Encouraging brave individuals motivate many others to escape from domestic violence and reclaim their lives.
Nevereveralone
Overview
Nevereveralone: Native mobile app for social good.
A platform dedicated to assist individuals of all genders (Men, Women, LGBTQ, Children) experiencing domestic abuse, providing them a space to talk it out, save proofs and connecting them with help and support. This app will be available in 3 countries UK, US and India.
Duration and Status
Nov 2022 - Apr 2023
Handed over for implementation
Platform
iOS & Android
Marketing website
Tools used
Figma, Figjam, Pen & paper
My role
Stakeholder interaction
User research
UX & Visual design
Design system
Prototyping
Branding
Solution presentation
Team
Tasnia - UX Designer
Karthikaa - Product Owner
Outcome
Taking on the lead role in crafting the native app for NEA, from UX research and analysis to building the entire visual design along with establishing a design system. Additionally, I also developed the brand identity logo for Nevereveralone.
Background
Nevereveralone (NEA) is a Non-Profit organization dedicated to assisting those affected by domestic violence, reassuring them that they're not alone in their struggle.
Nevereveralone’s aim is to inspire and guide the shift towards a world free of domestic violence, while simultaneously providing practical solution to tackle global humanitarian issues and concerns.
Challenge
Domestic abuse is more common than we think. Yet, the more challenging part is countless DV victims hide their struggles.
To create a safe, secure and private space where victims can talk safely, find help and support to escape their abusive situations and heal from their experiences to live life confidently.
Solution
Creating a mobile app for individuals to seek assistance, break free and reclaim their lives.
An app that focuses on privacy and security along with being accessible, inclusive and intuitive. This app can aid millions of individuals vent out, save evidence, get motivated or identify next course of action.
Approach
Focusing on the MVP, we followed a human-centric design approach. Our solution revolved around the core principles confidentiality, security and accessibility for the NEA application.
Using agile approach we tackled the challenge and employed blockchain technology for secure data privacy.
Way forward
NEA's design journey was broken down into phases, which helped us to manage deliverables, assess feedback and collaborate with cross functional teams.
The design process had been flexible and iterative throughout empathise, define, ideate, design and test phases.
Research
I began with a stakeholder's discussion, aiming to get her perspective and motivation for the product. As a survivor herself, the stakeholder had a great clarity with her vision.
"Listen what they say, inspire them by providing with the necessary resources and support them with legal help they need to take control of their lives."
-Stakeholder, Nevereveralone
To deeply understand the struggles of DV victims and survivors, I interviewed victims and got an insight to their experiences and help they sought. This also included interviewing lawyers and therapists to learn how they can assist our victims.
My research also covered domestic violence as a whole. A standout stat from articles indicated that there has been a significant increase in the percentage of domestic violence incidents since the pandemic. Individuals aged 15 - 34 experience DV globally. The majority are women though men, children, elderly or LGBTQ+ also suffer.
Key insights
Lack of support, can’t trust anyone
Individuals feel isolated and are hesitant to open up about their experiences with family/relatives, fearing judgment, lack of support, discouragement or being blamed for lacking understanding.
Escape abusive relationship
Individuals want to break free from their abusive relationship. However, they find themselves trapped in a space, disconnected from outside world and unsure of the appropriate legal steps.
Lost hope and enthusiasm
Individuals get treated as an object to fulfill their desires and needs, always being watched by abuser and family members. Individuals are not allowed to work.
Willing to help and inspire
DV survivors who has fought their battle are willing to share their stories, talk, listen and inspire victims to take action.
Different requirements for different locations
Because the app had a vision to go global, starting with UK, US and India; it had varied documentation need to onboard therapist and lawyers. Their documents needed to be thoroughly verified.
Competitive analysis
As I studied who are NEA's competitors, I discovered significant amount of apps in the market that help with therapy, self care and meditation. However very few that help with anonymous chat or legal assistance.
This offered me an opportunity to enhance NEA by incorporating aspects such as
Anonymous chat
Saving proofs
Motivational reading materials
Connecting with therapists/lawyers
User profiles
Upon interacting with victims and survivors, we identified that our app will incorporate 4 distinct user profiles - victims, volunteers, therapists and lawyers. We created personas that would to help focus our design decisions.
Job stories
We used job stories to represent how the motivation and context of each persona.
Victims
When I get abused by my spouse again, I want to photograph my injuries as evidence and save securely so that I can use it in future for any legal purposes or to show it to my folks.
When I feel ignored by my parents, I want to converse with an individual who won't judge me so that I am understood and I feel better.
When I feel lost and loose hope, I want to read inspiring stories or articles that will help me regain my confidence and pursue employment ensuring a peaceful life with my daughter.
When my phone is checked by my spouse, I want to be able to discrete with my efforts so that I can fight well to get out of the abusive relationship.
Volunteers
When I get an opportunity, I want to support individuals suffering from domestic violence by empathetic hearing or guiding them towards legal aid so that they could escape from the pain.
