At Brazilian Hub, we believe that being a Brazilian expat shouldn't mean feeling isolated or disconnected from your culture and community. Our social media platform connects Brazilians living abroad with a vibrant and supportive network of peers, providing a sense of family no matter where in the world you may be.

The app offers a range of cutting-edge features to help Brazilians starting a new life outside of their home country. They can easily search for job opportunities, showcase their skills and services, discover Brazilian events happening in their region and even connect with other Brazilian entrepreneurs to collaborate on new business ventures. Our platform also enables businesses to advertise to a highly targeted audience, helping them to reach a larger customer base and grow their brand.

The problem

Brazilian expats feeling disconnected from their home country and culture

Many expats feel disconnected from their home country and culture, and struggle to find opportunities to connect with other Brazilians in their new communities.

Additionally, they may encounter language barriers, difficulties in finding employment or business opportunities, feeling isolated and unsupported in their new environments.

To gain further insights into the struggles Brazilian face while living abroad, I conducted a survey (some of them online and some in person) among 25 of my fellow Brazilian expat friends, despite already having lived abroad for 6 years myself.

Below are some of my findings:

With the results of this survey in hand, I was also able to create the following persona:

The solution

Develop an app that connects Brazilian immigrants and creates a sense of community abroad

After conducting surveys and gathering feedback from Brazilian expats living abroad, I learned that one of the biggest problems they face is feeling disconnected from their home country and culture. Expats often struggle to find job opportunities that match their skills and qualifications, and have a difficult time staying connected to their culture and community.

So how could this be conveyed in my own app?

To address these problems, I developed Brazilian Hub – a social media platform specifically designed for Brazilian expats. We wanted to create a space where expats could connect with other Brazilians living in the same region as them, share information, and find support. We designed Brazilian Hub with several key features:

• The Community Feed creates a sense of belonging for Brazilian expats living abroad by allowing them to connect and interact with fellow Brazilians in the same region, share their experiences, and offer support and advice.

• Our Job Board not only connect Brazilian expats with job opportunities that match their skills and qualifications, but also provides resources and tips on navigating the job market in their new country.

• The Marketplace allows users to advertise rooms for rent, items for sale or donation, vehicles and much more, helping new expats to start their lives abroad and making it easier to exchange cultural items that are hard to find in other countries, such as Brazilian foods and traditional clothing.

• In our Events section, our users can discover Brazilian cultural events happening in their region, helping them to stay connected to their culture and participate in Brazilian traditions and festivals, even while living abroad.

• Our Companies Guide not only helps users advertise their services or hire Brazilian professionals but also provides a directory of Brazilian-owned businesses in their area, allowing users to support their fellow Brazilians and promote Brazilian entrepreneurship abroad.

Success would be measured by the number of downloads of the app, an increase in the number of users, engagement in the community feed, and positive sentiment towards Brazilian Hub as a valuable tool for Brazilian expats living abroad.

User flows

To ensure the optimal user experience, I designed the following user flows that strike a balance between ease of use and valuable user input.

The Visual Design

I called the app Brazilian Hub, since it's an app that's supposed to be a hub to connect Brazilians living abroad and established some bright brand colors that represents Brazil. While applying the visual design, I also edited the layout of some frames.

Takeaways

One of the greatest takeaways from this project was utilizing user search and competitive analysis to create a product that would differentiate itself from the market. Product design is all about creating solutions for problems, not just creating pretty apps. Each element on an app must serve a purpose, and its purpose must be clear to the users.

I learned a ton about interaction design, iterating until the layouts and flows made sense, and had a blast trying to make this app responsive with auto layout and pixel perfect for developer handoff.