Spher App
Personal safety app with a goal to create safer cities for women.
PROJECT OVERVIEW
ABOUT SPHER
Imagine a woman being able to feel safe at a club, cab or while walking home alone in the evening. A Swedish start-up Spher which has been slowly evolving since 2019 is on a mission to make safer cities for women a reality.
The Spher app will launch in 2022.
SPHER STARTED WITH A PROBLEM
The majority of women regardless of their location don't feel safe when being alone outside of their home after dark.
While there are numerous safety apps available on the market, women do not have a single empowering tool to help them keep safe and address the fundamental issues of safety in public spaces.
PROJECT TYPE
Mobile App, Women empowerment
MY ROLE
End-to-end UX and UI design of two main features of the app: two-way location sharing and chat. Contributing to other features, project management
TEAM
UX/UI Designers: Myself (Dagija Kugeviciute), Katerina Blazheva, Francesco Fastelli
DURATION
Ongoing project (Since Jan 2022)
BUSINESS GOALS
New Users
Win 1000 New users/week since app launch in September, 2022.
Returning Users
Empowering women - more motivation to return.
New Allies
Earn a reputation to acquire 10 new allies (bars/clubs/taxis) by 2023 and new investors.
CONSTRAINTS
Limited Time
Having attracted the first investor it was important to deliver the project by the agreed date.
Limited Budget
Due to limited budget not all features can be implemented in version 1.0
Data Privacy
Compliance to data privacy standards and security of users should be ensured.
SOLUTION & FUTURE GOAL
The long-term goal of Spher as a company is to take a more wholistic approach to the public safety issue.
However, considering the limitations above, SPHER Version 1.0 mobile application empowers women by providing them with access to immediate help.
A personal & quick onboarding experience.
Not to lose users.lorem ipsum
Ability to add the trusted contacts.
Alarm button.
Location sharing and notifications when friends get home.
Chat with quick actions for better accessibility
WHY IS THIS PROBLEM IMPORTANT?
Initial research - problem validation
While Spher is an inclusive organisation, some people ask but why are you targeting women? Is this is really a big problem even in Europe? So I looked at the secondary quantitative data from the UK to see the reality of women.
Individuals aged 16-34 who have experienced harrassment in the past
Individuals aged 16-34 who have felt very or fairly unsafe when walking alone after dark
The first chart seems to directly corelate to the second - how women feel in regards to safety after dark. Which leads to the conclusion that the problem is there and it is BIG.
WHAT UX METHODS I USED TO DRAW QUALITY ON THE SOLUTION AND WHY?
METHOD #1: COMPETITIVE ANALYSIS TO SEE WHERE WE WILL BE HEADING
The competition has little to NO empowerment aspect
“Safety is your responsibility”
GPS with your circle/Chat
Emergency button
Premium required, evasive
Based on community resilience
Calling nearby guardians
Guardians training
Patronising content to keep safe
Tackles public safety problem
Mark and report unsafe area
GPS with your Guardian
Path bound, limited features
METHOD #2: USER INTERVIEWS x 5
I lacked understanding in future user pains, needs and expectations in order to cater the final product towards their needs. Among other things I wanted to know:
What is the experience of women when walking alone after dark? Does it differ by country?
What is women’s experience regarding safety in bars, clubs and taxis?
Are there any specific measures that they take to feel safer?
ANALYSING THE DATA
5 Women (from different countries)
70+ Data points
14 Insights
2 Types of pains
FINDINGS
Women’s pains and needs can be divided into two types
RELATED TO PUBLIC SAFETY IN THE SOCIETY
Often not taken seriously when telling others about being harassed in public places - it happens too often.
RELATED TO KEEPING SAFE
Always ask female friends to inform when they get back home but sometimes friends forget.
When I’m going somewhere new, I would make sure to send the address to my friends or my boyfriend.
- Anonymous woman, NL
WHICH PROBLEM TO PRIORITIZE & HOW TO APPROACH IT?
Balancing user needs with business goals and tech capabilities
METHOD #3: FEATURE DISCOVERY AND PRIORITIZATION WORKSHOPS
In order to see how we can best meet the future user needs and beat the competition, I initiated three workshops with a cross-functional team including developers and the founders.
Workshop 1: Brainstorming features & Voting
Workshop 2: Prioritization of voted features
Workshop 3: Classified features by importance for the user
Finally, we used MOSCOW method to classify all of the features including the ones identified in market analysis.
In the MUST HAVE section we have put the features that enables users to achieve their goals.
PRIORITIZATION SESSIONS LED US TO THE FOLLOWING CONCLUSION
App version 1
FOCUSING ON KEEPING SAFE PROBLEM
How might we provide women with access to help so they feel more confident walking alone at night?
Next version goal
TACKLING THE ROOT PROBLEM
How might we improve the public safety by refusing to accept female exclusion?
MESSY LOW-FI SKETCHES
Catering towards prioritized features and flows
VALIDATION
I continuously iterated on the design and made 4 major improvements
1st MAJOR IMPROVEMENT
Removal of path line and saved path
2 nd MAJOR IMPROVEMENT
Destination sharing: Map usability score increased
Incorporated destination option into one flow
3 rd MAJOR IMPROVEMENT
Quick actions in chat for better accessibility
4th MAJOR IMPROVEMENT
User-friendly layout: decluttering location sharing screen
LEARNINGS
Overall this project has taught me the importance of prioritization and thinking how each element of design would tie together and contribute to the end result benefiting both for the users and business.
Also, prioritization of UX methods and constant iterations are crucial for quicker progress.
IF I HAD MORE TIME I WOULD...
Explore more alternative cases
To increase safety i.e. low battery, limited-time to react, having no guardians to add etc.
Refine chat
To match user needs for quick actions better.
Solve other identified user pains
Dive deeper into nice to have features to relieve more user pains and increase the competitiveness for the business.
WHAT'S NEXT?
Of course, this isn't where it all ends. There is still a lot of work for us to improve the product in terms of usability, the visuals and most importantly - the features that would help tackling the root problem regarding safety.
I'm excited to see how Spher develops further!