“NDPA”

👏 Director of Student Engagement at CS4All — Emoti-Con Judge

Good job on the research, this project was really well executed and well thought out. Would this app automatically call the authorities? What if the abuser has moved the victim to another location? Also, it may not be safe for the police to arrive on scene at that moment, however, I love that this would be able to capture evidence.

👏 UX/UI Designer at Irene Geller Design — Emoti-Con Judge

I want to congratulate your team on doing an amazing job of understanding and empathizing with your app’s users and the difficult situation they find themselves in. Using your personal experiences, as difficult as they are, to design something that can make a positive difference in the world is powerful.

You did a really great job with your “wireframe” pencil-and-paper sketches. You made it easy to understand what is on each screen by using easy to recognize icons, like the microphone icon, or the voice recording wave pattern. When designing apps, being able to draw clearly like this is a very important skill for quickly and accurately communicating your ideas to other people so everyone understands the design. I see you began creating a style guide, choosing some fonts, colors, and potential styles for icons. It sort of looks like there are two different style guides - one that looks brighter and uses more “friendly looking” rounded icons, and one that seems darker and more serious. I am not sure if you were experimenting with potential styles, and if you were, that is great! It’s good to try different design ideas out before you choose the one that makes the most sense for your app. You also did a nice job organizing and labeling the different parts of your style guide.

Both your slide and video presentations were also very organized. Using the same color theme on each slide made it look professional and not distracting from the main content. You told your story well and I was able to understand what problems the users have, and how the app aims to address those problems.

Allowing users to make a sound recording is a great way to help victims who may not be able to type on their phone while they are in a stressful or dangerous situation. When we are relaxed and in a safe environment, it feels easier to take your time and read everything carefully on your phone’s screen. But when we are scared, it gets harder to read slowly and carefully and pay attention to details. Users of the app may also need to use their phone very quickly and then hide it, so that their abuser does not see them trying to get help or steal their phone. It would be interesting to think about how we can make it easier and faster for users to start a recording when they are in a stressful and distracting situation. Do you think there is a way users could make a recording quickly, and then come back to the recording later to add additional details like descriptions, photos, etc?

I also like the idea that the recording can be shared automatically with police to get help for the user. I wonder if the app could be set to automatically send a finished recording to other people the user knows can help (like a case worker, therapist, family member, etc?) Maybe there are situations where the user would not want the recording sent to anyone automatically, and instead have the option to send it later. Where might users go to change the settings for their recordings? And where might users go in the app to see and edit their past recordings, photos, and notes?

It was also very empathetic of you to consider how the app can be hidden on the user’s phone so that their abuser does not find it. Unfortunately, things can get even more dangerous for a victim if the abuser finds out they are trying to escape. Keeping the app completely silent is a great way to keep the app hidden! What other ways could we keep the app hidden? I have heard of apps that pretend to be other apps (they make it look like a game, or an exercise app, etc.) so they can hide better. Now that’s what I call “hiding in plain sight!” You would just have to make sure that however you hide the app, the user will be able to quickly open it and use it in an emergency.

This app idea can also be helped by doing user research - by talking to victims directly in a safe environment and asking them some questions about their experiences, we could discover other settings and features we could improve on or add to the app to help our users more effectively.

Overall, your team did an excellent job in clearly communicating who you are designing for, what problems they face, and how your app aims to solve those problems for them. You did this while also presenting your work in a professional manner. Great job! I hope you have all learned a lot from this experience and continue to use those skills and that power of empathy to make great designs.

👏 Head of Experience Design, Digital Channels at Verizon — Emoti-Con Judge

Wow - super impactful storytelling with data. Kudos to the team (and it seems clear that you all really worked as a team!) for addressing such an important and challenging topic. One thing for you to consider if you move this forward is to consider separating the data input for the victim and the abuser onto separate screens so that there is not confusion of which person to enter information for.