Role & Responsibilities
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Solo student project for Google UX Design course
Project Duration
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May 2022 - Jun 2022 (One Month)
Problem
During the cyclone, the people affected by the cyclone needs help but they don't get help in time and because of that, they have to suffer a lot.
Goal
My goal was to create a mobile application through which people affected by cyclones can get help in time.
This sparked the question-
Solutions
Direct Call for Rescue & Medical Support
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Direct call for rescue and medical support with one Tap.
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Automatically an emergency message(SOS) send when users call for rescue or medical support.
Find Shelters/Relief Camp and hospitals near you.
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Find directions to all the shelters, relief camps, and hospitals near you.
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With the offline map feature, users can find directions to shelters & hospitals even when there is no internet connection.
Request for Supplies
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If you have a shortage of essential things like food, water, and clothes, then you can send a request for their supplies.
Understanding the Users
My goal is to build a product from real user problems rather than come up with a concept from a preconceived idea. So first of all I had to understand;
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Who are our primary users?
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What kind of goals do they have?
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What are their frustrations and pain points?
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What do they really want?
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What do they really need?
And for that, I dived into an intensive 2-week research spirit and conduct:
User Interview
I interviewed 12 people who have faced cyclones before, to better understand the target users, their problems, and their needs. And then synthesized all of this data into an affinity map that helped me to build personas, empathy maps, journey maps, and design ideas.
Competitive Analysis
I did a competitive analysis to better understand the solution that already exists.
During the competitive analysis, I reviewed two mobile applications. Both are government applications. One is offered by Mumbai Municipal Corporation and directly caters to disaster impact mitigation, and another one is offered by the National Disaster Management Authority, Indirectly associated with impact mitigation.
Analysis
I synthesized the collected data from the Interviews into an affinity map to help form insights and brainstorm design ideas to solve higher-order problems.
Insights
Based on the affinity map, I generated the following insights by grouping similar notes under similar headings.
User Persona
Based on insights and observations from the research methods, I created two personas that captured the essence of our users and their characteristics, needs, and frustrations.
Starting Design
wireframes
Given our research findings, I did a quick ideation exercise to come up with ideas for how to solve the user's problem and how to address gaps identified in the competitive audit. Then I sketched out paper wireframes for each screen of my application, keeping the user's pain points in mind.
Then I turned the paper wireframe into digital wireframes and created the initial designs for the Saviour App. These designs focus on delivering a simple user interface so that users can easily access all the necessary features without any hustle.
Design Challenge
No network, no service!
I faced a problem during my design, if the phone does not have a network in an emergency, users will neither be able to call for rescue and medical support nor will they be able to use the map to find shelters or hospitals.
So after some research and brainstorming sessions, I finally found the solution.
Emergency call and SOS
Condition 1: loses signal from your provider’s network
you can make emergency phone calls without a network signal. When your phone loses signal from your provider’s network, it automatically connects to the strongest network that it can find in order to allow for emergency calls to go through. However, since it is not your network, you cannot make other calls.
Condition 2: What if any network provider is not available?
In case any network provider is not available in an emergency, then your SOS message will be waiting, and as soon as any network provider is available, your SOS message will be transmitted immediately with the help of that network provider.
Map for shelters and Hospitals
With the help of auto-download map feature you can download your map so that even if the internet is lost from your phone for some reason, you can still find directions to the shelters & hospitals.
Testing+Improvement
3 major improvements in my design
To prepare for testing, I created a low-fidelity prototype then I used that prototype to conduct a remote unmoderated usability study with 10 participants. Then based on the insights from the usability studies + peers' feedback, I continually iterated my design over the span of 1 week- with 3 major improvements:
Help Screen Merged with Home screen.
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Based on feedback, I merged the help screen with the home screen.
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Now people will get all the necessary options on the home screen.
Emergency Screen Merged with Request Screen
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Based on feedback, I merged the emargency screen with the request screen.
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Now an emergency message will automatically be sent every time people call for help.
Create dedicated list
for shelter.
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Based on feedback, I create a dedicated list of shelters.
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It makes it easy to check all shelters nearby.
Final Product
Finally, they’re done. After iterations were made based on usability studies and peer review.
Direct Call for Rescue &
Medical support
Direct call for Rescue & Medical Support with one tap.
Automatic Emergency Message Send (SOS)
Automatically an emergency message(SOS) send when user call for Rescue & Medical support.
Find Shelters & Hospitals Near by You
Find directions to all the shelters, relief camps, and hospitals near you.
First Aid Instruction
In case someone gets sick or gets injured then know how to take care of that person until the medical team reaches.
Offer Help to Others
With the help of the "Offer Help feature,"
if you want, you can help needy people.
More Screens
Prototype
Outcomes
After the final design was made. I did another round of usability studies to validate whether the pain points users experienced have been effectively addressed or not. And here are some highlights from the results:
Conclusion + Lessons Learned
Throughout multiple User Testings, trial and error, feedback, and peer-to-peer sessions. At the end of the project, I’m super happy because I’m able to accomplish my goal.
What I learned
I learned that even a small design change can have a huge impact on the user experience. The most important takeaway for me is to always focus on the real needs of the user when coming up with design ideas and solutions.
What's Next?
If I had more time, I would have loved to conduct in-depth usability studies and test the prototype in the field/real world scenario. This would have helped me to identify some of the feasibility factors such as the usability of the interface in terms of accessibility, information architecture, and our solution's impact on helping people affected by cyclones.
Thank you for reviewing my work on the Saviour App
