Human Center Design Decal Final Project - Kume
Project Framing: How might we make walking home late at night more safe and efficient for students at UC Berkeley?
The Problem at Hand:
This may be a result of social media becoming more and more readily available, but over the past couple of years, the crime rates in Berkeley seem to have risen dramatically. Between muggings and other strong-arm robberies, walking home late at night has become more and more dangerous for Cal students. In light of the recent developments in Berkeley, the students are in need of a safe way of getting back home late at night.
Insights from Preliminary User Research:
Currently two of the most popular ways of getting back to class are via Ubering and/or other ride share services, and BearWalk, which is a service provided by the university. However as our research subjects pointed out, both of the methods do have their short-comings:
Calling ride share services is a fast a efficient of getting from point A to point B, which is especially helpful in this case since the student can get home quickly, and safely. However over time the cost of having to call these ride share services can rack up, and ultimately is not a sustainable solution for students who wish to stay out late at night on campus to study.
On the other hand, BearWalk is a free service, and the walkers would walk from door to door to make sure that the student will arrive at their destination safely. However this service can also prove to be undesired solution as it can take quite a while for BearWalk to first arrive at the user's location to begin the escort, and this type of time delay really does not belong in a college student's fast-pace lifestyle.
As such, the students on campus are looking for a reliable way to be able to reach from point A to point B efficiently and quickly without having to worry about safety, and how long it would take to begin the commute in the first place.
Divergent Thinking:
There are a couple of possible ways of going about creating a product that can solve this issue.
The first type of product would be a physical product like Robocopp. It is a good safety measure against people with ill-intentions. However a product like this depends on there being someone within physical proximity of the victim such that when the alarm does go off, the perpetrator would have no choice but to flee the scene. However the shortcoming of a physical product is that it does not provide much of a fortified protection for the user. If it is super late into the night, the perpetrator has less of reason to want to escape the scene. Further the perpetrator can easily remove the physical object from the situation, for example, by throwing it away.
The second type of product would be a service that can be provided by the university. However regardless of what type of service it is, it will run into the same issue of bottlenecking as BearWalk currently experiences. There is finite number of escorts BearWalk can dispatch at any given time. Under high demand, BearWalk would struggle to keep up with the high demand, and thus would not be an efficient solution.
The third and last type of product would be a mobile phone app. Recently when I was walking back home late at night, I often saw other students on the street who are heading the same direction as I was. Their presence provided me with a sense of security even though we were not heading to the exact same locations, and I would not be surprised if my presence had the same effect for them. Thus the third type of solution would exploit this type of resource, and provide a solution to the problem of student safety while walking home late at night
Convergent Thinking:
After carefully considering the three different ways of going about formalizing the product, I decided to go with the third option as it is the most practical/plausible solution to implement. More specifically, the product will be a mobile phone app that is eerily similar to Uber or other ride sharing services. However instead of ride sharing, users who are in the same general area, and wish to head to the same general destination will be paired up and asked to meet up at a specific location before starting their trip. This type of product utilizes the students themselves as the source of security, as walking in a group of at least two late at night presumably would decrease the chance of muggings dramatically
Low-Fidelity Prototyping:
The the scanned file above is my Low-Fidelity prototype of what the application would look like. As noted, user should be able to request for someone who is trying to reach the same general area who is with in the same general area before the trip begins.
Medium-Fidelity Prototyping:
The attached screen caps above is the medium-fidelity prototype that i created. This was done in Figma and is the first digitized of the design. Notice how the design of the UI is very similar to Uber.
Insights from Usability Testing:
After consulting some close friends regarding the design of the Lo-Fi and Med-Fi design, the main feedback I received was that the design itself needs to be more flushed out. For example the button designs sometimes are not consistent, and the white background along with the sharp edges and corners can be a little jarring. The main functional feedback I received was that the app should preconfigure a meet up location so users can meet up at the designated location. In addition the location should be relatively well lit to further ensure safety
Final Product Prototype:
I have also created a simple MarvelApp mock up for this app https://marvelapp.com/5bged6a
