Disclaimer 📢

Was enrolled in a post-graduation program in User-experience design with IIT-Bombay. This project was done in a group consisting of 6 members. In this case study, I am going to share the process we followed to build this application.

Problem statement🤔

Many urban middle-class women face harassment when they go out to work.

For many women Streets, bus stands, railway stations, parks, and other public places are scenes of harassment. Every day women face a systematic assault on their fundamental right to free movement and personal dignity.

Solution💡

This product gives you the freedom to travel wherever you want and keeps you constantly connected to your safety network.

A solution that will make public location secure by providing area-wise risk information to women who travel alone

Desk research💻

Available data of area-wise crime rates against women…

• NCRB — Women Safety Division-​ MHA has set up a new ‘Women Safety Division’ on May 28, 2018, to strengthen measures for the safety of women in the country and instill a greater sense of security in them through speedy and effective administration of justice in a holistic manner and by providing a safer environment for women. (National Database on Sexual Offenders” (NDSO), Emergency Response Support System, Safe City projects, Investigation Tracking System for Sexual Offences, engagement of Mahila Police Volunteers in States/UTs, etc)

Crime Against Women (City-wise) — 2017–2019

• Statista-​ Assam had the highest rates of crime against women in India in 2020 with about 154.3 crimes reported for every 100,000 women. Among the union territories, Delhi had a crime rate against women of 106.4 that year.

Rate of crime against women reported across India in 2020

• Local Police Station- Data is available based on area coverage of specific police stations. Each police station has different area coverage — The smallest one has less ~ than 2 km. Based on coverage street-level data is available which can be used to identify high-low crime rates

User Interview👨🏻‍🤝‍👨🏻

​To understand the user journey and experiences from the perspective of women’s safety, right from childhood to their ongoing professional life.

To understand more about our users, we surveyed over 17 participants. A set of questions was prepared to interview the participants through a 1:1 video conference/voice call. Interview questions were asked in a casual flow of conversation to avoid making the participants feel uncomfortable

Research Insights😇

User persona👨‍🦰

The results of domain research & user interviews revealed there were several types of users with diverse needs….

We accumulated the different insights & patterns and integrated them to form a primary persona: Anjali. Here, you can see her motivations, goals, needs, fears & frustrations.

User Scenario🚶‍♀️

A day in the life of Anjali…

Anjali is late for the office today. To reach on time she books a cab to the office.

Once she reaches the office, she finds out her meeting with the possible client has been pushed to 7:30 PM in the evening. For her meeting, she has to visit the client’s office which is located in a remote area with one of her teammates.

The client’s office is on another side of the city where she lives. While looking for directions to the location she finds out there are 2 different routes to reach the destination. One is 30 km longer and another is quick and with less traffic on the road.

She is aware of the Minder app and its features. She opens the app and searches for potential risk assessment of the destination as well as both routes.

She finds out that the area she is going to has a history of high crime rates at night since it’s marked in red on the application map.

She looks for the availability of volunteers during the timeframe she is in the area and could see a few available volunteers whom she can reach out to get quick assistance in case she is in trouble.

She shares a cab with her colleague to reach the client’s office. During the journey to the client’s office, she observes the area has very less crowd presence even at 7 pm in the evening and she can’t depend on public support if there is a need.

After finishing her meeting, she has to book a separate cab for home since her colleague lives in a different location. After initial confirmation of cab booking, she gets a cancellation notification and doesn’t see any other cab available nearby. After waiting for a few minutes for the availability of the next cabs she decides to use public transport. She walks to the nearby bus stop to wait for a bus.

On the way to the bus stop, she gets a feeling that someone is following her. She reaches the bus stop and finds that no one else is waiting for the bus and sees the person who is following her. She opens the Minder and looks for the closest emergency contact to whom she can reach out and asks for help. She uses the call feature to connect and talk to them and explains the situation. Within a few minutes couple of volunteers arrive at her location to help her. They stay with her till the time she onboards the bus to her home.

Design🖌️

Main features of the app

Iteration #1

Low Fidelity screens

Iteration #2

High Fidelity screens

Testing + Improvements🧪

4 major improvements in our design…

Shared a prototype with a few potential users as well as initial candidates whom we recruited for contextual inquiry.​

• 12 Men/Women
• 25–40 age group
• Working professionals who use public transport most of the time.
• Regular smartphone users Candidates who were part of contextual inquiry.

Final Screens🥰

Link to working prototype here.

Reflections & Takeaways📑

What I have learned from this project?

• Importance of Research & Ideation- Never jumps straight to the solution. Understand users, get inside their heads, listen, observe, and question.​
• Learning from research- Contextual inquiry and interpretation at the beginning of solving any problem statement is a very important step and can be a great foundation for design solutions.​
• Evaluation and User testing- Evaluation of every design decision and iteration is important at every step of the entire design process and helps provide a great user experience.​
• User experience is different for everyone- Understanding the difference between user needs and wants. Though you are a user experience designer you might not be a potential user. Hence, we can not assume what the user wants and needs.

My team members…❤️