Clear Card

Clear Card is a design probe and a case study on decolonizing oppression by design, with design. It is a toolkit for asylum applicants to improve their perceived credibility in the eyes of the UK Home Office and evidence their personal testimony.

At the end of 2020, there were upwards of 70,000 people navigating the UK’s asylum system. The UK has constructed an application system that is characterised by its hostility towards each individual. Many applications are rejected on the basis of a ‘lack of credibility’, a metric that relies on subjective case-worker’s perception of an applicant.

We designed two tools to tackle two key moments in the application process. The first is a digital platform that allows them to construct and narrate their story, and automatize the third party evidence collection to source data to support their testimony with credible evidence.

The second tool is a storytelling aid to help them navigate the substantive interview, which is where the decision to grant or deny the asylum is made. We designed a low-cost, standarized printable document that the asylum seeker can physically bring to the interview to visually cross-references their testimony and all the evidence collected on a timeline of events.

Clear Card was developed in collaboration with Arnau Donate Duch and Aura Murillo.