As part of a product design course at UC San Diego, I worked with a team of 9 to create a product involving protecting an individual's privacy or security. Bringing fourth our values and research of this topic, we decided that it was most important to prioritize physical safety because it is easy to overlook one's wellbeing until the unfortunate occurs.
Wellbeing and safety may come in the most unexpected times. We wanted the design of Pinto to be as efficient as possible so that users can swiftly make use of the features when in times of need.
There are many methods that can exponentially increase a person's safety. We wanted to combine various features in a seamless experience so that users can utilize them all in different circumstances.
It is commonly known that there are a multitude of mobile applications that provide the service to share locations and track loved ones. With Pinto, we wanted to make an all in one application that really buckled down ensuring one's safety.
Safety should not be exclusive. Our team presented an array of situations in which Pinto could be used by producing personas that portrayed different scenarios and demographics that we should take in account.
In order to differentiate Pinto from other applications that are on the market, we devised a list of dozens of apps (e.g. Life360, Spy Phone, Find My, etc). We documented their notable features and what they were missing, and brainstormed on how we could combine, and better implement features that we deemed important.
We conducted user testing while implementing our features so that we could ensure our designs were efficient and satisfying to use. We had tests walking individuals through different situations and how they would react accordingly on the app.
Usability tests showed that users were confused on the purpose of the application upon first use because the landing page was the map. To address this, we changed it to the friends/groups section, allowing less steps and increasing visibility of sending a check-in. Being consistent with our design system, we designed our onboarding page where users can create an account, learn about the app, and then send a check-in right away!
Using previous knowledge of how messaging applications work, we transformed the check-in feature to allow users to choose their intended recipients first. This prompts a chat page where users can click on the blue pinto bean to elicit a check-in. Settings such as reoccurring check-ins can be found with the recipient's icon.
Pinto's map feature allows users to check surrounding areas and the current crime s happening there. Users can also search for desired destinations and navigate there while avoiding areas that have higher crime rates. Friends that have shared locations can also be viewed on the app and the interactive icons allow for another method of sending a check-in with them.
We designed the fake call feature to turn into a fake chat bot after user testing revealed that it was too conspicuous. Doing this would let users seem like they are simply texting someone else. Users can give the chat bot simple instructions such as, "Call me in five minutes," which would then prompt a fake call.
Addressing comments that the SOS feature was not practical for the reason that it obliged users to open the app and navigate through it, we designed a SOS feature shortcut that could be easily found in the settings page. Users can pick how many buttons they would like to press before invoking an SOS call.