When I have a platform, I want to raise awareness regarding domestic violence so that I can bring some transformation in society in future.
Lawyers/Therapists
When I find an individual seeking help getting out of a relationship, I want to be able to help them efficiently so that they are free from the abuser and his family.
When a distressed individual, I want to be able to help victims cope up with traumatic experiences and mental state so that they get better and wiser to adapt in life ahead.
Ideating using brainstorming
NEA app will have multiple user profiles/types/roles in a single app. App should use blockchain technology for security.
Having an emergency SOS on the registration screen and the home page.
App shouldn't have any sound or push notifications ever, but have haptics/vibrations.
Able to connect with lawyers and therapists quickly browsing their profile, allowing them to book appointments, send messages or media.
A secure login, sending verification code to register, asking permissions before login and having a secure biometric/code.
Able to chat with volunteers discretely and anonymously.
Able to save evidence securely and share with lawyers at anytime.
There should be a section of empowering blogs or awareness materials.
User flow
A showcase of how each profile i.e Victim, Volunteer, Lawyer and Therapist will move through and interact with NEA app.
Wireframes and Usability Testing
Before diving in into visual designs we started transforming user flows into wire flows incorporating information architecture for primary use cases. We conducted usability tests with the low-fidelity wire flows. After revising the inputs from usability tests in the design, we began digitalising designs.
Below are few observations after the usability testing that we rectified later;
Initially it was decided to have 2 different apps one for victim and another for volunteers, lawyers and therapists. However after reconsidering based on the feedback received, it was decided to merge them into one app with 4 user types, thus incorporated additional screen for users to select their role.
In the chats section, a chat was supposed to be started by a volunteer initially. However it seemed unrealistic since a volunteer might not recognise someone who's merely there to converse, hence making it more sensible for the victim to initiate the chat.
Finding a lawyer or therapist had too many questions/filter screens just to access the list of professionals. This was eventually streamlined to immediately display the list of professionals with a single tap. Individuals still had the ability to filter professionals as per expertise, language, location, price range, gender and ratings.
Visual designs
Hi-fidelity solution showcasing a user-friendly app that emphasises on accessibility, inclusivity and prioritises privacy and security for individuals to be discrete and safe.
Registration and onboarding
A seamless role selection and onboarding for each profile.
Easily accessible SOS button on registration and home screen, in case of emergency.
Email verification code was mandatory for sign-up.
Importance of UX writing to avoid offending individuals.
Home screen
Showcases a motivational picture with a quote.
Volunteer’s availability to chat, notification when they respond.
A brief overview of lawyers and therapists.
One touch SOS and save documents.
Chats
A secured section, with option to end or report chat.
Volunteers can have 2 chats simultaneously and can end chat when conversation is concluded.
Bookings and Payments
Easy consultation with Lawyer or Therapist - just input few details and choose suitable date and time.
Multiple payment methods for a secure payment and receive confirmation.
Other screens
Design system
I created Nea's design system from scratch to cater native iOS and Android platform, having reusable styles and components. This system follows the atomic design principle, where the core atoms i.e colour, typography, grids, icons etc established initially followed buttons, form elements, patterns and other components comprising it together to be a cohesive and robust system. It is an accessible design system following AA/AAA colour contrast ratio, providing clear context for labels, alerts and messages.
A streamlined design system helped us speed up design and development for NEA. Nea's design system is a constantly improving and ever evolving service that could incorporate new components in future.
Branding
While designing Nevereeveralone's brand logo simplicity and memorability were the key considerations. Hence, an artistic and bold monogram for NEA in a heart form was used, symbolising care, security and compassion. The symbol also incorporated the domestic violence help hand signal. A thoughtful use of typography was done for rapid legibility.
Website development
Nea's website is predominantly a landing page website designed to showcase and promote the mobile application. The intend is to provide users and potential investors with essential information about the app, outlining its features, benefits and solution to problem.
Next Steps
As we achieved our MVP of having a product that could help victims to vent out and save evidence, the lawyer and therapists side of the app is still ongoing.
Design a high fidelity prototype of the lawyer/therapists side.
Keep testing with users.
Add a subscription model to the lawyer and therapists
Learning and Reflection
This project is huge and was my very first time working 4 user type profile in one app, where we needed to consider both sides of the app.
Every time while designing one area, we had to simultaneously think about how would this showcase in the volunteer or lawyer or therapists side of the app.
I also learnt that the more often we tested the quicker feedbacks we got and saved time for iterations and rework.
The project focused on simplicity and security, hence understanding the user, their problems and solution around it was our main goal, avoiding flash designs.
Client's testimonial
"Swarali's invaluable contributions were pivotal to the development of the NEA mobile application and our website. She truly is the backbone of our design team, consistently going above and beyond to deliver outstanding results. Her passion, dedication, and design prowess make a significant impact on the success of our project."
- Karthikaa Baskar, Founder & CEO at Nevereveralone
