SafeSpace “Police the Police”

Mobile Application

Project: “SafeSpace’s mission is to save lives.” SafeSpace seeks to minimize unwarranted murders of unarmed victims at the hands of police. When a user is being pulled over, activating the SafeSpace App notifies their “allies” or nearby responders, to come witness and record the interaction. After the interaction is over, the user and any responding allies complete a brief in-app question and answer “safety check” about the interaction. They can also rate the police officer. The data collected provides valuable feedback to the users, their community and the police. The data focuses on preventative actions and allows SafeSpace to “police the police.”

“Police killings and other incidents of brutality have led to fear, distrust, and insecurity, especially for communities of color. SafeSpace is designed to keep people safe while tracking officers’ conduct in real time.” — SafeSpace website

“This isn’t about the tech, it is about the community so police are not afraid of blacks and blacks aren’t afraid of police.” — Mondo Davison

Challenge: “How do we reshape the narrative of policing?” SafeSpace already had a working mobile application and a website. The challenge they presented was to refine, scope and propose additional features and functionality that fit within their technical constraints and budget.

SafeSpace Users:

• Primary User: Individuals who experience a police encounter/incident during a traffic stop, pedestrian stop or house call.

• Secondary User: People who want to sign-up to be an ally or witness to a police encounter/incident.

• Emergency Contacts of the primary user.

• Community Members, Police or anyone who wants to review the data collected from police incidents.

Approach:
This project began with a stakeholder interview and identification of SafeSpace’s goals to look for opportunities to design new features.

The client had allocated 25 total software points for the development budget. Software for Good conducted a tech scoping session, assessed and rated each of our feature cards by software points.

Results & Recommendations: After gathering an extensive amount of information, we evaluated, reviewed, analyzed and categorized it. Our team created over 40 feature card ideas and prototyped these out as low fidelity wireframes. Of these, ten were selected for Kano Analysis and refined into high fidelity prototypes for the Kano survey.

Of these ten and based on the Kano survey results, information gathered and stakeholder goals, I chose seven to incorporate into the app and present to the client as annotated wireframes. 

1. Text Messages to Emergency Contacts — 2 Points (7-10 hours dev time)
2. Audio Recording and Live Streaming — 8 Points (70-120 hours dev time)
3. Witness / Ally Arrival Notification — 2 Points (7-10 hours dev time)
4. Police Interaction Guide — 5 Points (36-48 hours dev time)
5. My Rights Guide — 3 Points (14-20 hours dev time)
6. Ally Interaction Guide (Ally Assists) — 3 Points (14-20 hours dev time)
7. Thank You Text Message to Allies Who Responded — 2 Points (7-10 hours dev time)

New Proposed Features = 25 Software Points

Methods Used:

• Competitive Analysis with several existing safety mobile application
• Audit of SafeSpace mobile app and primary website functions
• Empathy Map / Journey Map of primary user
• Rapid Prototyping: analog and digital
• Feature Card development, scoping and voting
• Kano Analysis of primary and secondary users
• Annotated Wireframes

Tools Used: White Board, Paper, Pen & Pencil, Sketch, InDesign, Photoshop 

My role: UX Designer

View my SafeSpace App annotated wireframes (PDF)