SHE FOR SHE
Roles: User Research / Concept Development / Prototype
Team Work
M.Des. Programme 2018
Violence against women can cause long-term physical and mental health problems. Violence and abuse affect not just the women involved but also their children, families, and communities. These effects include harm to an individual's health, possibly long-term harm to children, and harm to communities such as lost work, homelessness or even mental imbalance.
Using our Master's course as an opportunity, we aim to apply user-centred design methods to gain understanding of the situation and the needs of women under a threat of abuse in the social and cultural environment of Hong Kong. The thesis explores the opportunities which technology could offer to make women aware of their suffering as a part of domestic violence and to help them to get out of their situation for a better livelihood.
Research Challenges
The subject of domestic violence is very sensitive for the affected women, it is usually not possible to work with victims in a design projects. Several women refused to come out and discuss about their problem with us so this was a major challenge.
The design research was concluded with employees of Family and Child Protective Services Unit of Hong Kong and volunteers of whom some had experienced and recovered from abuse.
Research Methods
The design concept is based on research, carried out using user-centered design methods such as interviews, cultural probes, personas, scenarios and mapping the current operating environment and available services for survivors.
The service design concept was evaluated using prototyping and usability tests. A lot of data has been drawn from published academic papers, news articles to understand the reasons and effect of domestic violence on women on a global level.
Cultural Probes:
To seek new inspiration, knowledge, and unexpected ideas about the daily livelihood of individuals which are not easily noticed through interview. We have used 4 types of probes to get insights about their daily life, likes, dislikes, mindset and the level of connectivity they family members.
Contextual Interview:
Detailed one-to-one interview with NGO worker, Ms. Tsang See-Mun who is the head of Family and Child Protective Services Units
Research Insights
"I am not comfortable to talk about my personal life" In Hong Kong women are more inclined to keep negative matters in private because they are afraid of being humiliated and exposed to the possibility of being attacked either physically or emotionally.
"Every couple fight once in a while. That does not mean I should report a police complain against my husband" Lack of awareness is a key factor as often times individuals do not even realise that they are being violated and how dangerous it can be for their mental health in the long run. Individuals also find hard to approach to NGOs by knowing little about it.
" After being cheated for years it is not easy to believe in someone's kind words..." Individuals suffer serious mental and psychological damage. They find it difficult to trust anyone who offers help and support. In most of cases, individuals may come to seek help, but do not cooperate well with follow-up services.
" I know that we are going through a rough time but the breakup is not a solution for everything" Violence prevention education is a very important job, especially motivation and counseling of the partner is very important, such as persuading abusers to learn to solve problems in a non-violent way and how to control emotions.
"Whenever he is stressed due to some other things, he takes out his frustration on me" Factors that contributed to domestic violence are various, education level is one of the factors. Other factors are income, finance family background, drug, alcohol, and mental illness. But abusers still vary from successful businessmen to poor educated people on a case-to -case basis.
Design Requirement
Positive Affections & Motivations
Users can read articles and interviews posted by experts and survivors to educate people about types and effects of domestic violence.
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Online Community
Users can also ask questions or share their experience in the forum with out any fear and can also connect with other victims. This will provide them with a feeling of support and help them to rebuild trust and social network.
Secure Calling
Users can connect with our system representative for further support or with NGO representatives without leaving traces to the call history of the phone.
Safety Solution
This is an alternative interface which will hide the true purpose of the application. Users information, conversations etc will be completely hidden.
SHE FOR SHE - SUPPORTIVE AI BASED MOBILE APPLICATION CONCEPT
The concept of the application is to provide a platform for women suffering from domestic violence to come out and ask for help/suggestion and be aware that they are not alone. The aim of She For She is to provide women tools to recognize their mental state and to provide support for their journey to recovery.
Alternative Interface
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Gesture controlled alternative interface which will hide the true purpose of the application. This is to provide safety to the user from intruder.
User Profile
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Users can have conversations with others, save articles and also read about different services provided by NGOs.
User Profile
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Users can read and comment on articles, blogs, interviews posted by experts and survivors and can also raise personal concerns without revealing identities.
Self Assessment Test
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Users can play a game to check their emotional/psychological health. System will provide guidance based on the test result.
Emergency Call
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Users can contact police/family/representative of the our system without leaving trace of the call in call history.
Usability Analysis
Users could not understand some of the functions by looking at the icons. Thus icons designs has been simplified afterwards Participants felt that there should be an option to keep the real name anonymous during the onboarding process.
User mentioned that since the prototype is on Andoid system, we could also consider hiding the application icon in menu. Users prefer that connections they made here with other user should not exchange real life information like phone number, email etc.
Most preferred features were the self assessment test, service informations of the NGO’s based on location, as they said it is very hard to find out the correct place to reach out in case of emergency.
A fake alternative interface to hide the key content and information of the application was also appreciated by the users.