Cross-platform mobile application for enhancing personal safety
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Industry
SafePath
My Role
Lead UX Designer
Platforms
Mobile
Scope of Work
User Research | UX Design | Usability Testing
Timeline
Sept 2022 – Dec 2022 (8 weeks)
A personal safety application that equips students with practical tools to tackle safety concerns in their everyday lives. The aim was to provide an enhanced sense of safety for University of Washington(UW) students on campus and beyond.
Project in association with the Department of Human Centered Design & Engineering at the University of Washington.
THE PROBLEM
Surge in crime fueling student anxiety
A surge in criminal incidents near the University of Washington(UW) campus has left students feeling vulnerable, anxious, and fearful. This threatens to undermine the sense of security and community that UW seeks to promote.
THE SOLUTION
A digital on-the-go safety companion
Safepath — A cross-platform mobile application that equips students to tackle safety concerns by helping them • navigate safely • find companions • alert loved ones and • report concerning incidents.
THE PROCESS
Understanding prevalent safety concerns, implicit student behaviors, and existing safety offerings
I did this by learning from lived experiences of students, campus safety departments, and the UW Police.
Semi-structured interviews
With undergraduate, graduate and PhD students.
Naturalistic observations
Of the UW community in natural settings to understand implicit behaviors.
Learning from experts
Spoke to campus safety departments and the UW Police to understand major challenges.
Key Insights
The interviews and observations revealed that day-to-day sense of safety is of larger importance to students and they are —
Concerned by seclusion and poorly lit spaces while navigating at night.
We want to bring together a group of decision makers who want to actively shape a point of view on a common future
Feel safer while walking with others.
We want to roll up our sleeves and design the future we want to live in, and work backwards to what we need to design today.
Feel distressed around people with unpredictable behavior.
We want to articulate preferred future that creates exponential change from today, not incremental.
Events to build a sense of community.
thumb_up Strengths
- Builds a sense of community.
- Fosters meaningful connections and reduces distrust.
thumb_down Weaknesses
- Does not address the issue of safety directly.
- Seasonal, expensive, and logistically challenging.
Reimagining campus safety services.
thumb_up Strengths
- Reduces working in silos.
- Addresses disconnect between various safety departments.
thumb_down Weaknesses
- Does not address the issue of safety directly.
- Redesign doesn't necessarily mean increased engagement.
Tools that assist to navigate safely ✅
thumb_up Strengths
- Holistic solution.
- Directly addresses issues around everyday personal safety concerns.
thumb_down Weaknesses
- Might have device specific constraints.
- Might not help bridge the disconnect between various community members.
Concept testing our ideas on our target users revealed that they preferred the solution that helped them feel safer during day-to-day navigation through specific tools to enhance personal sense of safety.
Design Principles
I then laid out target goals to ensure that our team is constantly aligned on user safety needs during solution development.
Constant Connections
Constant connection and companionship to assist users to feel less anxious while commuting.
Navigational Assistance
Equip users with tools that provide navigational assistance.
Collective Awareness
Increase collective awareness of unsafe incidents and in turn aid in increased alertness.
Conceptually assessing what helped students feel most safe
Exploring different representations for route optimization during navigation
Careful consideration of data visualization principles was of utmost importance for this app where having easily digestible information can make or break how well it supports students.
USABILITY TESTING
Reassessing my designs
Change #1 — Switched to a grayscale map to tone down the clutter
The former version featured an unnecessary amount of detailing on the map that made it overwhelming for users. Therefore, I switched to a grayscale map to draw focus only to the most essential information.
Change #2 — Prioritized only the most relevant information to display
The home screen initially had a lot going on and left users confused. I introduced the ability to filter to make information more digestible for users.
Change #3 — Provided more clarity in terms of available Buddy routes
The lack of necessary location based details made it difficult to choose the right buddy. I redesigned the interface to highlight location and time-based details that can aid in decision making.
Impact — What Users Liked
Reflections & Takeaways
Dabbling in the sensitive and extremely large problem space of safety highlighted some key things that helped me grow as a designer
01
It's okay not to solve for everything at once.
Trying to device a solution for an issue as complex as safety helped me realize that it is important to prioritize the most essential features and look into adding more layers to the solution in the future. Doing otherwise might lead to devising a general solution that might not address the specific needs of the target user group.
03
Get feedback early on.
You don’t have to wait for a fully perfect prototype to start getting feedback. Testing ideas early can help overcome dissension within teams and help refocus attention on user needs. Often while designing products, we might tend to get caught up with our own biases of what’s important. However, receiving inputs from users can be eye-opening in terms of issues that actually matter to the user.
