ios Emergency App Concept | SmrithiDesignStudio

Personal Project

OVERVIEW

In an emergency, having the right resources at the right time can be the difference between life & death. Recognizing this long ago, we’ve built emergency resources into the fabric of our societies. Emergency rooms, public defibrillators, the Heimlich maneuver, & the 911 system are all examples of our society’s built-in, life-saving preparation. As technology advances in the 21st century so should our systems of emergency response. With 248 Million Americans now carrying data-connected phones, the developers of those phones have a role to play in helping with emergencies and saving lives.

I led a design exploration of how Apple, as an extension of their stated commitment to user health, could build emergency resources & response directly into iOS.

OPPORTUNITY

Emergencies, large and small, are a part of living life. Due to their unpredictable nature, emergencies can be incredibly difficult to prepare for. Each emergency is different, requiring different resources for different situations. Studies show that most American do not plan for emergencies until it is too late. We compensate for this lack of preparedness by building preparation into the fabric of our societies and systems (Ex. fire departments, police stations, 911, etc.)

For the past 50 years, 911 has been the first and the most important step in accessing resources in an emergency. This system has saved hundreds of thousands of lives and will continue to be our nation’s first line of defense when emergency strikes. That said, as technology advances in the 21st century so should our systems of emergency response and the 911 system used today has not advanced since it’s inception in 1967. Although a patchwork of systems exist today to augment the existing 911 system (E911, NG911, etc.) there is no reliable way for a user to transmit anything but their voice & phone number to 911 call centers.

248 Million Americans now carry data-connected phones capable of pin-point geolocation, image & video capture, data transmission, and internet access. The fact that our national emergency response system has not adapted to leverage these technological abilities is disappointing it is jeopardizing lives.

WHY IOS? WHY NOW?

Early in the process, I established a simple, guiding problem statement:

How can we help people during an emergency?

Although it was tempting to just design a generalized mobile ‘Emergency App’ for the App Store this presented an obvious issue; Americans do not prepare for emergencies until it is too late and thus they would be unlikely to download and utilize the app in an emergency. To be truly effective, our solution would need to be embedded directly into the systems we already use and on the devices we already carry.

For several critical reasons iOS was the best option:

US Market Penetration: There are 85.5 million mobile devices running iOS in the United States.
Hardware & Software Consistency: All hardware running iOS comes equipped with the necessary technical capabilities for NG911 (reliable geolocating, etc.). Additionally, roughly 90% of iOS users are running the latest OS version at any given time. (Compare this with Android at only 33%)
Apple’s Commitment to Health: In recent years Apple has gone above and beyond in its commitment to user health. Beginning with the introduction of the Health app in 2014, Apple has debuted a series of applications and hardware features geared at helping its users tack and maintain their health.

This solution would be an extension of Apple’s other health-focused offerings. While the Health app can help you avoid dying of heart disease, the Emergency app can help you avoid dying of a heart attack.

COMPETITOR RESEARCH

With my team, I began a competitive analysis by researching and analyzing existing resources in an emergency. Apart from 911 infrastructure there were mobile applications focused on emergency response. Of the 23 applications found I focused on a subset of nine that were most relevant: Gaurdly, ICE Standard, Siren GPS, Disaster Alert, ARC-Emergency, ARC-First Aid, Red Panic Button, Life360, & FEMA.

To get a better sense of competitor’s solutions we examined 20 features across platform. These features included both general information (e.g. what languages were natively available) and more specific features like notifications/alerts/reminders systems. The resulting chart (pictured below) gave an understanding of what features were being offered different solutions. We were careful not to simply implement all the useful features identified but rather let the user research guide what would be most effective for the solution.

IDEATION

Using my research as a guiding force, I began the design phase with an ideation process. The goal was to leave no potential solution or feature unconsidered as I moved from the conceptual to the concrete. With the help of my team, we used crazy 8s, a brainstorming activity where each person spends a few minutes jotting down ideas, presenting it to the team, taking feedback, and iterating until we have a solid set of ideas and insights.

We took those ideas and prioritized them into feature sets. They were documented using the MoSCoW method The result was four categories of features: must haves, should haves, could haves, & won’t haves.

USER FLOW

I developed a user flow for the entire system. Critical to the solution would be ease of access. We knew that integrating into iOS would provide more points of access than other applications.

INITIAL PROTOTYPE & STYLEGUIDE

I created a quick paper sketch of the users based on the user flow and immediately took that to create wireframes and a style guide in Sketch.

USABILITY TESTING

Our goal in usability testing was to gain valuable, actionable insights on the usability and utility of the proposed solution. We conducted controlled usability tests with seven users of different backgrounds. The usability tests were centered around three scenarios:

You are walking with your uncle. After complaining of chest pain your uncle collapses to the ground struggling to breathe. He appears to be having a heart attack. Using your phone, get him help.
You’ve successfully called 911, help is on the way. Using the emergency app find out how you can help your uncle while you wait. Using the emergency app, find out how you can help your uncle while you wait.
While moving apartments, your friend slams his finger in your car door and breaks it. Using the Emergency app, find a hospital and navigate your way there.

To better simulate the elevated stress levels of an emergency situation, users were given the tasks in the rushed, exasperated tones of someone panicking and occasionally prompted with pressuring statements like, “He’s depending on you! Quickly!”

FINDINGS

Insights were initially separated into two primary categories, usability and utility. Since the prototype leveraged many of Apple’s familiar design conventions, the application performed as anticipated in terms of interaction The most significant findings were in the usefulness of our solution. We were encouraged to see that all five entry points into the emergency app were utilized in our limited testing. This seemed to validate our assumption that multiple entry points would connect people more quickly to emergency resources.

Unsurprisingly many users instinctively called 911 immediately when in a life or death emergency. In my mind, this is a great thing and not something we would want to change or interfere with. We have felt from the beginning that our role was to augment our current emergency response system and not to replace it. Seeing how people actually use the system gave us concrete ideas on how we can better improve and augment the system.

For example, we had not considered integrating directly into the 911 call screen until we observed a user act out a 911 call. PSAP operators are trained to ask two questions at the beginning of every 911 call:

What is your emergency? What is your location? Putting the user’s exact location information directly into the call screen would allow the user to quickly and accurately describe or send their location so that 911 operators can quickly and accurately dispatch emergency services.

FINAL PRODUCT

The goal for this project was to get critical resources into the hands of people in emergencies and to augment the response systems. We believe, based on our research & our design validation, that if implemented this solution would help people in times of emergency & potentially save lives.

The solution is split into 5 affordances:

The ability to find and share your exact location with others.
The ability to find the nearest, open hospital or medical center.
The ability to quickly access an expanded Apple MedID profile.
The ability to access critical first-aid information on a range of potential medical emergencies.
The ability to share precise location data with 911 during the call.