Find the safest route, be tracked by friends and join the community.
Violence and insecurity are persistent factors in society to which, unfortunately, women are more prone to becoming victims of. There is a ¨Plus of terror¨ that generates a limitation when commuting. The experience of going out alone at night, being a woman should not represent extra stress and the fear and anxiety of going out at night should be minimized.
The Challenge:
Try to find a solution that will make women feel more secure when they go out alone.
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How can we improve women's commuting experience?
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How can we reduce insecurity anxiety?
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Is it possible to increase security?
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How is "feeling safe" measurable?
Hypothesis:
By creating an app that allows users to find a safe route to get to their destination, we will achieve that woman feel more confident when they have to get places by themselves, minimizing their exposure to assault by providing them information about their route. We will know this to be true when we hear from the community that they feel more confident when using the app and in the long-run reports of incidents decrease.
USER RESEARCH
An essential part of the research was finding out and being able to better understand the user. Five in-person interviews were conducted with the goal of gaining insight on specific concerns and how users are currently navigating the experience of commuting alone.
Key Findings
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She feels safer in places she is familiar with because she knows where to go or even run to in case of being in danger, she knows where to ask for help.
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She feels safer during the day because there are a lot more people on their routines, stores are open
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She often carries a tool that she could use as self-defense in case of assault.
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Pepper spray, Swiss Army knife
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No one takes self-defense training
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She feels safer if she is able to be in contact with a family member or a friend. Someone who is in the lookout for updates on her arrival.
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She tries to avoid places she has heard are dangerous or where she knows assaults had happened. If she knows she can avoid these places and take routes that she has not heard of any assault she feels less anxious.
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When she has to go out, I’ll keep it short if she doesn’t have a companion.
Real-time tracking
Provide information about route.
Emergency Alert
Alert contacts
Record reports from users
Competitive Analysis
A product-feature analysis showed relevant features that relate to the problem we are trying to solve.
We identified three steps, obstacles and feelings and were able to identify features in relevant systems:
Step: Find a route
Obstacle: Not familiar with the place
Feeling: Insecure
Step: Search for a route
Obstacle: Frustrated
Feeling: Insecure
Step: On route
Obstacle: Not familiar with the place
Feeling: Scared
DESIGN PHASE
After doing research and talking to users it allowed me to figure out relevant features to the solution.
Feature Prioritization
NOW
Safest Route
911 Emergency
Adding "trackers"
User rating (input)
NEXT
Creating a Report
Showing other users report on map
LATER
Locked SOS (password)
Track Location
User Flow
Paper Prototype
First iteration based on user insights.
After the initial concept was defined, the first paper prototype was crafter for user testing.
User Testing
Paper prototypes were tested with five potential users. They were asked to perform the most relevant tasks. After observing them perform the tasks, they provided feedback in a Q&A section.
Digital Prototype
Initial digital prototype integrated user feedback.
Significant re-design
Edits on UX copy were made and re-tested with a positive user response.
Two important iterations related to the most relevant features were implemented:
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Providing the user with the option of choosing from provided alternative routes
Making a more efficient access to options when feeling insecure while on-route
User Testing Animation of User Task:
Re-route from the current trip when feeling unsafe.
LEARNINGS
In this project, it was not only important to keep functionality in mind, but also efficiency. Making sure users had easy access to some of the features was crucial for users' success.
Using feature prioritization was beneficial because it allowed me to focus on the most relevant features for the product to be functional.
I also realized how important copy is in UI design and how it influences users' decisions. Therefore, it is relevant to test as soon as possible to edit as needed.
