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safely
Throughout the development of Safely, I took on various roles. I played a part in helping construct Safely’s information architecture, designing the interfaces for iOS and watchOS, creating personas, drawing storyboard scenarios, and conducting user research/user testing interviews.
Providing the ease of mind you need when traveling at night.
PROJECT TYPE:
Senior Coursework Project - Interaction Design Studio
PROJECT TOOLS:
Figma, Procreate, Photoshop, Illustrator, Pen/Paper, & Whiteboard/Marker
TEAM & ROLES:
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Ian: UX/UI Designer & Researcher
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Claire: UX/UI Designer & Researcher
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Yuka: UX/UI Designer & Researcher
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Oresti: UX Researcher
WHAT IS SAFELY?
Safely is a safety-oriented application that steps in to assist with its three primary features: the Scream Feature, SOS Feature, and Flagging Feature. Geared towards alleviating the anxieties of solo/nighttime travelers, Safely offers an enhanced level of security through its user-friendly design and the trio of safety functionalities.
WHAT'S THE PROBLEM?
In 2021, the Office of National Statistics revealed a concerning fact: nearly half (49%) of women experience a sense of insecurity when walking alone at night. Strikingly, there is a noticeable gap in the market for a widely-recognized app that specifically addresses the critical issue of providing a multitude of safety functions within one central place.
USER INTERVIEWS
Our team conducted interviews with 10 participants, primarily consisting of college students, whose ages spanned from 18 to 25 in order to gather user insights regarding safety precautions during solo/night travel.
Within these 1:1 interviews our primary objectives were to understand:
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How do participants generally perceive safety when walking alone in city settings versus rural areas?
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What are common insecurities participants feel when traveling alone?
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What strategies or methods do participants commonly employ to enhance their sense of safety when traveling alone?
Overall, female and non-binary participants feel the least safest traveling alone, particularly at night in city settings.
AFFINITY DIAGRAMS
Following the completion of user interviews, three primary themes became apparent. Our team jotted down these themes on a whiteboard and organized comparable insights within these three distinct themes, which are:​​
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Not carrying any safety tools.
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Location sharing is a must.
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Traveling alone results in heightened awareness of surroundings.
Participant Testimonials
COMPETITOR ANALYSIS & FINDINGS
Before starting the UI development for iOS and watchOS designs, we thoroughly analyzed three safety apps from the
Apple App Store. We chose the following applications for our analysis because of their popularity and high ratings
among consumers.
After assessing competitors and compiling a feature comparison chart, our team pinpointed areas for improvement in current safety applications. This analysis was crucial for identifying issues and potential enhancements.
PERSONA
Reviewing all our new data, our team then proceeded to craft a persona that shared the wants, needs, and frustrations of our user interview participants.
KEY FEATURES
Due to time limitations, we narrowed down the amount of features to three during the brainstorming process.
This process led to the following features being integrated:​
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Scream Feature: Triggers an alarm on your device, emitting a sound akin to a car alarm, intended to draw attention from people in your vicinity.
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SOS Feature: Initiates calls to 9-1-1 using an automated message containing your information and current location. If necessary, you can switch to a live call with 9-1-1 for real-time assistance.
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Flagging Feature: By placing a flag, you designate the area where you perceive or experience danger. This action alerts both the Safely community and your Safely contacts about the potential threat and your location.
Flagging Rationale
Each of these features were selected to be the first features integrated into Safely due to addressing many of the concerns found within our user interviews, as well as from our competitive analysis.​
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Scream Feature addresses the echoed want of a safety application that has a feature allowing for a loud noise to be emitted from your device to draw attention to yourself.
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Flagging Feature addresses the want of being able to see and create safety/crime reports of areas, while also allowing for your location to be shared to your contacts.
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SOS Feature addressed the desire to have a way for the police to be dialed without having to leave the Safely application, while also allowing for an optional automated message to be played to the operator sharing your location coordinates.
USER FLOW DIAGRAM
Following deciding what key features would be included within Safely, our team initiated the foundational architecture of Safely by crafting a user flow diagram.
STORYBOARD SCENARIO
After finalizing Safely's features, we crafted a storyboard scenario. This enhanced our team’s understanding of how Safely would be practically used.
LOW-FIDELITY SKETCHES
As we delved into the design process, our goal was to create a straightforward UI, recognizing in times of crisis error needs to be avoided. To achieve this, we investigated UI designs tailored for the elderly, as UI for this demographic often feature larger interactive elements. The Jitterbug Smart3 phone served as a key source of inspiration.
After closely examining the UI design of the Jitterbug device, our team decided to incorporate several aspects of it into our own design. Two particularly significant elements we adopted include the utilization of enlarged text for important titles and key body copy and the integration of large buttons, enhancing overall accessibility.
This resulted in the creation of our low-fidelity sketch.
Jitterbug 3 UI ↑
Low-Fidelity Screen Design Rationale
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Screen 3: Our team opted to set Safely's map as the home screen. Our main reason behind this was to enable users to instantly see nearby incident reports upon opening the app, while also providing them with a clear view of their own location.
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Screens 4 & 6: When considering the activation of rapid functionalities like the SOS or Scream features, our team chose to incorporate a slider mechanism for activation. This decision was rooted in the concern that users might inadvertently trigger these features, so by introducing a slider for activation, we aimed to mitigate accidental activations. This slider approach is also applied in the design of our WatchOS, where it's used to activate all features.
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Screens 8, 9, & 10: With the Flagging feature, our team aimed to provide users with a high degree of flexibility. The only obligatory action is choosing the threat level of the event. However, users also have the choice to include further details, such as a description of the event for other Safely users to view, and the ability to notify their contacts about the flagged event.
Low-Fidelity WatchOS Design
Additionally during the process of designing Safely's iOS UI, our team made the choice to simultaneously develop a watchOS version. The underlying rationale was that in situations of urgency, if a user couldn't reach their phone, there would still be an opportunity for them to access their Apple smartwatch and seek assistance.
MID-FIDELITY PROTOTYPE
With the low-fidelity sketching phase wrapped up, the mid-fidelity UI development phase commenced, with each designer on our team assigned to create two to four frames. My primary responsibility during this phase revolved around designing the Flagging Feature screens.
USABILITY TESTING
After finalizing the mid-fidelity wireframe designs, our team conducted user testing with 12 participants. The test results yielded several usability logs, two of which are displayed below, guiding our team in identifying essential changes required to enhance the UI.
Based on the usability logs, our overall findings indicated that the iconography, particularly the icons used for the feature buttons, was unclear and lacked proper helpful direction. As a result, we revisited and thoroughly reassessed all the iconography throughout the application, making the necessary changes to improve user understanding and navigation.
Additionally our team had the opportunity to interview with a participant who has deuteranomaly, a type of red-green color blindness. Based on this interview, our team made necessary adjustments to the red shades employed throughout Safely. The aim was to guarantee that users with deuteranomaly can easily distinguish between the various shades of red utilized within the application, particularly in the "Flag Feature" where the chosen button’s red shade signifies the severity of the event being flagged.
HIGH-FIDELITY VIDEO OF IOS & WATCHOS
Provided below is a video walkthrough showcasing Safely's iOS and WatchOS, which we presented to our class at the end of the semester. Following all presentations, our class engaged in a voting process to determine the best designs and concepts. Safely placed 3rd overall.
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