First things first: what is a Big Box? Well, they're Jangala's very clever and very nifty invention. About the size of a small briefcase, they convert any form of internet connectivity into a strong and reliable Wi-Fi signal that can support lots of users. Basically, they're vital in getting an internet connection to very remote parts of the world!

Picture this: our entire team transformed into a Big Box production line. Each of us had a specific task (ranging from installing wires to screwing in circuit boards) before we passed the box along on its journey. So what started out as an empty casing, ended up as a fully functioning Big Box ready to deliver connection across the globe.

It was like a funny version of pass the parcel, except with screwdrivers and circuit boards. And it was just so interesting to see what goes on behind the scenes at Jangala. Not only are they incredibly smart folks, but they’re loads of fun too and, it must be said, very patient teachers! 

By the end of the day, our team had built six Big Boxes. In time, these will be sent to a variety of communities in need, such as healthcare organisations and schools in the UK. Some of these boxes will also be shipped across the world to aid refugee camps, education facilities and other individuals who need support. 

It felt pretty awesome to be so hands-on in helping get the internet to people who need it most. And remember, this is exactly what 1% from every Cuckoo customer’s bill is supporting, so a massive high five to all our flock!

After posing with our finished Big Boxes, we got to chat with our Jangala friends a bit more and hear about a few of their ongoing projects, and their exciting plans for the future (watch this space!). As always, we were blown away by their passion, knowledge, and their infectious positivity.

All in all it was a smashing day and a great chance to get hands-on with The Cuckoo Compass. Already looking forward to our next visit! 

Big Box Build Day @ Jangala HQ

A couple of weeks ago, some of us at Team Cuckoo popped along to Jangala's HQ to get our hands dirty. Mainly, this meant helping build some of the Big Boxes (more on these below). But it also meant having lots of laughs and being super inspired by the amazing work these guys do.

This then pays for our amazing charity partner Jangala to do their thing. And here’s the latest report, just in…

Connecting people in Ghana, the UK and Turkey

Over the last 12 months Jangala has directly connected over 43,000 people (wow!) to Wi-Fi, both here in the UK and around the world. Working with local partners, they’ve brought the power of the internet to schools, healthcare clinics, community projects and have even supported emergency response teams. Here are some highlights.

Using their amazing Big Box (more on this technical wizardry further down), Jangala has now provided a Wi-Fi connection to Kpando High School. This means the teachers and 3,000 students can now access vital digital teaching and learning opportunities.

Working with partners The Access Project, Jangala is providing Wi-Fi to 120 students around the UK, to help them access their online tutoring sessions. These sessions are really important, as they have the potential to double the students’ chances of getting into top universities.

Recently, only 5% of state school teachers said that all of their students have internet access (Sutton Trust 2021 via Data Poverty Alliance) and Jangala is helping get that number up to 100%.

Following the catastrophic earthquake on 6 February, Jangala sent two Big Boxes to Turkey, to help the search and rescue volunteers working for Serve On, another UK-based charity. So far, they’ve been used at the United Nations Reception/Departure Centre, to offer free Wi-Fi for incoming rescue teams.

A big thanks to all the wonderful folks at Jangala and their partner agencies too, for all their inspirational work. We’ll have more updates coming throughout the year, showing how The Cuckoo Compass is playing its part to help spread the power of the internet. Oh, and here’s the info about the Big Box we mentioned. It really is amazing!

Here it is in all its wonderful Wi-Fi glory. A lightweight (1.9kgs) briefcase sized device that transforms any form of internet connectivity into Wi-Fi that is easy to manage and scale, all the way up to thousands of different users.

All the technical wizardry is inside, hidden behind a rugged shock and water-resistant exterior. As well as being low power, running off just 12 watts, Big Box is really simple to use. Altogether, this makes it ideal to getting internet access to all sorts of remote and challenging places

The Cuckoo Compass is how we get the internet to the people and places that need it the most. All our customers help out, giving 1% of their bill, every single month (and we also give £5 for every customer referral). 

The Cuckoo Compass Field Report (March '23)

At Cuckoo, we believe that designing for the web — the medium for which the majority of our product and communications exist — it’s our responsibility to think foremost about how our choices impact the person or environment on the other end of the conversation.

Even the tiniest and seemingly insignificant design decision can have far-reaching consequences, and good ethics can help us create pathways to better futures for all who use our services.

A question that I’ve come across is ‘what is the difference between good design and ethical design?’

Dan Guy, head of the Ethics Committee at the Office of the Public Guardian defines the two practices as:

Good design — a design solves the problem reliably, consistently and well.

