Designing Services for Humanitarian Challenges with Dr. Alan Frank

In August 2014 the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria, or ISIS, attacked the Sinjar district of Iraq. This district has historically been the home ground of Yezidi. The attack marked the beginning of a genocidal campaign of brutal violence directed against the Yezidi, with the aim to eliminate them and their culture. Many Yezidis fled their homes to the safety of refugee camps from which they applied for refuge in many different countries. Alan Frank, applied his knowledge of Human-Centred Design in the execution of two different projects to support the Yezidis in their new homes.

• Alan addressed, as a volunteer with Project Abraham (Project Abraham - Home), some of the financial and literacy challenges faced by the Yezidis relocated to Canada. The project explored the use of Bliss Board Technology to support daily activities such as food shopping.
• As the Senior Analyst to the Yazidi Legal Network (Yazidi Legal Network), Alan worked with the Senior Legal Advisor to design a knowledge base and analysis procedures to support the multiple goals of the Yazidi Legal Network.

Join us for an exploration of non-traditional applications of Human-Centred Design. Both projects are “works in progress” and there will be plenty of time for questions and any ideas would be appreciated.

Please note: The War Crimes committed by ISIS against the Yezidis are extremely violent. While this talk will not focus on the specifics of these events, the knowledge base includes issues such as rape and kidnapping. We routinely mention this because the material can trigger Secondary Post Traumatic Syndrome in vulnerable individuals.

Dr. Alan Frank
https://www.linkedin.com/in/alanfrank

Alan Frank is a senior professional (semi-retired) with 40 years of experience identifying and creating solutions in the fields of business and product strategy and service design. He brings a unique combination of cognitive science, computer science and business experience to his project’s challenges. His experience spans the private as well as government sectors, consumer and industrial products and systems, as well as Internet/Intranet-based solutions.

Mr. Frank has worked with executives, business planners, IT Professionals to create a common understanding of the value of the business services to the total cost of delivering services to customers or clients. He has organized and facilitated multi-department working groups to create service strategies, including business processes for a number of public and private sector organizations. He has extensive experience with the analysis, design, and development of processes to improve the quality, performance, and predictability of business services. He has developed and executed testing protocols to ensure that business systems and their users are meeting the target levels of performance.

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