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Our Work

REAL411

2026
  • GovTech, Misinformation Reporting, Non Profit

Designing trust in a high-pressure governance environment

OUR ROLE

Strategic growth and product partner

PRIMARY PILLAR

Strategy and Platform Foundations

SUPPORTING SERVICES

Brand and Messaging

Product Experience (UX/UI)

Technical Architecture

Investor Narrative

ENGAGEMENT STATUS

Ongoing

THE CHALLENGE
Fighting disinformation in a connected society

In 2019, South Africa faced a rapidly escalating digital threat: the viral spread of election-related disinformation. False narratives travelled faster than verified information, and citizens struggled to distinguish fact from manipulation.

Public trust in institutions began to erode.

The government needed a digital system that could:

  • Enable citizens to report misinformation
  • Process and assess complaints efficiently
  • Provide visible transparency
  • Maintain institutional credibility under scrutiny

 

The challenge was not just technical, it was about restoring trust through design.

Core challenges
  • Fragmented reporting channels and slow manual workflows
  • High volumes of misleading or malicious content
  • Linguistic and cultural complexity (11 national languages)
  • Low public visibility into regulatory action
  • Balancing automation with human accountability
UX Design Process
Defining the end-to-end solution vision for Real411

We re-evaluated the entire Real411 experience, mapping citizen journeys, assessor workflows, and regulatory review processes. The goal was to design a cohesive, transparent system aligned with real-world institutional workflows.

Platform User Journey Mapping

We created detailed journeys for:

  • Citizens reporting content
  • Platform administrators
  • Legal and regulatory assessors

This ensured clarity across handovers, reduced friction in complaint handling, and surfaced trust-building moments.

Wireframes and Experience Design

We redesigned core interaction flows to:

  • Simplify reporting
  • Clarify status tracking
  • Make system logic visible
  • Reduce cognitive load across multilingual contexts

Structure and hierarchy were prioritised over visual flourish.

Brand and Narrative Integration

We refreshed the brand and product ethos to reinforce:

  • Institutional neutrality
  • Transparency
  • Authority
  • Digital credibility

 

The visual identity and UX language were aligned to support public trust.

The Solution

REAL411: became a unified, citizen-centric digital platform designed to process
disinformation complaints transparently and efficiently.

  • Re-architected user journeys
  • Structured interaction flows
  • Refined UI and visual system
  • Cloud-native scalable build
  • AI-assisted but human-led
    decision framework

The system was built to be explainable, accountable, and scalable.

Key Features
  • Unified citizen interface: web, mobile app, and WhatsApp integration
  • AI-assisted analysis: automatic text extraction, language detection, and prioritisation of critical threats
  • Real-time feedback: complaint status tracking and data dashboards for transparency
  • Human + AI collaboration: machine learning assists assessors, but final decisions remain human, ensuring accountability
  • Built on AWS: scalable, secure, multilingual, and cost-efficient, enabling rapid deployment (first version in just 3 weeks).
The impact
Trust, transparency, and measurable efficiency
Tangible outcomes:
3,000+

cases processed across three national elections

60%

reduction in average processing time through AI support

99.9%

uptime during election periods

6x

capacity handling without additional staffing

International recognition by UNESCO, Microsoft, and the EU as global best practice

Citizen trust improved:

People could now see what government was doing to protect democracy by increasing confidence, transparency, and participation.