We reached out to 7 women within our own social circles and interviewed them to get a first hand idea about the exact pain points that they go through in their commuting experiences. We invited them to share deeply contextual instances that highlighted the nitty gritties of their problems and from the highly personalized insights that we gained from them, combined with an extensive ideation process, we converged on to developing driver reviews as a solution that we thought to be equally of great value and feasibility. While our main focus was on the safety and comfort of women during rides, which was rooted mainly in the driver-user relationship and the role of the company to have a more human-centered approach in their recruitment and training process and customer service, we were also able to delve into addressing some aspects of the high cost of commuting for women as well as empathy training as a precursor to greater and more long term social behavioral change. While our iterative prototypes were all application based, we employed role playing and co creation sessions in our testing process as well which helped immensely with the redesigning. Our final product is the addition of a driver review section in already existing commuting apps with its corresponding customer feedback team with a fleshed out vision on how to offer a safer experience and eventually build the pathways of trust with the gender in concern.

The first thing in our quest to understand our users and stakeholders was to draw up a stakeholder map. Our starting point was women that are “University Students” since accessibility to the said group was the most abundant. We then tried to sub categorize university students because that in itself was a hefty demographic. We followed the same method for mapping out the stakeholders as well, only at first, we listed down all the different stakeholders that came to mind and then grouped them together under a shared theme. The exercise of coming up with a stakeholder map proved fruitful in the sense that it fleshed out in our minds all concerning individuals and groups and what their relationships were to each other. It is worth noting that at this point we had a very vaguely defined problem. We stated in deliverable 1 and I quote, “If we imagine the success of our project, we primarily visualize it as women being as free in the public sphere as men are and that entails every single place/organization/establishment that a woman could visit being a stakeholder.”

• Interviews

All of us conducted in-depth interviews on zoom following a semi structured approach. Before conducting the interviews we came up with an interview guideline. We started off by introducing ourselves/ice-breaking/catching up, introducing our research and the human centred design process. We then moved on to asking topic specific questions, user expectation questions, and finally follow up questions with a general ethos of starting broad and open ended and then narrowing down as we went along.

While the data we got from the interviews was extremely rich, we also considered observing and immersion. Since we had just one woman in our team with access to her users in person, we decided to let her spearhead the observation and it fell on us to accompany our close friends on a ride. However, with the limited time and the delicate nature of these exercises we could not have rushed into it. Aymen was unable to meet with her users because of curfew restrictions on campus and Safeer and I could not find an opportunity to immerse ourselves that came up organically. We had let our users know of what observation and immersion was and what it entailed and we had asked them to let us know if they were comfortable picking us up on their way to anywhere if our locations lied close to their original routes. Unfortunately, nothing transpired and we could not have asked them to book a careem to somewhere just for the sake of these exercises.

We all conducted 1 on 1 interviews because we decided that that would make our users, since they already knew us, more comfortable opening up and the users agreed to that as well. We recorded the interviews and decided to take notes while going through the recordings. Going through the process of making notes after conducting the interviews helped a lot in cementing the data in our minds instead of overwhelming us. With better clarity, the analysis and ideation stage of the process became much easier. Also, the whole process was transparent and consent for everything was taken beforehand.

Although most of users were of the same class background, going to the same university, weo chose them because of their richly varied personal circumstances. User 1 was used to driving around every day of the week, she pretty much did everything her brother would have done if she ever had a brother, that is. User 2 had an extremely restrictive home environment, however, she was currently interning in Switzerland where she had no restrictions whatsoever. While User 1 and User 2 are from Karachi, User 3 is from Attock/Islamabad and she had recently joined a women’s cycling commuter group.

The main focus when conducting these interviews - after the catching up/icebreaking of course - was to keep it as conversational and natural as possible while trying to fish for stories. I noticed that in the first half of the interviews, the users mostly spoke in generalities and it took some time for them to start sharing specific experiences in detail. Moreover, I realised asking questions that started off with “Would you be comfortable sharing an instance when…” were counterproductive as they put the user on the spot. I found asking questions that indirectly prompted them to share their experience, for example, “Have you ever been in an accident?” or “How do authority figures treat you in public?” worked much better.

Most of the major insights from the interviews revolved around the following themes and were not unexpected:

• Less options/modes of transport and destinations.