Ethical design — a design is sensitive to its impact on the welfare of individuals, society and the planet.

‘Good design’ gets its criteria from how reliably, consistently and well a problem is solved. So what about ethical design? What more can be done to ensure a positive human experience?

‘Ethical design’ gets its criteria from how it impacts individuals, society as a whole and the planet. If it impacts them for the better, then the design is ethical. If for the worse, then it is simply unethical.

As above, ethical design considers what it wants to avoid, along with what it wants to promote. It keeps an eye on its wider context in the world and how it affects people, society and the planet. It needs to be mindful of long-term as well as short-term effects. It also needs to be concerned with making things better in some sense — not just in terms of the problem it’s solving, but in terms of making the world a happier, healthier, fairer, more honest and peaceful place.

Below is a graphic taken from the Ethical Design Manifesto, basing design around the basic needs to respect human rights, effort and experience.

In recent times, ethics (as well as sustainability) have been in danger of becoming a buzzword or green-washed within the tech industry. Bad design decisions can lead to devastating personal, organisational and societal consequences, so ethics have to be handled with care and a deep sense of conviction. I believe now more than ever that ethics are paramount to digital experience design. How do we define and measure goodness and rightness in the increasingly used digital realm?

Below, I’ve tried to present a few key principles that we at Cuckoo hope to take forward to ensure we design within an ethical framework.

Dark patterns on the web work well. Definitely too well. And for now, there’s not much you or I can do about it.

I often refer to a common example for this. Assuming you have created an Amazon prime account, have you ever tried to delete it? If so, you’d quickly realise that it’s a borderline impossible task. Amazon makes it oh so easy for you to create an account, but forces you to search its labyrinth — the deepest, darkest corners of the website — to close it. And even then, it take’s around 4 or 5 clicks to confirm the confirmation of confirming you want to leave.

This of course is no accident on their part. It’s actually a persuasive web design tactic often referred to as the “roach motel” — “A wide-ranging group of ‘dark ux patterns’ that describe user experience techniques in which users can easily get into a certain situation but then, intentionally, have a hard time getting out of the given situation once they realise it is undesirable.”

Sadly Amazon isn’t alone in using ‘clever’ design to manipulate users’ behaviour. I strongly believe that design should be a guide for the user, and not a strict path. The user’s needs should be the overriding factor in an experience design, and therefore a journey-map should never be purely for financial gain, social following or other self-serving factors.

In stark contrast to the Amazon example, Cuckoo’s cancellation is designed to be intuitive and extremely findable. For example, our account section has a leave flow for any customer on our rolling contract to leave as and when they decide. We really do believe here that leaving Cuckoo should be as simple as it is to join. No guilt, no manipulation - but a friendly goodbye.

The key goal for our website (and arguably most websites) is to convey our service as simply and as effectively as possible. Therefore, the clarity of our message and storytelling needs to be the most important aspect of it. We want to help users focus on relevant information instead of distracting them.

Some of the most common examples of ignorant or malicious attempts to shift a users flow include:

Cuckoo’s architecture and messaging has been intentionally scrutinised with our customer’s interests defined as the primary focus. We test any new initiatives with real humans so that we can gain multiple perspectives - and in-turn, design with a more rounded viewpoint.

Too many fonts on one single item (in this case, a website) decreases cognitive fluency. This means users will find it difficult to understand what they’re looking at. Script fonts are hard to read, decreasing ease of use for visitors and potentially pushing them away.

For this reason, we’ve chosen to use only one typeface, Garnett, a font with wide characters, designed specifically to be easy to read and digest - and designed to be filled with character and warmth with over-pronounced arches and small underbites on the terminals. We use Garnett with two weights (Semibold and Regular) for our new brand. Additionally, the fewer font files used, the lighter and faster website pages will be - resulting in an even greater user experience.

Websites should be easy to navigate - and even, dare I say it, a delight to navigate. A common example of bad navigation includes multi-stepped menus: options can quickly become overwhelming, making users frustrated and motivating them to go elsewhere. We introduced a simple form of baseline navigation on our mobile join flow as we were noticing our customers were finding it confusing to move forward within the steps of signing-up. Websites should be straightforward, familiar and consistent to navigate on all device sizes.

What are the consequences of our design decisions? Do they improve the common good of those using it? If not, we should consider our design approach and the role our website plays within society.

“Ethics for designers means trying your best to make sure the work you do respects the user.”

