UW U1st
U1st is a mobile safety application, associated with the University of Washington that seeks to conveniently and discreetly provide resources for personal safety and personal safety service, to help mitigate safety concerns and quell fears.
My Scope:
User Research, UX, UI, branding
Tools:
Figma, Lucidchart, Miro, Xtensio
Award:
Best Pitch Video 2021
Client:
The University of Washington
Duration:
March 2021 - June 2021 (3 months)
My Role:
UX Designer & Project Manager
Team:
JoJo Saunders (Project Director)
Debbie Alvarado Latino (User Research)
Marina Wooden (Developer)
WINNING VIDEO
WHAT IS THE CONTEXT?
College students who live in the greater Seattle area often travel alone. Specifically in Seattle, around 4,445 cases of violent crimes were reported in 2020. The areas more affected were Downton/Belltown, Capitol Hill, and University District. Despite resources made available by Seattle’s Police Department and Husky Night Walk, these crimes continue to happen. In fact, in a ranking of universities around the United States, the University of Washington ranked in the top 5 by the number of crimes committed on campus, with 292 crimes reported in 2017.
Although the University of Washington has a system called, “Husky Nightwalk,” where a campus security officer walks with a student at night so they remain safe, some officers often refuse to walk with students to where they need to go if it's too far from campus, leaving them to walk home alone in the dark.
For who?
College students & faculty who attend the University of Washington who often travel alone themselves on campus premises.
The challenge
Controlling abuse of the application and mitigating that only people who are associated with the University of Washington may use this application
The goals
People feel safer with the application when they feel uncomfortable or in danger
Has all resources for safety
Provides a sense of community for the students
The purpose
By creating security among frequenters of Washington’s U-district, we could potentially increase the experience of college students on campus
THE RESEARCH
With a multi-methodology research effort
I sought to better understand when users felt most in danger, and how these situations would look like to determine levels of stress and emotions associated with them. I analyze these situations through the Police Officer’s opinions on safety on campus and gathering evidence from a student who has felt unsafe and was also a crime victim.
DEEPER DETAILS
5-Step Process
1. Stakeholder Interviews
We conducted 1:1 interviews with three different stakeholders: a UW police officer, a freshman student, and the last stakeholder who played both roles as UW faculty and student.
3. Solutions Comparison
We sought out solutions that already exist and how they do well, and do not do well.
5. User Personas
We interviewed live on Zoom with three main stakeholders to see their thoughts about safety on the UW campus.
2. Surveys
We distributed surveys across UW students and to individuals who lived on campus. This survey aimed to understand the habits and motivations of residents of the UW campus and surrounding areas.
4. Secondary Research
We looked up news articles on the internet about the crimes that have happened and looked at the overall safety rating nationally for the University of Washington.
Existing Solutions Comparison
Solution 1 -Noonlight app is a solution that helps their customers live comfortably in situations where they feel like it was dangerous enough to call 911 through a button.
Solution 2 - Safety emergency phone poles and outdoor alert systems available to residents of the U-district, or more specifically, people living/walking through the UW campus.
Solution 3 - Personal protection devices like…
whistles
tasers
panic alarms
knives
pepper spray
User Personas
From the data collected from 3 stakeholder interviews, I created user personas to better understand how they contribute to the safety of students at the University of Washington campus.
Research Insights
Stakeholder Interviews
UW Faculty
“I was assaulted once while walking, luckily I had a friend with me that day. If I would have known something like this was happening around, I would have changed the route I was taking that morning.”
How can we make it so people would know which areas are or avoid at a specific time date?
UW Student
“It makes me feel safer if I see other people walking near me. A lot of my friends have told me they were victims of crime”
How can we create a community with an app that makes people feel safer, and not alone when walking?
UW Police
“People who are not paying attention to their surroundings are most vulnerable. Another important detail is that most of the services offered such as night walks and rideshare end around 2 AM”
Knowing that the school library is open 24 hours. How can we make sure a person is safe if they walk home alone at this past 2 am?
Survey Results
The 12 Respondents
100% of respondents were students at the University of Washington
The majority (~33%) of respondents were 18. Ages ranged from 18-25
58.3% of respondents were male, 41.7% were female
50% lived on the UW campus, 50% did not.
58.3% said they did not live near UW, 16.7% lived on the Ave, 16.7% lived in Greek Row, and 8.3% lived on the UW campus
41.7% Never walked around campus, 33.3% walked around campus 1-10 times a month, 16.7% walked around 20-30 times a month, and 8.3% walked around all the time.
100% of respondents felt safer walking around with other people.
The latest time most people (5 respondents) felt safe walking through U-district and UW alone was 10:00 pm.
83.3% of respondents felt safe walking around UW campus and surrounding areas, while 16.7% did not.
Most respondents (91.7%) felt safer walking around campus in the day. 8.3% always felt safe.
Prior to the pandemic, a majority (4 respondents) left campus at 12:00 AM at the latest
No respondents or anybody they knew had been a victim of a crime around UW.
83.3% of respondents were aware of safety resources available to them through UW, while 16.7% did not.
The majority of them were men with a median age of about 19. Half of our respondents did not live on the UW campus but usually frequented the campus less than 30 times a month. The latest time most respondents felt traveling through the U-district alone was at 10:00 pm. All respondents felt safer walking around campus with others, 11 out of 12 felt safer walking during the day. Even though the majority of the respondents were men, we found that women were more likely to cite a specific incident during which they felt unsafe walking on or around UW and that women were less likely to feel safe walking around the UW and surrounding areas alone later in the day than men.
Why design a mobile app?
“After scrutinizing and considering each possible solution we concluded that a mobile app is optimal for the safety problem we are aiming to solve. Easy and quick access in any dangerous situation where time is a factor that can directly influence the outcomes”
One of the main needs we identified during the research phase is having quick and close access to an emergency (911) button that can call the authorities and contact other trusted people who can potentially help the person when they face a threatening or dangerous situation. One more advantage that this solution has is offering a platform that can make the resources (Nightwalk & Nightride) more accessible and convenient in one place. Through the U1st application, the interaction between the user and the available resources is more efficient, pleasing, and promptly to the users’ safety needs. This solution stood out because it allows us to target all those areas (emergency button, request Nightwalk, real-time tracking Nightride) that will help users understand and use the resources as well as being in control of guarding their safety when needed.
Figuring Out Design Layout
Site Map
I created this to figure out how we would guide our users in the beginning stages, from downloading the mobile application to using the mobile application. We also wanted to know how we would embed UW’s partnership, as users would need a UW Login ID to use this application.
Brainstorming
We used Miro to contextualize the environment, define clear problems, ideate possible wireframe solutions/ideas.
Designing
Wireframes
We used the possible solutions from the brainstorming session on Miro to figure out the what the proposed product could look like
Proposed Solution
Features
Brand Guide
The University of Washington has very specific branding guidelines, below are some of them.
Improving Upon Feedback and Challenges along the way
Usability Testing
Switching the default screen
We switched the default homepage of this application from an emergency button on-demand to, ping peers a feature to ping others of suspicious locations.
Insights: We found out that if the user opened the app every single time and saw the emergency button, they would be less prompted to use it from being scared of accidentally clicking it. We saw it would be more ideal for someone to use the application often to ping peers, rather than using the emergency button, especially on college campus.
We won the course project contest with the best project and best pitch video!
We are BF-4