• High cost of commuting

• Parental restrictions

• Harassment (The male gaze, being followed/videotaped, the fear of society painting its own skewed narrative in case of an event)

However, there were many instances where I was surprised and my worldview was challenged. These were mostly related to the personal contextual circumstances of the user in question and to be very honest allowed me to develop a more nuanced perspective on the broader topic:

• User 2 is someone who has a curfew when she is in LUMS, all her movements are monitored by her parents, has to travel with shades whenever travelling with family, does not have access to her own bank account and is constantly told she has the most freedom any woman has had in their family. On the other hand when she is abroad, none of this matters. She is allowed to travel alone, at any time of the day, or night for that matter. Kind of mind boggling. While it is true Switzerland has better law and order, more progressive values and a more efficient public transport system that is the norm another thing that ‘enlightened’ me was the fact that while she hates the idea of wearing abaya in Pakistan, she feels somewhat less uncomfortable doing so, however, in Switzerland, she feels less comfortable wearing hijab. This just points to the universality of the predicament women face; how their bodies and their ability and need to move freely is regulated by people and factors that they do not have control over.

• When asked what is necessary for a woman centric commuting service to work a part of a user’s reply was “The marketing of your product or design solution shouldnt target the male insecurity because the patriarchy will destroy any such initiative.” I felt like that comment needed its own bullet point.

• All users stated that authority figures for the majority of instances are very nice and helpful, although sometimes it is rooted in the idea that a woman always needs a man’s help. User 3 shared an experience where while cycling at midnight a friend of hers crashed face first into a pothole (a lot of blood loss, motor functions disrupted, nose dislocated) She stated with gratitude that there are a lot of nice people in the world too. A lot of people commuting stopped for them and offered help. However, she also stated that even if she had not gone into shock, she would not feel up to the task of navigating the whole situation because well if women’s access to public spaces is so limited and fleeting, then it only makes sense that they wouldn’t know how to be in public spaces either when gotten the chance. And that speaks volumes about women’s experiences in public spaces. Although, I am aware of the possibility of confirmation bias in drawing this interpretation. She could just be in shock and very well able to manage such a situation. However, there is some merit to her thinking she wouldn’t be able to. Oh, a bystander surgeon ended up taking control of the situation and taking the injured girl to the hospital.

However, once the interviews were done and we started the ideation stage, our problem statement started to take shape. At this point we could differentiate between our primary stakeholders and secondary stakeholders:

Primary Stakeholders

• Private Commute Services

• Women who go to LUMS

• Friends/family

• Drivers/Captains

• Parents

Our starting point for drawing up the map was women that are “University Students” since accessibility to the said group is the most abundant. We then tried to sub categorize university students because that in itself is a hefty demographic. We followed the same method for mapping out the stakeholders as well, only at first, we listed down all the different stakeholders that came to mind and then grouped them together under a shared theme.

Changemakers include those stakeholders that would be interested in the findings of this project or depending on that would opt to fund our solution or scale it up on a national level, in addition to incorporating findings in practical applications that would help improve women’s access to urban spaces. Next up were those stakeholders that would be deeply involved but belong only to the private sphere. Corporate/Industry has a category of its own because it includes those stakeholders who would be more directly impacted, almost as if it's guaranteed that they will be affected. There’s also a section for Public and Public Spaces that we found was good without sub categorization. If we imagine the success of our project, we primarily visualize it as women being as free in the public sphere as men are and that entails every single place/organization/establishment that a woman could visit being a stakeholder. Then we also have Miscellaneous.

Theme: Primary Concern with Commuting

Insights:

• Women feel unsafe during commute and feel a pressure to stay reserved in order to not attract unwanted attention.

• All users feel commuting for women is more expensive since they are limited to using mostly cars as opposed to, for example, bikes.

• Users that drive feel everyone presumes they do not know how to drive. They face extreme powerlessness in the face of an accident/near-accident. Getting screamed at where they struggle to get in a word is the norm.

Theme: Concerns with Commuting applications and Services

Insights:

• Women generally feel comfortable using these services because of the tracking system and the knowledge that the car is registered and in case something goes wrong they can complain on the helpline.

• All users have to face extremely chatty captains that ask too many and mostly inappropriate questions. Getting female captains on the other hand is rare but always a much much better experience.

• Users feel the lack of women drivers in commute transports which makes them feel unsafe and marginalized.

Theme: Buses and Rickshaws

Insights:

• Mostly a no go unless for very short distances because of the fear of kidnapping especially when travelling in a city where you don't know your way around

• Women feel that Buses and Rickshaws commute require appropriate clothing due to stares from men in public spaces.

Theme: Travelling Alone

Insights:

• All users rarely travel alone, they would rather prefer going out in groups and for some it is necessary to have a guy friend to be able to go out.