Ethics in design is more of an evaluation tool that helps define an alignment with human respect. I understand it’s a very hard balancing act, especially for the e-commerce space where conversion-rates and profit are a priority; but speaking purely, design ethics are an obligation for designers to prioritise the value of the rights of the end-user while respecting the product at the same time.

Cuckoo’s UXD (User Experience Design) team gathers bi-annually to workshop how our website can become increasingly accessible and universal. We’re by no-means experts in this realm, but we’re getting there.

Cuckoo is broadband that starts good, stays good and does good.

Every design decision should be made on behalf of its end-users.

Designing right from wrong: Our principles for ethical products

When we launched Cuckoo we promised ourselves that we would use our business to make a difference to the people and the planet around us. With a global pandemic, international refugee crisis, and new humanitarian emergencies developing around the world, it’s more important than ever right now that people have access to the internet.

We created the Cuckoo Compass to help put that right. 1% of each bill is used to help get the internet to places it’s needed most, like refugee camps, natural disaster sites, and even communities in the UK. And you can choose which projects you’d like to support.

High-quality internet access is essential to respond effectively to humanitarian emergencies and for a country’s longer-term development.

Responding to a humanitarian emergency requires coordination and communication. And this is often impossible - or at least very difficult! - without the internet. Whether we're talking about emergency services or organisations providing shelter, water, food, equipment, or medical assistance, internet access can be the difference between life and death.

And we shouldn't underestimate the importance of an internet connection for displaced people. The people who've been caught up in these humanitarian emergencies. Having access to the internet can enable affected families to stay in touch with their loved ones, send money, get news or provide education and entertainment during their darkest days.

Over 68 million people are displaced from their homes by conflict and disasters, and over the next 30 years climate change could result in a billion displaced people. We need the infrastructure set up to ensure that these millions of people can stay connected.

In 2016 the United Nations declared that access to the internet is a basic human right. But in Africa, only 18% of households currently have internet access, compared to 87% in Europe. This isn't acceptable.

Internet access is crucial for many reasons. From access to health & education services, to enabling economies to grow more rapidly. A recent survey of more than 4,800 small- and medium-sized businesses in 12 countries, from retail to manufacturing, showed that those using web technologies grew more than twice as fast as those with a minimal web presence.

There is a clear connection between the maturity of a country’s internet access with rising living standards; in health, it can provide isolated people with access to life-saving and improving information; and in education, it can open up prospects for vulnerable groups, women and girls.  — Jangala

Since the COVID pandemic spread across the globe in 2020, the world has changed dramatically. We have had to adapt our daily lives in so many ways. Communicating with separated family members, teaching children and working from home all rely on an internet connection. Access to the internet has never been so important.

27% of the poorest households in the UK don’t have an internet connection, compared to 3% of the richest. It’s even worse when you look at the regional disparity: the poorest households in the north spend three times as much as Londoners on broadband, relative to average incomes.

Not enough is being done in the effort to reduce the digital divide. The Cuckoo Compass is our force for change. Broadband, especially in today’s times, is a necessity.

The Cuckoo Compass is our force for change. We don’t think it’s ok that people in the UK and around the world cannot access the internet.

We take 1% of each bill and use it to help get the internet to places it’s needed most, like refugee camps, natural disaster sites, and even communities in the UK. And you can choose which projects you’d like to support. And on top of that, we donate an additional £5 each time you refer a friend.

Like us, they believe that decent internet access should be a human right. Jangala are a UK-based charity dedicated to enabling internet access for people who need it.

They have pioneered two products: the Big Box and the Get Box:

The Big Box creates high-quality scaleable Wi-Fi using any form of internet connection

The Get Box provides low-cost, secure, and rapidly deployable Wi-Fi for charities and aid organisations

Jangala has deployed internet services to locations around the world such as Calais, Kenya, South Africa, Northern Ireland, Scotland, London and Athens.

The Cuckoo Compass is something the entire team at Cuckoo are extremely passionate about. It’s the beating drum that helps keep us focused and driven to deliver on the mission: internet access for all.

And as we grow our customer base, we'll be able to support with more and more projects. Each one of you makes a contribution, simply by being with Cuckoo.

There are far too many people at home and abroad who don’t have access to the internet. Nearly 1.5 billion to be precise.

Big Box Build Day @ Jangala HQ

Rolling up our sleeves

Say Cheese

More from Cuckoo

The Cuckoo Compass Field Report (March '23)

Designing right from wrong: Our principles for ethical products

We're on a mission to connect the world - introducing the Cuckoo Compass

How fast can you go?