Safe Walk
A pedestrian navigation feature to increase a user's sense of safety.
​
Context: Course project for Interaction Design course at University College London
​
Roles
UX Researcher / UX Designer
​​
Timeline
November 30 - December 2022
​
Skills
-
User research
-
Wire-framing
-
High fidelity Mockups
-
Prototyping
-
Usability Testing
Target Audience
Young city dwellers ​
​
Background
Currently, Google Maps does not offer routes that accommodate for safety. The focus is on getting from point A to point B as quickly as possible; however, many pedestrians feel unsafe on the suggested routes.
Solution
An Google Maps feature that allows users to choose routes which prioritize safety over efficiency. This is done in two ways (1) Offering users a safety-conscious route alternative and (2) Making it easier to connect to others with immediacy during the journey.
Figure 1: High fidelity mockup of a safety-conscious route being offered alongside the fastest route.
Research question: What pain points do young adults in urban environments have when using walking navigation apps?
​
Survey
​​
I conducted a survey on Qualtrics with 12 adults to determine the pain points of adults who use walking navigation.
​
73% of participants reported using Google Maps as their primary mode of pedestrian navigation, so this is the application I focused on, as it would have the largest impact.
​
Participants were asked to enter free text in response to "What do you wish you could customize about your route?" 7 out of 12 participants responded with concerns about safety, mentioning scenarios such as returning from a party, going on a first date or walking home alone at night. From this, I developed my refined research question.
​
Research question
​
How could safety be prioritized in the pedestrian navigation feature of Google Maps?
Crazy-8's
I then brainstormed ways Google Maps could increase users' sense of safety.
​
The challenge in this stage of the design process was the feasibility of these ideas. This data may not exist or be very difficult to generate. However, the goal at this stage was just to imagine alternate algorithms to get from point A to point B using different metrics of safety.
​
Participants individually expressed very different definitions of what safety meant to them. For example:
1. Avoiding moving traffic.
2. Surrounding yourself by more people.
3. Prioritizing main roads.
4. Walking past 24-hour stores.
My mission was to think broadly about the meaning of safety which would allow users to customize safety features that work for them.
Figure 3: Hand-drawn Crazy 8's brainstorming session that displays eight different ideas as to how to make users feel safer while navigating their walk.
Next, I created a user persona to identify with and understand the user you're designing for.
​
User story
​
As a woman who lives in a city alone, I want to know the safest route home, so that I can feel less anxious.
Problem Statement
​
Mia is a young woman who lives in San Francisco and often walks home alone. She wants quick access to loved ones when walking home alone because it provides comfort and peace of mind to both the her and her loved ones.
​​
Storyboard
​
I chose to create a storyboard because context and situation are key to the add-on. A prime example of its use would be a friend leaving another friend's house to walk home alone after dark. The person using Safe Walk is concerned with their personal safety, but so is the friend anxiously awaiting their return home, and the way in which Safe Walk can reduce anxiety for both parties.
​​​Goal statement
​
Our GoogleMaps add-on will let users prioritize safety which will affect city goers seeking alternative routes home. We will measure effectiveness by comparing the self-reported safety scores of the fastest route versus the "SafeWalk route."
Low-fidelity wireframes
Before moving onto high fidelity mockups, I created hand-drawn low-fidelity wireframes to plan the layout before moving onto digital design. I drew inspiration from Google Maps' design practices. I also considered the situational context of looking for a route at night: Users would likely want ease and simplicity first and foremost.
High fidelity Mockups
I developed high-fidelity mockups of the Safe Walk feature using Figma. Icons and design guidance were sourced from Material 3, Google's most up-to-date open-source design system.
Safer Routes
The user would select Safe Walk to view routes that are centered around safety metrics such as lights, open businesses, population density and major roadways. In the mockup, the blue route shows the more efficient route, while the green route offers an alternative, safer route.
Contact check-in
Users can decide whether or not they want their location to be shared with selected contacts. A user can also enter the reason (to be shared with contacts) and the preferred check-in frequency.
Emergency call access
​
In-app buttons allow users to stay in-app and call selected contacts or emergency services quickly.
Re-occuring check-ins
​
A check-in pops up at the time duration the user specified earlier and prompts for easy access to the selected contact.
Prototype and usability testing
Design Iteration based on insights
Insights from usability studies were used to make changes to the high-fidelity prototypes. These changes were based on priority 0 pain points, which prevented users from being able to successfully navigate the main user flow.
Insight #1
Problem
4 out of 5 participants did not know what to select to get the Safe Walk process started.
Modification
An informational box that introduces this new featureLabeling the icon to make it more clear.
Insight #2
​
Problem
4 out of 5 participants did not have the patience to read each individual description and felt generally overwhelmed by the amount of information on the page.
Modification
The design was modified to break each step onto its own page. More text was added to explain the result of each action.
Takeaways
Concept such as “safety” are complex and individual, and should be explored more thoroughly in initial design phases to elucidate the most important safety metrics.
​
Competitive analysis revealed other applications or add-ons with similar end-goals, but which failed to account for such a comprehensive approach to safer journeys. Informal interviews with other developers of similar applications would help inform problem areas and strategies to tackle them.