• When they do go out alone it is a highly anxiety inducing experience. They are hyper aware of their dressing, the way they are presenting themselves and their surroundings. And almost every time they end up getting followed and in some instances videotaped.

• All users have a subconscious thought process and checklist they use when going out. For example, not going out late. checking locks of the car. keeping something for safety such as pepper spray. checking the number plate and the driver etc. wearing appropriate clothes when commuting and this just gets exacerbated when travelling alone.

Theme: Parental Restrictions

Insights:

• All users feel they would commute more or try more ways of commuting if it were not for the restrictions placed on them by their parents.

• While all users disagree with the restrictions to some extent they also recognise that the restrictions are rooted in very real, very valid problems.

• Women feel that their parents don't trust public transport and commuting applications such as Uber and Careem.

• Users feel that sensationalized Commute incidents on television and internet have made parents more scared and defensive.

Theme: Authority Figures

Insights:

• A lot of users claim they have good experiences with authority figures while commuting

• Insight: While this is good intentioned, sometimes authority figures just assume they are in need of help, unprompted which makes them very uneasy

• Many users feel negatively about authority figures. Judgmental police, negative stigma attached to girls in public spaces. If a woman feels threatened and reports to a police nearby they are taken lightly.

Theme: Commute Groups

Insights:

• Users prefer to travel in groups in company of both male and female friends and family.

• Very few users are part of regular commute groups. The user in question is part of an all female daewoo group and a cycling squad. Strength in numbers allows more freedom in terms of mobility.

Theme: Commuting in Developed Countries vs Pakistan

Insights:

• Users are infinitely more likely to travel alone. They also prefer public transport because of its accessibility/ closeness to people which would be the opposite in Pakistan/efficiency and popularity.

• Users state they feel much more comfortable because of better law and order, more progressive societal values and a more efficient and accessible public transport system.

Our next step was to use the insights statements that we had derived, to create ‘How might we?’ questions. For each theme we derived as many questions as we could which questioned the deep-rooted issues for every theme. These questions helped us define our problems and direct us towards brainstorming solutions.

• Primary Concerns with Commuting:

• How might we make sure women feel better able to belong in the public sphere?

• How might we make commuting for women cheaper?

• How might we change people's perceptions regarding women drivers?

• Concerns with Commuting applications and Services

• How might we improve the application to make sure women have more comfortable and secure rides?

• How might we improve captains to be better at dealing with clients with differing backgrounds and lifestyles?

• Buses and Rickshaws

• How might we improve public transport so it feels more inclusive and safer?

• How might we ensure women are not discriminated against in public transport?

• How might we ensure women are not made uncomfortable and harassed in public transport?

• Travelling Alone

• How might we make commuting alone a safer experience?

• How might we make sure women feel comfortable and relaxed when travelling alone?

• Parental Restrictions

• How might we make it so that women don't have to violate restrictions set by their parents and as a result not face the repercussions when 'found out'.

• How might we improve the commute applications in order to gain the trust of users and their family?

• How might we try to reconcile with the traditional views of parents and reduce their anxiety on the potential threats of using transport services?

• Authority Figures

• How might we ensure that authority figures focus on the safety and inclusivity of women in transport services?

• How might we make women see that authority figures exist for their own safety?

• Commute Groups

• How might we improve the already existing but obscure commute groups designed solely for women?

• How might we increase the awareness of commute groups services for women?

• Commuting in Developed Countries vs Pakistan

• How might we incorporate practices and laws from developed countries to Pakistan in order to ensure women safety and comfort?

The most frequently repeated word during our initial data collection was safety and specific to the use of commute apps, the most frequently used word was also safety but other key-words/phrases were unpredictability, the lack of trust in the company and the lack of accountability for how the captains might treat their passengers. As a result, when we decided to go with driver reviews it was not only because we felt that we could cover all or most aspects of something as simple as driver reviews, given the scope and timeline of the project, but also because they tackle the aforementioned concerns of our users to some capacity. We were also able to combine some aspects of other solutions we came up with in order to address even more concerns of the users as you will see as you go further along.

Before getting into the individual rationales we would like to state that throughout the process we were very inclined towards co-creation. Once we had decided the five scenarios and we tried to dig deeper (the storyboarding helped point out all possible question marks we needed to address) we had a lot of questions about the nitty gritties that we felt we needed user opinions to answer properly. As a result, that factored into the way we thought of which scenarios to use. What would be relevant to the users and other stakeholders that affect the users? What would the users see value in from a providing feedback point of view?