a0without<\/i>\u00a0Xamarin; I would have spent weeks\u00a0simply\u00a0learning about two different platforms, two languages, and two different UI concepts.\u00a0I was productive right away, without having to learn platform-specific languages.<\/p>\n

Describe your development process.<\/h3>\n

\"Urban[JS]<\/b>:\u00a0When I met the Urban Refuge team,\u00a0they\u2019d already done the majority of the design\u00a0work; I\u00a0helped flesh out technical details and\u00a0then\u00a0Gavin and I\u00a0started\u00a0working on the implementation.<\/p>\n

After two and half weeks, we had a working end-to-end solution, including an ASP.NET Core\u00a0backend to\u00a0store and\u00a0load\u00a0aid, location, and refugee\u00a0data.\u00a0Azure was our first\u00a0choice, mostly due to\u00a0its scale and developer-friendly\u00a0tooling.\u00a0We used\u00a0Azure App Service and Azure B2C for\u00a0authentication\u00a0to allow the\u00a0Urban Refuge team\u00a0to continue iterating in the future, confident that security and scale won\u2019t be a problem.<\/p>\n

Visual Studio Tools for Xamarin\u00a0provided\u00a0an\u00a0easy-to-use, but flexible,\u00a0abstraction with dependency injection.\u00a0We share the majority of the UI and business logic\u00a0across Android and iOS and\u00a0for some\u00a0components,\u00a0like our\u00a0Hockey App integration\u00a0or localization implementation, we could\u00a0write\u00a0platform-specific code\u00a0and\u00a0still\u00a0access it from\u00a0our shared\u00a0Xamarin.Forms\u00a0code.<\/p>\n

We\u00a0set up our builds in Visual Studio Team Services.\u00a0After the first week, we\u00a0were\u00a0deploying beta\u00a0versions\u00a0to the Urban Refuge team\u00a0every few days.\u00a0This was a great experience for them\u00a0and for us as developers. Seeing the\u00a0app as it was being developed\u00a0gave\u00a0Urban Refuge\u00a0confidence\u00a0that we were on the right track and\u00a0creating the\u00a0best\u00a0app\u00a0for their mission.\u00a0As\u00a0the UR team used\u00a0the app,\u00a0we used\u00a0HockeyApp\u2019s\u00a0detailed\u00a0reporting\u00a0and stack traces\u00a0to\u00a0find\u00a0and fix\u00a0bugs that would\u2019ve\u00a0been very difficult to replicate and track down.<\/p>\n

We moved quickly, since we\u00a0were programming in C# and using\u00a0familiar patterns,\u00a0and\u00a0Xamarin\u00a0lowered the transition overhead between\u00a0the backend and front end,\u00a0making our iteration cycles extremely fast.<\/p>\n

\"Urban<\/p>\n

How are you testing your apps?<\/h3>\n

[UR]<\/b>:\u00a0Mobile quality is extremely important\u00a0to us.\u00a0It would be disastrous if we launched with a buggy\u00a0app\u00a0that\u00a0crashed.\u00a0Industry\u00a0research shows that users have a low tolerance for apps that fail,\u00a0so\u00a0we\u2019re\u00a0investing\u00a0time\u00a0now<\/i>\u00a0to ensure we have the highest quality product possible.\u00a0We\u2019re\u00a0about to\u00a0start\u00a0testing with a\u00a0team of Syrian and Jordanian students,\u00a0who are\u00a0based\u00a0in Jordan\u00a0and working with Microsoft technical\u00a0evangelists\u00a0from the\u00a0Amman office.\u00a0They\u2019ll help us run one (or more) beta rounds as we prepare\u00a0for\u00a0the full launch.<\/p>\n

This beta\u00a0testing phase\u00a0is critical for\u00a0making sure our app works well in a variety of settings. For example, we want\u00a0our maps to load\u00a0once and be\u00a0available\u00a0offline,\u00a0allowing our\u00a0users\u00a0to\u00a0find\u00a0help and\u00a0get\u00a0directions, even when\u00a0they don\u2019t have\u00a0internet\u00a0access.\u00a0We\u2019ll use our test phase\u00a0data to determine\u00a0what\u00a0changes\u00a0we need to make\u00a0our roll-out.<\/p>\n

Why did you select\u00a0HockeyApp? What were you trying to accomplish?<\/h3>\n

[GB]<\/b>:\u00a0Knowing how users actually\u00a0use\u00a0the application will\u00a0help\u00a0the\u00a0Urban Refuge team\u00a0ensure\u00a0they\u2019re surfacing enough available\u00a0assistance\u00a0opportunities,\u00a0so\u00a0we\u2019ve instrumented the apps with\u00a0HockeyApp. We\u2019re\u00a0anonymously collecting data every time a user selects a filter\u00a0(e.g. aid of a given type),\u00a0and this detailed telemetry will allow the small team to prioritize and focus\u00a0their\u00a0resources on what\u2019s most important.<\/p>\n

Since the Urban\u00a0Refuge team\u00a0is distributed, including\u00a0its\u00a0Amman\u00a0beta testers,\u00a0we\u2019re also using\u00a0HockeyApp\u00a0to automatically deploy new builds to test groups.<\/p>\n

How are you incorporating\u00a0beta\u00a0feedback into\u00a0your production release?<\/h3>\n

