Abrigada
Abrigada is a project we built from the ground up and transformed from zero to hero. After some extensive brainstorming sessions, we decided to address the issue of women’s safety in our society. However, we realised that this is too broad of a problem to solve with one digital product solution; therefore, we conducted research to outline specific areas that we could potentially help resolve. Through carrying out extensive interviews and analysing the data of a survey of over 70 people, we agreed to find a solution for the lack of safety for women when walking home.
Obviously this is still a sizeable problem, but it was an adequate starting point for our project. Consequently, we created our user persona and customer journey to get some pain points. Once we established these, we worked on our value proposition canvas to outline the pains, gains, pain resolvers, gain creators and functionalities. Even after this process, there were still too many problems to be included in the first version. With this in mind, we worked on a Crazy 8; this established a flow of the points that we thought were a priority.
Taking into account these established priorities, we began working on the information architecture. Again, each of us worked independently knowing that our work would be combined at a later stage to find the best solution.
Although this process may seem relatively smooth, iteration is the key. Therefore, we worked on each step over and over again to help ensure that we arrived at the best solution.
At this stage, we started with the visual layer. Due to the fact that this solution would be used during potentially harrowing situations, the visual layer must be simple and as easy to use as possible. Later, we started working on medium-fidelity wireframes. In our meetings we were continually hand-drawing low fidelity ones to conceptualise an idea; alongside this, we worked on medium-fidelity wireframes to see how to display the needed information, buttons, icons, forms input types, etc. For the first round we worked on the MVPs to create a product that will be useful and attractive for users, but at the same time be basic enough to build and test. For this reason, we decided to work in a single line of the AI.
After analysing our findings, we opted to make the interface in night mode, due to the fact that this app will mostly be used at night. As the main feature is the map, users must be able to see maps on night mode when it is dark. As mentioned before when designing the wireframes, we created them as simple as possible, while always showing the basic functionalities on a tab bar and few more functionalities on a menu.
As you can see, I have refrained from mentioning the bare bones of the project; instead, I have described the most important part of this project: the process. It has been an intense and productive learning experience, and I personally can’t wait to see where this project takes us.