Crowdsourcing Safety

The Challenge

Propose and prototype features that will enhance SafeSpace's appeal and value to users. The proposed features must fit within the realm of what is realistically possible for SafeSpace's developers to realize within a budget of 25 points.

The Approach

Our team began with a competitive analysis of existing personal safety apps and journey mapping, to gain an empathetic understanding of users' experiences. After this, we developed a series of feature cards, which were then assigned a point valuation—reflective of the amount of time needed to develop them.

Background

SafeSpace is an application geared towards people of color to crowdsource safety during interactions with law enforcement. By pressing a big red button  in the center of the screen, a request for witnesses is sent out to allies within a half-mile radius of the user. After an incident, the app prompts both the user and the responder with a brief questionnaire, which SafeSpace then compiles and makes public.

Insights

Once we had narrowed down our prospective features down to a few representatives, we used Kano analysis to determine the value they'd add to users. Ideal for gaging present-moment sentiment around a feature—whether it's desired, required, neutral, or unwanted—our Kano analysis gave us helpful, qualitative insight about user response.

One common theme was that the users surveyed valued features that equipped them with information, either as a caller or a responder. Here we saw an opportunity to enrich the application with more resources.

Design solution

Our teamed homed in on some simple features for the first phase of refinement that will equip users with more information about how to handle encounters with the police.

We created prototypes of a "Know Your Rights" feature and an "Ally Tips" feature. The format of both is designed to be easy to navigate and gives clear case-by-case information of a number of common scenarios.

These tools ensure that, whether of not users are able to activate SafeSpace in the heat of the moment, they are empowered with good information from a reputable source.