Ushahidi is incorporating user feedback as we plan for our next stages of the software development. Gabriel White of Small Surfaces has prepared these User Personas and Scenarios

1. Personas & Scenarios
Ushahidi Design Framework Project
Created by Small Surfaces for Ushahidi
14 June 2012

2. Guillermo // News Gatherer
"I work for a large news organisation, and we want to find new ways to source and tell stories.
Crowdsourcing helps us get a better understanding of big events as they unfold. Publishing reports
from citizens also helps us differentiate ourselves competitively."
machinator (flickr.com)
Overview Satisfiers Usage scenarios
Guillermo's job is focused on utilising Getting a deployment up and running Configure deployment to have the right Technical literacy
social media for his news organisation. He quickly. categories, verification schema, visual
uses social media to gather information presentation. Customisation needs
about emerging events. Making sure the deployment is visually
compelling and professional. Set up users with different editing
His goal is both help journalists source permissions, and permissions to see
new and different stories, and also help Making it easy for citizens to submit different levels of information.
connect the outlet better with its reports of all different media types. Deployment team 20-30
audience. Define report structure and permissions. Reporters 500-1000
Quick and accurate report verification.
He uses Ushahidi on occasions when Coordinate with verification and
there is a big event, such as civil unrest or Making it easy for journalists to uncover geolocation volunteer team managers to
a natural disaster. interesting and useful content. make sure the flow of reports are being
processed. Report volume 100 per day
With this focus, he is prepared to invest
time in getting to know Ushahidi. While Share sample outputs with management Deployment duration 2 months
he'd prefer everything to work perfectly Frustraters and journalists to help them start using
right out of the box, he knows that it's Quality of reports is often low; poor the platform.
important to customise things so it's descriptions or highly opinionated.
more effective. Periodically review the reports and
Journalists are often not interested in outputs to make sure that everything is
He's not a technical person, and so relies using Ushahidi to help source their running correctly.
on the IT people at his office a lot to get stories; they sometimes don't see the
the software up and running as he needs value.
it. They can be slow sometimes, so he'd
rather not depend on them.

3. Rachel // Election Monitor
"There's an election coming soon, and our small NGO wants to create a site that allows people to
easily share stories about problems in the electoral process. We want to make fraud and corruption
more visible to the public, government officials, news media and the outside world."
advocacy_project (flickr.com)
Overview Satisfiers Usage
Rachel works for a small NGO that Getting Ushahidi up and running with Install Ushahidi, connect to an SMS Technical literacy
focuses on helping improve electoral minimum fuss. gateway and allow call-in voice reports.
processes in Central Africa. Customisation needs
Being confident that the data that is Review reports once each day (and
Rachel's got some basic skills when it being received in the system is secure transcribe calls), and then follow up by
comes to doing things on the internet and private, and that only the correct phone with both the reporter and the
(she set up her organisation's web site on information is being published. local authorities.
Google Sites), but doesn't feel confident Deployment team 2-3
when it comes to doing more Being able to get her team up and Sanitise and publish verified reports, so Reporters 50-100
complicated things. running quickly to review the incoming no personal information is disclosed.
report stream.
The NGO mostly focuses on advocacy, Ensure that reports are correctly
and this year they have decided to create Being able to easily see the reports on a associated with a town & district.
a site that allows citizens to report map grouped in different ways. Report volume 10 per day
malfeasance in the run up to (and on the Group reports that all relate to the same
day of ) local government elections. To be able to easily see how reporting incident, and add any follow-up Deployment duration 8 months
volumes change over time. information (such as news reports) to the
Rachel has connected with community incident.
groups in 5 districts they are piloting with Being able to use the data for analysis
this year to help get the word out that and reporting. Identify reports that should be
citizens can submit reports by SMS or investigated further.
calling a phone number.
Frustraters Review and moderate comments.
She hopes that Ushahidi can allow her to
Getting users to submit quality reports.
easily gather reports through the election Review the work of other people to
cycle and then organise and publish ensure that everything is operating
Sometimes difficult to understand the
them in a way that will help keep the properly.
map.
broader community informed about the
process. Analyse data every week to understand
trends and to publish blog summary.

4. Ahmed // Facility Tracker
"My organisation is helping the regional government create a system that maps the number of
doctors and beds available at hospitals. We want to use this information to help make the public more
aware of the improving availability of medical care in the region."
arabspring (flickr.com)
Overview Satisfiers Usage
Ahmed is a project manager who works To be able to customise the presentation Install Ushahidi on department server. Technical literacy
for the Ministry of Health in a country in of the map so that public servants and
the Middle East. the public can easily understand what is Mark each of the hospitals on the map, Customisation needs
happening. and add them as 'locations'.
The ministry recently decided that it
wants to make it easier for citizens to Being able to easily visualise the status of Configure report structure / data model,
understand the improvements the individual hospitals on a map in a way and define aggregate analysis structure.
government is making to hospitals that's easily understandable. Deployment team 3-4
throughout the country. Upload initial baseline data about Reporters 60-90
To be able to show trends over time for all hospital statistics.
The team working on the project hospitals in the region.
identified Ushahidi as a good solution: it Create user accounts for individuals at
would allow them to easily get updates To make it as easy as possible for staff in each of the hospitals.
about the number of doctors and individual hospitals to provide updates of Report volume 60-90 per week
available beds directly from the hospitals their data. Review reports on a weekly basis to check
and display the data in a visually whether all the hospitals have provided Deployment duration 4 years
interesting way to the region's residents. Easily export data and visualisations for updates and that the provided data is
use in presentations and reports. correct.
Ahmed studied computer science as an
undergraduate, and is responsible for Being able to easily upgrade Ushahidi to Work with Ministry of Health IT staff to
getting Ushahidi up and running, the latest version. have the map published on the
customising it so that it's easy for departmental web site.
hospitals to update their current situation
every week, and ensuring that the system Frustraters Review problematic reports and follow
can show the current status of hospitals up with hospital staff.
Having to chase people down for the
as well as changes to the facilities over
latest data.
time.
Incorrect data in reports.

