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Overview

Crisis Essentials is a mobile application that allows family and friends to create and conduct processes and procedures for emergency situations. Their goal is to reduce stress during such events and allow for information sharing to ensure the user’s safety.

Crisis Essentials needed to build out the high-fidelity prototype of their app, with a focus on accessibility and usability. We found that allowing the user to create customized emergency plans and communication channels was the safest organization method for such high-stress moments.

Discovery

With such sensitive subject matter, we needed to understand the context of multiple types of emergencies, like natural disaster or burglary. We conducted a vast amount of secondary research, but we made sure to double- and triple-check that the sources were verified and applicable. We looked at resources that had to do with setting, environment, and relationships.

We decided to utilize an AI tool to create assumptions for those experiencing or have experienced an emergency. With this tool, we carefully crafted user pain points based on the identified problem space.

The pain points are a lack of knowledge about what to include in a disaster plan, limited time and resources, difficulty getting buy-in from those involved, complexity of the planning process, limited access to information, and lack of guidance and support.

We also conducted a Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities, and Threats (SWOT) Analysis to manage Crisis Essentials' place in the landscape. We analyzed both Noggin and Citizen. We found that the tool should have a focus on integrated communication and customization, while also removing specified content.

Delivery

To further our understanding and fill in missing pieces, we continued using the AI tool to create use cases based on insights previously uncovered. The uses cases felt a little robotic and inhumane, especially the last statement, see below. Although, the statements were referenced as possible points of confusion throughout the emergency process.

“I feel like someone is following me, what do I do?”
“I want my kids to know where the meeting location is if we have a house fire.”
“I just heard gun shots right outside my door.”
“I am scared to go home tonight. How do I talk to my partner about his abusive behavior?”

It was important for us to identify design principles that would be the guiding light through the design process. We did not want the needs and vision to get lost. It was important to focus on clarity and succinctness because, if the tool is in use, a human's life could be at risk.

The design principles are 1) the app should be easy to use and understand, with a clear and straightforward interface, 2) the app should allow users to customize their emergency preparedness plans based on their specific needs and circumstances, and 3) the app should integrate with other emergency preparedness resources and systems, such as local emergency alerts and response networks.

Before officially designing, we needed to clarify the journey and touchpoints that the user encounters when utilizing the mobile application. We created a feature narrative and task map for the general usage experience.

The app begins by prompting users to input their location and any specific risks or hazards they may face, such as hurricanes or risk of home invasion. Based on this information, a personalized emergency preparedness plan is generated, including a checklist of supplies and actions to take in the event of an emergency or disaster.

The app creates and stores emergency contact lists, sends notifications to those contacts in the event of an emergency, displays a map of local emergency resources (evacuation centers and hospitals), sets up custom alerts for specific types of emergencies or disasters, sends push notifications to users' devices with relevant information and instructions, creates and shares emergency plans with others, and displays a variety of educational resources (creating an emergency kit and guidance on how to stay safe during different types of disasters and emergencies).

We placed emphasis on color visibility, text legibility, and comprehensiveness. When designing, we were constantly asking ourselves, "How would I use this when I was most vulnerable?" We focused on a single user journey, which is adding a personalized crisis plan, which the user can implement at any point.

We did not complete user or usability testing. Obviously, with the sensitive subject matter, these tests would be absolutely crucial to the success of the application. We do believe that AI could be integrated into the development to ease usage, but we have not consulted technical experts to understand possibilities.