Avia
Overview
Turning uncomfortable situations into familiar journeys for female travelers.
My Role
I contributed to the UX/UI development of the Avia app, contributing to major milestones through producing major visual and written deliverables. These included user interviews, user flows, wireframes, graphics, visual mockups, design system, prototypes, and user testing. I collaborated on these tasks with a team of 4 other peers who also focused on screen designs, developing the visual identity, and secondary research.
Team
Emily Chan, Agamjot Kaur, Giang Tran, Scarlet Sun, Sukena Abbas
Timeline & Results
3 months (Sept-Nov 2024)
Final grade of 95%
Prototype Highlights
We designed an app that allows women to embrace adventure and autonomy. By improving access to real-time assistance, fostering a sense of community, and providing structured tools like safety alerts and information, they are equipped with the resources to travel to unfamiliar places confidently.
The Problem
82% of women have experienced sexual misconduct in public in their lifetime.
It is common to travel for vacation, work, and business. However, female travelers often lack a clear sense of security. The fear and uncertainty experienced while travelling alone are amplified by lack of community, differences in social-cultural values and the lack of resources to reach out to in emergencies.
They cannot risk evaluating a situation in real-time.
While preventative measures are helpful, they rarely address the real-time safety needs that arise during travel. Women are forced to judge the risks of travel destinations from their own knowledge and prepare ahead of time.
Research
Discovery From Interviews
1
Night Time amplifies the sense of fear
Higher fear of harassment, attacks, and unwanted attention
Rooted in past negative experiences
2
Companionship is a deciding factor for travel plans
A person you can trust is more reliable than a stranger
Plans will be canceled if friends are unavailable
3
Balancing emotional reassurance and privacy based on circumstance
Crowded settings: Prefer minimal social interaction and privacy to reduce stress
Isolated settings: Prefer a trusted presence, visible staff, and minimal necessary interaction.
How might we…
Equip women to enjoy their adventure without worrying about their safety?
Connect women while ensuring help is always within reach?
Ideating
Brainstorming with Crazy 8's
What if users with similar travel itineraries and interests could get connected to make a trip a reassuring shared experience?
What if users could be proactive by sharing location updates and crowdsourced neighborhood news to stay informed and safe?
What if users abroad had a location-based contact-list to handle unexpected events or emergencies quickly?
Finding valuable features with User Tasks
Using the insights we found from the user interviews, we created personas to represent our target audience. From there, we created User Tasks to indentify how we could accomplish their goals.
End Goal: Turn uncomfortable situations into familiar journeys
Managing our scope with a MoScoW analysis
User Flow
Keeping the user's goals in mind, we ironed out the user flow to illustrate the actions they could do to fulfill their goals
Lo-Fi Prototype
Cognitive Analysis for Wireframes
To evaluate the usability of our idea so far, we conducted several cognitive walkthroughs. We noted down feedback from our users, and analyzed common pain points that reoccured.
Problem 1: Inconsistent types of navigation for home screen
The app’s home screen is the only page that uses two navigation buttons: one in a hamburger menu from the top left corner, the other fixed on the bottom bar. Both have options that force users to look through multiple sets of icons and CTA’s. Users relied more on the fixed icon due to easier accessibility and clear-cut visuals.
Actionable Solution: Unified Navigation
A unified navigation system will reduce redundancy and minimize confusion. Ensure that all core functions are accessible via the bottom navigation bar, and remove duplicate paths to the same content or features elsewhere in the app.
Problem 2: Misleading SOS button iconography
The icon for the SOS button is misleading, as users assume it only connects them to 911 or a 911 equivalent. It’s unclear the button contains other resources for stressful situations such as embassies or travel services.
Actionable Solution: Labeling
A label such as “Support Resources”, or a graphic icon of a phone with a plus sign, will indicate a broader range of support contacts.
Something that went well:
The companions matching process had pages that were clearly labeled and logically structured, helping users effortlessly identify their purpose and next steps. The detailed walkthrough for the matching companionship feature also proved valuable, as the users were able to input their travel style, budget, and activity preferences. This makes the matching experience feel relevant and reliable, helping them find compatible companions for their travels in unfamiliar territories.
Hi-Fi Prototype
Explore Confidently with Avia
Help always within reach
Call for help with the tap of a single button. If there’s a mistake, decide to cancel during the deliberation period. If not, proceed by choice or automatically after the 5 second deliberation period.
A contact list of help based on your location
In an unfamiliar place it’s hard to know who to ask for help. Search through a contacts-list for any problem and know it’s all tailored to your location.
Find companionship away from home
When you’re alone it’s difficult and dangerous to explore. Complete the quiz to find a buddy in any destination. No matter the problem, find someone to accompany you whether it’s walking to your hotel at night, or chatting about the destination.
Testing
Gathering feedback for the Hi-Fi prototype
We used the "think out loud" method and asked users to complete tasks. We observed their actions and asked for their feedback for inform our next steps.
User Tasks:
What's the phone number for Mexico’s national mental health hotline?
What time is Parke Hotel the least crowded?
Who is someone who can explore Mexico with you?
A friend in front of you suddenly has a severe allergic reaction, what do you do?
Feedback from our users:
For Next Time: Follow WCAG standards
At the time, the team was not aware of accessibility standards. Increasing text sizes and ensuring adequate color contrast will help make information more accessible and easier to read for all users.
Reflection
UI conveys a personality
When deciding on the visual identity for Avia, there were many disagreements on what direction to take the UI. I preferred the design to be minimal, while my teammates preferred a decorated one. After consulting with our prof, she taught us that each product should have a visual identity that represents its 3 core values, and it was up to us to decide which direction suited Avia’s personality more. It shocked me to find out minimal UI was not the standard. This taught me a valuable lesson in communicating an emotional essence through design to users.
Bias brings comfort
When fleshing out the travel buddy quiz, there was discourse on how the results would be displayed. The ideas of 1-3+ results were compared. Some members felt that 1-3 results were too few, while others felt more results would cause excessive superficial judgement. Our mentor stated that in our case, bias would help people find comfort and familiarity since a driving factor in choosing a buddy is a sense of connection. With this insight, we increased the limit of the results so the user could pick among them.
Improving my Autolayout skills
A challenging aspect of building the design system was using autolayout to ensure components were all dynamic. Before this project I had a basic idea of auto layout however I avoided it due to its complexity. I had been practicing by dissecting UI kits in community resources, and applied my knowledge by building the Resource and SOS screens in autolayout.