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@ ActivistsInsights
2025-03-21 11:00:01Introduction
UX Research is currently being conducted on the needs of activists. There is still much to learn in this area and we are at just the very beginning. These observations and learnings will change over time. Activists are championing freedom all over the world and if we build communication and financial tools for them that solve real problems which they are facing we will enable them to continue to do the valuable work they are doing.
We want to understand their needs, their problems and their fears, so that when we build solutions we ensure that it is fulfilling the primary goals of the person using it.
Fundamentally this is with the ethos of putting the humans at the center of everything we build.
The below is written for you the builders. And for you the activists.
We hope this information empowers you and that it will initiate an open dialogue between activists and builders. Where knowledge is open and transparent to everyone. Where you feel free to ask questions. Where you feel empowered. Where we all continue to collborativley build freedom technology.
Background
The below data was collected by conducting an in person workshop with a group of activists and Nostr developers. During this workshop we used the Jobs to be Done framework to uncover the UX needs of activists. This workshop involved approximately 20 people. 11 of which were activists or individuals who are activists as well as builders.
This write-up covers 3 main areas:
Observations: What have we observed?
a. 5 Areas of communication
What are the 5 main areas in which activists are communicating?
b. Fears
What are the main fears of activists when using a product?
c. Jobs to be done
What are the main jobs that activists expect the product to perform when they are using it.
Learnings: What can we learn based on the observations?
Observations
a. 5 Areas of communication
There are 5 main areas in which activists are communicating. They are communicating with:
1. Co-workers
Daily communication with team members, peers, and fellow activists organizing initiatives.
2. Family
Activists communicate with family members and are concerned about this communication being surveilled.
3. Funders
Communication with sponsors for fundraising. When communicating with funders, activists face challenges with CRM systems that require personal contact information.
4. General Public
They communicate with the broader public for youth education, crisis management and event announcements. They rely heavily on social media platforms (particularly Meta-owned) and these have challenges such as algorithmic limitations, content moderation, and platform reliability.
5. Journalists
They communicate with journalists for political mobilization.
Political mobilization is the process of organizing and motivating people to participate in political activities.
This data is based on 11 entries. Of the 11 entries the image below indicates the split showing the entries with the highest number to the lowest.
b. Fears
The biggest fears that activists have based on the data are the following:
1. State surveillance
Activists are deeply worried about their governments watching and interfering with their work.
- They're concerned that platforms which they currently use will hand over their data to authorities.
- That their accounts might be labeled as "extremist," and that their content could be taken down without warning.
- They live with constant anxiety that their communications are being monitored.
2. Security issues
There's a deep distrust of mainstream communication platforms.
- They worry that their personal information isn't truly private.
- They dislike using phone numbers to sign up (which can expose their identity).
- Feel frustrated that when security problems happen as the platforms rarely help or respond.
3. Communication reach
Activists face a frustrating choice: they can either use secure apps that few people use, or popular apps that aren't secure.
- They worry about only reaching people who already agree with them (being in an "echo chamber"), while struggling to spread their message to a wider audience.
- When they do try to reach more people, their content often gets hidden or suppressed by platform algorithms.
4. Access
Basic technical problems cause major headaches. Slow internet makes secure tools hard to use and some tools don't work at all without good internet. They worry about losing important information and struggle with tools that don't work reliably in their locations.
5. Personal safety
Beyond their own safety, activists worry deeply about protecting everyone they communicate with - their families, fellow activists, and journalists. They face organized attacks from fake accounts and bots that spread lies about them, and they're constantly trying to balance doing their work effectively while keeping everyone involved safe from harm.
c. Jobs to be Done
The following are the jobs that activists need a product to do. A job can be described as a task that a user expects to perform when using the product.
1. Surveillance
- When operating in a politically hostile environment, I want to communicate without leaving digital traces, so I can protect my network from state surveillance.
- When my platform has been compromised, I want to quickly secure and recover my account, so I can continue working without losing data.
2. Reach
- When sharing critical information about protests, I want to reach people beyond my echo chamber, so I can reach a broader public.
- When coordinating with multiple activist groups, I want to securely communicate with these groups so I can organize events without information being lost or scattered.
3. Connectivity
- When working in areas with poor internet connectivity, I want to maintain secure communication, so I can continue organizing even when having low bandwidth.
- When my team loses access to their devices, I want to ensure they can safely recover their accounts and data, so we can continue working.
4. Personal safety
- When sharing sensitive political content, I want to protect the identity of my sources and collaborators, so I can prevent attacks against them.
- When facing coordinated disinformation attacks, I want to maintain content integrity and verification, so I can counter false narratives.
5. Organized
- When coordinating time-sensitive activities, I want to ensure messages are received and read, so I can respond quickly to emerging situations.
- When managing multiple activist groups, I want to organize conversations and files logically, so I can quickly find and reference past communications.
5. Crisis access
- When government crackdowns occur, I want to quickly share safety information, so I can protect community members from harm.
- When platforms are being blocked or monitored, I want to maintain alternative communication channels, so I can continue to communicate with my network.
6. Community Building
- When growing our movement, I want to safely onboard new members, so I can scale our organization while maintaining security.
- When building trust in our network, I want to be able to verify new members, so I can prevent infiltration by hostile actors.
7. Information Preserving
- When facing potential platform shutdown, I want to preserve our communication history and documents.
- When sharing sensitive documents, I want to control who can access and forward materials, so I can maintain information security over time.
Learnings
Now we dive in to what we have learnt based on the things we have observed.
1. Security vs. Reach
Activists face a tricky choice when communicating. They can shoose to use main stream tools which are not secure but have more reach, or use more secure tools which less people are familiar with. Ultimately they are stuck using platforms on a daily basis which they don't trust.
2. Different Audience Needs
Some activists are communicating with different groups these could be; team members, family, funders, public, journalists, it is possible that each of these groups require different strategy approaches.
3. Government Monitoring
Activists worry about government surveillance and this drives many of their communication decisions.
4. Technical Barrier
Poor internet and technical problems make it hard for them to use secure tools even when they are available.
5. Growing Safely is Hard
Adding new members to grow the activist movement is tricky because this makes is difficult for them to keep the group secure from infiltrators.
6. Record-Keeping Risks
While activists need to keep a record of documents and some communication, saving these also creates evidence that could be used against them.
7.Staying Operational in Crisis
Activists need ways to recover accounts and continue working when platforms are shut down or devices are taken.
As mentioned above there is much more to learn about the UX needs of activists. We will continue to dive deeper into their user needs and share them openly here with you.