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Pair up with trusted fellow students and walk home safely together with Night Guardians!
Night Guardians is a safety-focused service designed to enhance security and community engagement for University of Washington (UW) members traveling after dark. The service integrates a kiosk, mobile app, and safety keychain mascot to provide a layered, accessible solution that addresses various user needs, ensuring convenience and peace of mind.
Team
Ariel Y. (Myself) - Lead UI Designer
Project
Gloria G. - Product Manager
Product Design
Sasly M. - Lead UX Designer
2024
Jimin K. - Lead UX Research
Designing a Kiosk, Mobile App, and Safety Keychain to Bring Safety to our Students.
Design Question
How might we create a safe and convenient way for the UW community to walk home with others?
Our Design Process
Discover
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Survey
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Extreme User Interviews
Define
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User Scenario
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Design Requriements
Ideate
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Brainstorming Sessions
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User Scenario
Design
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Final Design
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Future Considerations
Insights
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Walking: top way of travel for students
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Want to have people to walk with at night
Insights
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Users have various safety concerns and needs for service
Insights
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Design a kiosk, mobile app, mascot keychain; solutions for various users
Insights
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Stronger security precautions
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Future testing for drop off
Research
Understanding Our Students
Our Methods
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Created a study with seven multiple-choice and short-answer questions
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Received 36 responses
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First distributed among student channels to those who have late-evening classes, then distributed among students at libraries in the evening
Extreme
User Interview
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n=6, convenience sampling, each interview lasts 10-15 minutes
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Invited students to share their concerns and experiences while walking in the UW area after dark.
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Based on the participants’ responses, probing questions were asked
Affinity Maps
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Organize and visualize insights and feedback from students and group them into similar ideas and concerns to identify key brainstorming ideas and patterns
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Gain a better understanding of factors that lead to their experience
Research Findings
Survey
36 Participants
68.2% Female
31.8% Male
55.6% Graduate Students
Walking remains one of the top ways students go home.
58.3%
Walk home after class
69.4%
Goes home late 3+ times per week
55.6%
Commute to campus within 15 mins
38.9%
Commute to campus between 15-30 mins
Student's Sense of Safety
Feeling of safety walking on the UW campus after dark
Feeling of safety commuting outside UW campus after dark
8 (22.2%)
1
20 (55.6%)
2
6 (16.7%)
3
2 (5.6%)
4
0 (0%)
5
feels unsafe
feels safe
1 (2.8%)
1
8 (22.2%)
2
16 (44.4%)
3
10 (27.8%)
4
1 (2.8%)
5
feels unsafe
feels safe
Students generally feel moderate to little safe when walking on the UW Seattle campus and neighborhoods after dark, and they feel unsafe outside campus when it gets dark.
Why Do Students Feel Unsafe?
Delayed transport action
Walking alone (especially for female students)
Past incidents in the area, unpredictable assaults
Poor street lighting
Unfamiliarity withn the area
Fear of being followed or attacked
Occasional bus cancel
Poor weather
Other Concerns
Students' Current Solutions
How do students keep themselves safe at night?
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User Interview
To find a solution best fit for our students we ask them about their frustrations with their current solutions.
Walking with other students
"I can't always have someone with me when I'm walking at night. There will be times when I'll have to be by myself, which can be concerning depending on the time and situation."
Carrying safety tools
"I think pepper spray is good but sometimes you might not have enough time to respond to use it."
Avoiding certain areas
"I'd like to get more detailed information on which streets/avenues I should avoid after dark."
Dissatisfaction with current safety protection solutions
Students cannot always
find others to walk with
Students don't know
what areas to stay away from
Students cannot
seek help immedately
Our Goal
Provide trustworthy and people on similar route to walk with
Provide real-time, detailed information on incidents nearby
Offer timely assistance
Identify the Problem
Design Question REdefined
How might we build trust through community engagement by providing real-time safety information and connecting UW members with reliable walking companions after dark?
As a team, we focused on these design requirements based on our research to guide our design process
User Safety
Design should help students feel safe walking around campus at night.
Speed & Efficiency
Design should be quickly accessible and operable during stressful situations.
Increase Community Engagement
Design should encourage students to connect and increase a sense of community.
Effective
Safety Support
Design should provide real-time and practical support under different scenarios.
Informative to UW Students
Design should offer real-time updates and enhance users’ awareness on route safety.
Offer Flexibility
Design should maintain functionality during adverse weather or device failures.
(Optional) Privacy-Preserving
Design should protect user privacy and maintain transparency in the design process to build trust
Target our Three Main User Types with Different Levels of Safety Concerns
The
Anxious Commuter
Safety Concern Level
Pain Points
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Feels unsafe when walking alone at night
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Walking past dark areas and strangers on way home
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Wants to meet new people outside her program
Way of Travel
Walking & Bus
The
Alert Explorer
Safety Concern Level
Pain Points
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Traveling in dimly lit areas
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Unpredictable delays of bus, don't want to wait at the bus stop alone
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Past incidents like assault and robbery happening in the neighborhood
Way of Travel
Walking, Bus, ride-share
The
Self-Reliant Strider
Safety Concern Level
Pain Points
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Finishes work late and feels vulnerable walking alone at night
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Worries about facing situations in poor lit areas
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Enjoys alone time but fear of becoming a target
Way of Travel
Walking
Brainstorming to Ideate Possible Solutions
After multiple iterations, peer review, and discussions, our final solution is a Night Walk service consisting of three components: On-campus Kiosks, a Mobile App, and a Mascot Keychain. These three components collaboratively offer UW members an easy, quick, and reliable safe Night Walk solution.