[UR]<\/b>:\u00a0We have a multi-phase plan for\u00a0gathering and incorporating user\u00a0feedback. We started in\u00a0March 2017, when\u00a0we asked\u00a0potential users (refugees, Jordanians, and NGOs)\u00a0to provide input on our\u00a0icon design and other\u00a0app\u00a0features.\u00a0We made changes and\u00a0we\u2019re currently in the second\u00a0phase where\u00a0Syrian and Jordanian student teams\u00a0in Amman will continue to\u00a0provide feedback throughout the beta testing period.\u00a0For our production release, we\u2019re building a\u00a0reporting mechanism into the app,\u00a0which will allow\u00a0users to\u00a0provide feedback\u00a0directly\u00a0to our\u00a0developers\u00a0and helping us improve\u00a0(for example,\u00a0flagging a resource\u00a0with\u00a0incomplete or inaccurate information).<\/p>\n

What\u2019s your team planning to build next?<\/h3>\n

[UR]<\/b>:\u00a0After we launch in\u00a0Amman and\u00a0have a clear idea of\u00a0refugees\u2019\u00a0response,\u00a0we plan\u00a0to\u00a0expand\u00a0to\u00a0other cities in Jordan.\u00a0Eventually, we\u2019ll grow\u00a0to other\u00a0regions\u00a0in the Middle East, and\u00a0we\u2019d like\u00a0to create a\u00a0similar app\u00a0for Boston residents.<\/p>\n

Our long-term goal is create an \u201cearly warning system\u201d for social resource providers and state agencies. Ideally, the\u00a0usage data\u00a0from our apps will\u00a0help accurately\u00a0predict\u00a0optimal resource allocation\u00a0and identify social epidemics, such as housing instability, joblessness, or lack of available childcare, based on increased demand (or searches) for those aid types.<\/p>\n

What advice do you have for developers who are just starting out or investigating mobile development?\u00a0Any best resources?<\/h3>\n

[GB]<\/b>:\u00a0I was a\u00a0beginner not too long ago,\u00a0and the\u00a0best advice\u00a0I can give is\u00a0to have\u00a0a clear vision of what you want to do. The worst thing a new developer can do is\u00a0code “blind.”\u00a0Start\u00a0your\u00a0development process with a pen and paper\u00a0and\u00a0sketch out what\u00a0your\u00a0solution\u00a0will\u00a0look\u00a0like\u00a0before<\/i> you start\u00a0building\u00a0anything.<\/p>\n

This is rare for me to say, but the\u00a0Xamarin\u00a0documentation is nothing short of awesome. There\u2019s plenty of recipes to get you up and running quickly with things you haven\u2019t touched yet, and\u00a0Xamarin University classes\u00a0helped round out my mobile development skills.\u00a0We\u00a0also took advantage of\u00a0some great Continuous Integration blog posts for Android and iOS to implement\u00a0our automated build pipeline.<\/p>\n

Finally,\u00a0it\u00a0never hurts to have a mentor that can help you dig your way out of a hole!<\/p>\n

Watch Urban Refuge’s story here<\/a> to learn more.\n \n \nVisit\u202fxamarin.com\/download<\/i><\/a>\u202fto get started and explore\u202fxamarin.com\/customers<\/i><\/a>\u202fto get inspired.<\/i>\t\t<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Started by a group of\u00a0Boston University\u00a0students\u00a02015,\u00a0Urban Refuge\u00a0uses technology to improve\u00a0both\u00a0urban refugees’ experience and humanitarian organizations’ ability to coordinate\u00a0resources,\u00a0making aid available via a\u00a0centralized, easy-to-access\u00a0database.\u00a0Urban\u00a0Refuge\u2019s research found that simply making options available on a map on refugees’ personal devices dramatically increased the odds refugees would find and accept vital\u00a0assistance. Together with Microsoft Technical Evangelists,\u00a0the Urban Refuge team\u00a0translated […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":564,"featured_media":32474,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[5,9,6,4,16],"class_list":["post-32470","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-developers","tag-android","tag-case-studies","tag-ios","tag-xamarin-platform","tag-xamarin-forms"],"acf":[],"blog_post_summary":"

Started by a group of\u00a0Boston University\u00a0students\u00a02015,\u00a0Urban Refuge\u00a0uses technology to improve\u00a0both\u00a0urban refugees’ experience and humanitarian organizations’ ability to coordinate\u00a0resources,\u00a0making aid available via a\u00a0centralized, easy-to-access\u00a0database.\u00a0Urban\u00a0Refuge\u2019s research found that simply making options available on a map on refugees’ personal devices dramatically increased the odds refugees would find and accept vital\u00a0assistance. Together with Microsoft Technical Evangelists,\u00a0the Urban Refuge team\u00a0translated […]<\/p>\n","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/devblogs.microsoft.com\/xamarin\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/32470","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/devblogs.microsoft.com\/xamarin\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/devblogs.microsoft.com\/xamarin\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/devblogs.microsoft.com\/xamarin\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/564"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/devblogs.microsoft.com\/xamarin\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=32470"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/devblogs.microsoft.com\/xamarin\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/32470\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/devblogs.microsoft.com\/xamarin\/wp-json\/"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/devblogs.microsoft.com\/xamarin\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=32470"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/devblogs.microsoft.com\/xamarin\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=32470"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/devblogs.microsoft.com\/xamarin\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=32470"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}