As part of my mentorship program with Wetech, my co-mentee Folasewa Ogunsola and I put together a UX design project which we presented to the cohort at the end of the program. 

Femguard is a safety companion app to help women feel safer while going about their daily activities in large cities like Lagos. The primary target users are young and adult women ages 18-40.

Role: UI/UX Designer

Duration: 8 weeks

Tools: Figma, Figjam, Google forms, Docs and Slides

Industry: Safety and security

How might we create a solution that increases safety and security for women in potentially dangerous situations?

In urban environments, young adults and women face concerns about personal safety when going about their daily routines. Existing solutions lack the user-centred features and real-time assistance to provide these women with a genuine sense of security.

There is a need for a comprehensive safety companion app tailored to their unique needs, ensuring immediate access to help, discreet distress signals, and relevant safety resources.

Understanding the user...

Our first step in the design process was empathising with our users to gain a deeper understanding of the women we were designing for and in what situations they would use the app. We put out an online survey to gather the perceptions, needs, and safety concerns of women living in Nigeria.

Responses showed that most women have experienced dangerous and potentially dangerous situations without receiving help from authorities or being able to reach out to anyone for assistance. Issues of personal safety for women need to receive more attention as many cases are never reported or left unattended.

Creating Personas...

From the user research, we identified two key pain points. 

• Women often feel concerned about their safety which impacts their confidence to explore new experiences.  

• There was an absence of a safety solution that could be seamlessly integrated with their daily routines. 

Our 2 personas Adedoyin and Emanuella, are representative of the women we were building this solution for.

Learning from the greats...

To kickstart the ideation process we researched existing solutions available on the market. We did an audit of products and services available in and outside Nigeria. 

Our first observation was that safety apps we found were geared towards responding to emergencies more than improving personal safety. Most of them also had poor user experience.  

We also noticed that apps on the market were not leveraging on community and that was a unique advantage we could include in our app.  

Connecting the dots...

We created a user flow to show the path users would take to complete core tasks in the app. The user flow is based on what we had already seen work in existing products with some changes to make room for the new features we developed. 

We ensured to create a process that is intuitive and allowed users to complete desired tasks in as few steps as possible. 

Sticks and figures...

Before moving to high-fidelity designs we put together some wireframes to rapidly test and iterate on the functionality and intended behaviours of the app. When we had agreed on where all the information would be placed we started working on the design system.

Atoms and molecules...

Building a system before designing the final screens was important to work faster and smarter, especially when working with another designer.  We started with the basics such as colour, type and button, and the design system grew as we made progress on the app.

#Onboarding

During onboarding, users have to submit a phone number for verification and create a profile. Even though we designed the app for only women, we allowed other genders access to the app to make room for fathers, brothers, husbands and close friends who could also serve as emergency contacts for the user in time of need.

#Homepage and Safety zones

The map on the homepage gives users an instant view of where they are and the closest emergency response center to them called safety zones. A safety zone could be a health center or a police station. Users can easily contact them when in distress.

#Femsquad and SOS

A Femsquad is a group of 5 people who will be immediately notified when a user is in danger.  To create a Femsquad, users will provide the name of their emergency contact, a phone number and a profile picture (optional)

When the user taps on the SOS button, their Femsquad members are immediately sent an alert with their live location and emergency codes they can dial for help.

#Report Incidents

Users can report an incident and the authorities in charge will be promptly informed of the situation at hand. They can also include supporting media in the form of images and videos to validate their report.  The goal of this feature is to encourage more people to say something when they witness any form of injustice.

#Fake call

In our research, we found it was common practice with women to use fake calls to escape unpleasant situations. Users can schedule a fake call on their phone, and when the call comes in, they can pick up the call and pretend to be on the phone with a loved one to immediately come up with an excuse to leave without the other party noticing.

#Community

The community page is where users can find safety tips and guides, Interact with other brave women, gain support and learn from their experiences. 

In our country, we found that each states have different emergency response numbers. This was something a lot of people were not aware of. In the app, we decided to add a place where users can find the emergency numbers to call for help in their different states. 

Lessons and outcome

This was my first time working with another designer on a project and it was very insightful. I enjoyed bouncing off ideas and working together to build this project.  Most importantly, I learned that Collaboration is a necessary skill for  UX designers. 

The key to effective collaboration is active listening and communication. At times when we couldn't agree on the design, we were able to communicate, listen to each other thoughts and work out what was best for the user. We pitched the app to the community and won the second prize—many thanks to our Mentor and Wetech for the opportunity.