Overview
The problem:
We want to be more aware of our environment, to safely navigate it but too much information can distort our sense of safety and trust. So how can we provide better situational awareness without informational overload?
The goal:
We would like to provide the user with situational information related to their surroundings; Without distorting their sense of safety and providing them with better tools to assess the validity of the information provided.
The responsibilities:
My responsibilities include Conducting interviews, digital wireframing, low and high-fidelity prototyping, conducting usability studies, accounting for accessibility, and iterating on designs.
User Research
Users are looking for safety through situational awareness, but misleading information and information overload can create situational anxiety.
I have conducted user interviews and created empathy maps to understand the users I’m designing for and their needs.
A primary user group identified through the research was working adults who moved to a new city or were worried about their environment.
User pain points:
Negative information
Too much negative information regarding incidents makes the user anxious.
Trusted information
It's hard for the user to know if they can trust the information they see.
Notifications
Too many notifications assuming what the user wants to know can induce more anxiety than a sense of safety.
Persona:
Janette is a busy working adult who wants to be more aware of her environment because she is in a new city and wants to stay safe.
Janette siemens
Age: 32
Family: Single
Education: Marketing degree
Hometown: Louisiana Illinois
Occupation: Market analyst
Life is too short to spend it worrying
Goals
- I like to make sense of the world around me and understand human behavior.
- I don't want to worry about the world and have tech help me.
Frustrations
- Getting bombarded with calls, texts, and notifications.
- Scrolling through an endless pit of Emails.
- Technology not being cooperative.
About
Janette is a marketing analyst who is passionate about her work, but she is new to the city and her work puts her under a lot of stress. She likes to have peace of mind when she gets back home, as her home is her safe zone and safety is her top priority.
User journey map:
The goal of the user journey is to create better situational awareness without the anxiety resulting from overwhelming untrusted information.
- Getting the information from the new or work of mouth
- Asking a friend
- Checking on the web
- Checking the TV
- Checking the TV
- Checking social media
- Asking a friend
- Asking a friend
- Checking on the web
- Checking the TV
- Resuming the normal flow of the day
-Change the flow of the day
Single reliable source of information
A way of evaluating the trustworthiness of the information.
Single reliable source for Monitoring
A way of evaluating the trustworthiness of the information.
Finding trustworthy information.
Wireframes
Design
Taking the time to draft iterations of each screen of the app. Ensuring the elements making it to digital wireframes are well-suited to address the user pain points. As the initial design phase continued, I made sure to base the screen designs on the feedback and findings from the user research.
- Trust taps to show the level of trust in the information voted by the users.
- The closer the user to the event location, the higher their rate.
- Notifications only for user-selected posts.
Usability Study:
Conducting one round of usability study helped guide the designs from wireframes to mockups, revealing refinement points.
Different types of events
Adding other types of events other than incidents give the user more ease that not all posts are negative.
Trust bar
Having a trust bar with an overall number of voting users makes it easier to validate the post information.
Information
Information
showing the post location time and distance from the user makes it easier for the user to assist the impact of the information on them.
Refinement
& Mockups
Based on the usability study findings, the user is looking for different types of posts that include accidents, roadblocks, incidents, and events. Which in return lowers the user's expectancy of incidents thus anxiety levels. Also having clearer information related to the post help the user better assess the situation.
The final high-fidelity prototype presented a cleaner user flow that met the user's needs for stress-less information. Also, the use of progressive enhancement helped utilize the extra real estate.
Accessibility considerations:
Colors
The use of a unified buttons colors that are sure to contrast with background.
Icons
The use of icons to help make navigation easier.
Text to image
Provided access to users who are vision-impaired through adding alt text to images for screen readers.
future steps
& Takeaways
Impact:
The app makes users feel more aware without overloading them, and the trust bar makes it easy to navigate misinformation.
One quote from peer feedback:
“I don't feel anxious when I use it”
Lessons Learned:
I learned that the first ideas for the app are only the beginning of the process. Usability studies and peer feedback influenced each iteration of the app’s designs.
Next steps:
Conduct another round of usability studies to validate whether the pain points users experienced have been effectively addressed.
Conduct more user research into groups and data collection.
Evaluate the criteria for trust voting and the information that can increase the credibility of the voter.