5. Davi // Concerned Citizen
"My son was assaulted by the police a couple of months ago, and was in hospital for two days. I found
out about a site that lets you report police violence like this; I reported my son's case, and I now check
the site every couple of weeks to understand what is happening in my city."
tbsmith (flickr.com)
Overview Satisfiers Usage
Davi lives in South East Asia, and owns a Being able to quickly understand the Understanding purpose of web site. Technical literacy
store that sells children's clothes. Over purpose of a map.
the last 12 months she'd heard more Reviewing map to understand patterns of Motivation
about incidents of police violence from To understand the meaning of data that's violence in different parts of the country,
friends, but wasn't sure what to believe. represented on the map, and understand and the reasons for the different reports.
how the reports relate to related events in
Two months ago, though, her son was the city. Understanding what violent incidents
assaulted as he was walking near a group have been happening in her city. Usage frequency 2 times per month
of protestors. To have confidence in the data that's Submission volume 1-2 times total
being shown on the map. Submitting a report of violence with
Davi was furious about what had confidence that her information will be
happened, and found out about a web To know that her information will be kept secure.
site that lets you report incidents of private.
violence, and so went to check it out. Sharing reports she sees with her friends.
To feel confident of what information to
She wanted to make sure that the site provide when submitting a report.
was safe (she didn't want more trouble
from the police), and then reported the
incident with her son. A couple of days
later someone called her to check on her Frustraters
story. Not sure what happens after a report is
submitted.
She trusts the site, and now checks it
every couple of weeks to find out what's The map can sometimes be hard to
been happening in her city. understand with lots of reports.

6. Francios // Journalist
"My news channel has started using Ushahidi to help get stories from citizens in big events. In the
rush of the new cycle I want to use it to quickly help give me ideas for new stories, and insights for the
stories I'm already working on"
guillaumelemoine (flickr.com)
Overview Satisfiers Usage
Francois has been working as a journalist Being able to easily see what's changing Visit the Ushahidi instance a couple of Technical literacy
for almost 8 years now. He files reports on the map. times each day and identify if there are
both for television and web. He is based any notable changes to the situation. Motivation
in Dakar, Senegal and is responsible for Being easily able to identify clusters of
covering the entire West African region. related reports. Identify interesting stories that are
emerging.
Just a few days ago citizen protests Being able to easily export data and
started to break out in a neighbouring media from the system for use in reports. For interesting items, review what has Usage frequency 2 times per day
country. It hasn't been possible for him to happened to the reports since they were Submission volume None
get close to the unrest because the originally submitted, to establish how
government is not letting journalists in, confident he is in the report.
so he has been doing his best using Frustraters
telephone calls with his contacts to find Lack of detail or context in individual Identify interesting quotes or media
out what is happening. reports can sometimes make them hard assets that could be used in a story that
to understand. was started outside the system.
People from the main office of the news
outlet got Ushahidi up and running so Overwhelmed by the volume of Collect reports that look interesting and
that citizens could post information, uninteresting or useless reports. could be useful later.
images and videos about what's been
going on.
He has been dipping in to the Ushahidi
deployment to help get leads for new
stories and also to help identify media
that he could add to his television
reports.

7. Alamby // Report Verifier
"When there's a big event, I work with a team of people to help verify reports that are coming into an
Ushahidi deployment that's being used to capturing and share information about the event. I need to
be confident that the report is accurate before it's shared with the public."
joming (flickr.com)
Overview Satisfiers Usage
Alamby is a student at the University of Easy to identify what needs her attention. Identifying new reports that have not yet Technical literacy
Washington. She heard about Ushahidi been translated and verified.
from some friends almost a year ago, and Easy to know what steps need to be Motivation
decided to offer her time to help support taken in order to complete the 'Check-out' individual reports for work
the work of people in emergencies. verification of a report. while she translates and verifies the
report.
She works with a distributed team of Easy to coordinate with other people
people who verify and geo-locate reports reviewing reports in the system. Adding translations of reports. Usage frequency 4 hours per day
when a big event occurs. Submission volume 20-40 per day
Sense of accomplishment after Calling reporters to verify the report.
Just recently civil unrest erupted in a completing a few hours work. Noting conversations in the system.
West African country, and she was asked
to help support the work of a news Easy to review work before finalising. Marking the level of confidence in the
organisation that had created an report.
Ushahidi map to cover the unrest. Easy to correct errors after the fact.
Group reports together into events where
She needs to use her French skills to first there are multiple reports about the same
translate the reports into English, and topic.
then follow up with the reporter (by Frustraters
calling them through Skype) to ask Identifying an error in a previously
Poor report quality making it difficult to
questions about the report. Based on this translated report, and returning to re-
follow up on.
she rates the report for veracity. translate the report.
She wants to be able to do her work
easily and quickly, and to be sure that
nobody else is working on the same
reports as she is.

8. Gabriel White, June 2012
gabriel@smallsurfaces.com
www.smallsurfaces.com