Provide trustworthy and people on similar route to walk with
Provide real-time, detailed information on incidents nearby
Offer timely assistance
Campus Kiosk
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Matching on campus
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Sign up with student ID
Mobile App
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Find nearby companions
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Real-time safety alerts
Mascot Keychain
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During walk safety support
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Operates without a phone
Campus Kiosk: Your Safety Hub!
The kiosk is a convenient way for students to engage with campus safety features while facilitating their connection with walking companions.
Strengths
Quickly find companions
Accessed without a phone
Direct access
to security
Foster community atmosphere
Scenario 1: The Anxious Commuter
The Anxious Commuter, studying late on campus, decided they'd feel unsafe walking home alone. They head to a campus kiosk, sign up for a walking companion, and is matched with another student, Alex.
1. Studies at the library in the evening
2. Sign-up for a match at the Kiosk
3. Meets up with Alex at meeting pole
4. Arrive home safe together
Guardian App: By Your Side
The map is a location-based interactive platform that combines user matching, real-time safety alerts, nearby user visibility, and group route planning that are customizable to create a secure and social environment for users.
Strengths
Provides
real-time alerts & risks nearby
Supports match-up to various group sizes
Integrated with physical services
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Mascot Keychain: Cute but Ready
Designed to offer users safety and security without a smartphone by including necessary self-protecting features such as an alarm, flashlight, tracking, and others.
Strengths
Accessed without a phone
Built-in flashlights & alarm
Crisis-ready
Foster community atmosphere
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Scenario 2: The Alert Explorer
Description: The Alert Exploer, opens the app to check for alerts and updates nearby. They share their location on the app with other students and notice that a nearby student, Jamie, is seeking a walking companion. Deciding to team up, they connect and walk home together, adding chatter and a sense of safety to their evening.
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1. Check phone for alerts
2. Sees student seeking a companion
3. Matched and meet up
4. Walk & chat together
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Kiosk
Located in libraries with security, kiosks can help students easily match with other companions
Tap your Student ID to retrieve profile or manually sign-in on kiosk
App Design
Users can use our service without downloading the mobile application. However, the app remains the center of our service.
Future Considerations
Usability Testing
We would like to track where our fall off rates to test the success rate of our pre-screenign questions and incorporate feedback from our users to continue iterating.
Incorporate Virtual Chatbot
We currently implement AI to analyze the pre-screening questions. In the future, we would like to use AI to create more features, like a virtual companion for our users to chat with when there feel at threat.
Magnetic ears on Keychain
We can input magnets into our mascot ears, and students can use them to as another way to pair up with other students.
Further Community Building
In the future, students can earn points by walking with other students, linking up with friends, hosting walking groups, and exchanging points for seasonal goods.
Value, Impact
Night Guardians aims to empower UW students, staff, and faculty to feel safe and supported in their nighttime journeys.
For Users
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Have a secure and convenient way to travel on and around campus after dark, fostering confidence and reducing stress.
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Create a sense of community through peer connections and visible safety initiatives.
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Demonstrate commitment to student well-being and campus safety.
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Create a scalable service that can adapt to diverse needs and evolving safety challenges.
For UW
Thanks to Gloria, Sasly, Jimin, and UW HCDE 518 for making this a memorable and special project.
Security Precautions
Trust & safety remains at the top of our concern and we want to ensure students feel comfortable with other students they are matched with. To ensure that the technology we create is not exploited we added pre-screening question and location protection.
Answer Security Questions
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Asking users why they are using this service allows us to better understand their needs and also check for any red flags that might raise security concerns
Confirm Identity
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Requiring verification of identity for requests made after 7:00 PM,
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Before 7:00 PM, most businesses remain open, and there is typically more foot traffic around campus, contributing to a naturally safer environment.
Hide Exact Location
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This feature enables users to have their location hidden by drifting their location on the map to somewhere between a mile to 3 miles after they completed their walks
User Dashboard
Users have everything they need in this hub to check the sunset time, find a Guardian, check for alerts, contact security, share location, etc.
Find a Guardian
Open from the home screen menu, the user will see available guardians seeking companions nearby. They can filter by walking with single users, groups, or alone. When a request is approved users can chat and update each other on their location and estimated time of arrival for meet up.
Guardian Map
Available Groups
Request to Join Group
Request Approval
Group Route Planning
During Route Homepage
Scenario 3: The Self-Reliant Strider
Description: The Self-Reliant Strider studies late and decides to head home. They check for other students to walk with through the app on their phone, but everyone has headed home. The app suggests safe routes for their walk home. To feel more secure, the student activates their location-enabled Keychain. The Keychain protects them as they walk, knowing they can trigger an alarm if needed. Once they arrive home safely, they turn off Keychain's location and alarm.
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1. Working late at the lab
2. Checks the app for companions
3. Safe route suggested
4. Activate keychain protection
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Three Solutions, Designed for Every User and Situation
Campus Kiosk (at Libraries)
For users who need a quick and convenient way to find students to walk home with. Located in high-traffic areas like Odegard Library, students can sign up and find matches quickly.
Night Guardian App
For users who would like to gain the whole experience. It keeps the User updated on activities nearby, finds matches or joins groups, plans routes for walking alone, and more.
Mascot Keychain
For students who walk home alone with no nearby guardians, the keychain includes tracking, contacts security on sight when the alarm is pressed for more than 5 seconds and can be set to silent or audible.