Road Safety Mobile App Design Assignment Sample

Introduction Of Designing A Digital Technology Concerning The Challenges Of Road Safety

This report outlines the design process for a mobile application to promote road safety awareness and prevent distracted walking among young pedestrians aged 18-21. First, user personas and scenarios are presented to understand the behaviours and needs of the target demographic. Next, MoSCoW prioritization is used to define core platform requirements and features such as real-time hazard alerts, crowdsourced reporting, and hands-free voice navigation. Interface sketches and user flows further visualize the platform architecture and usage journey. An interactive, high-fidelity prototype demonstrates the look, feel, and functionality while enabling realistic user testing. Finally, an evaluation plan is proposed to gather feedback from representative users performing tasks in walking conditions. This structured, user-centric design approach emphasizes safety and aims to validate the platform's ability to effectively grab users' attention when most critical through attention-prompting alerts. With diligent iteration based on usability testing, the goal is to develop an engaging solution that successfully promotes awareness and caution for pedestrians.

Discussion

1. User Personas and Scenario Storyboards (Understanding Users)

Figure 1: User Persona

(Source: Self-created in Xtensio platform)

The visual format on Xtensio makes the personas more engaging and easy to digest. Here is an example format of how the provided personas could be presented visually.

Figure 2: Scene 1

(Source: Self-created in storyboard platform)

It's Saturday morning around 11 am and Andrew is leaving a house party. He starts walking home by himself.

Figure 3: Scene 2

(Source: Self-created in storyboard platform)

A car comes around a corner quickly and has to slam on its brakes to avoid hitting Andrew as he unsteadily crosses the street without looking.

Figure 4: Scene 3

(Source: Self-created in storyboard platform)

He regrets and realizes that he should not have used the phone while crossing the road.

2. Moscow Requirements (Requirements Engineering)

Figure 5: Moscow Requirements of Pedestrian Mobile Users

(Source: Self-created in Draw.io)

The core features that are essential for this platform include real-time traffic and hazard alerts to inform pedestrians of dangerous conditions, easy reporting of hazards spotted by the user to crowdsource data, and hands-free voice navigation to guide users safely without distractions. Useful secondary features could include customizable alert sounds/notifications to suit different users' needs and integration with emergency contacts to quickly call for help. Lower priority features may include gamification through points or rewards as well as augmented reality navigation. Non-essential features like ordering food or ridesharing should be avoided to keep the platform focused specifically on pedestrian safety (Albalate and Bel-Piñana 2019). Defining clear requirements is the critical first step when developing any new product. For our pedestrian safety platform, we'll want to capture both functional and non-functional requirements using the MoSCoW prioritization technique (Elvik et al. 2021). Must-have features would include alerts for upcoming hazards like crosswalks, traffic signals or obstacles in their path. The platform should provide hands-free audio navigation prompts to minimize eyes-on-phone time. Screen locking or limiting when in motion is another essential safety feature.

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3. Interface Sketches and User Flow

Figure 6: Interface skew diagram for road safety

(Source: Self-created in Draw.io)

The interface sketch visualizes a simple, clean layout for the road safety app homepage. A top bar displays key info like usernames and notification alerts. The main screen shows an overview map with the user's location centered (Furlan et al. 2020). Icons indicate nearby hazards reported by the community. A prominent button at the bottom launches voice navigation. Shortcuts on the bottom lead to other features like reporting hazards, community boards, and account settings.

Figure 7: User Flow diagram for Pedestrian Mobile Users

(Source: Self-created in Draw.io)

The simple wireframe sketches of key platform screens like the homepage, map view, and settings are provided (Hysing et al. 2021). These would visually layout where features and information could be presented. A user flow diagram would also show the step-by-step journey a user takes to complete primary tasks like signing up, reporting a hazard, configuring settings, and using voice navigation. This outlines the overall logical progression through the platform.

4. Interactive Prototype

Figure 8: Prototypes of Pedestrian Mobile Users

(Source: Self-created in Figma)

Our interactive high-fidelity prototype can look and feel like a real platform, with visual, audio, and haptic feedback for an immersive user experience. This allows us to test the core user flows identified earlier, and validate the attention prompting mechanisms. Do alerts succeed in grabbing the user's focus when most needed (Khan et al. 2021). A high-fidelity, interactive prototype would be built using a tool like Figma to demonstrate the look, feel, and functionality of the platform concept (Roque et al. 2019) . The prototype would allow clicking through key flows like onboarding, traffic alerts, hazard reporting, and navigation to mimic real usage. Sample data, visuals, and micro-interactions would make the platform feel realistic and testable. Important features may include crowd-sourced hazard reporting, so users can alert others to dangers. Contextual audio reminders to pay attention before crossing the street would also be valuable. Features for future iterations might include gamification elements like safe walking streaks to promote engagement. And likely long surveys or questionnaires while walking initially.

5. Evaluation Plan

Figure 9: Evaluation Plan

(Source: Self-created in draw.io)

Finally, the evaluation plan ensures that the test is with real users in realistic conditions. Recruiting participants in our target 18-21 demographic for moderated tests allows us to assess awareness, attention, and other usability metrics. Observing usage while subjects walk provides invaluable feedback (Outay et al. 2020). User can iterate on the design based on these learnings before launch.

Following a structured design process with an emphasis on safety allows us to build an engaging solution. Defining requirements provides focus, while prototyping and testing validate our platform aproach (Vecino-Ortiz et al. 2022). With proper diligence, User can create a platform that successfully promotes pedestrian awareness and safety. To evaluate the prototype platform, representative users would be recruited to perform realistic tasks while observed. Feedback would be gathered through usability questionnaires, interviews, and examination of usage data. The goal is to uncover issues with utility, ease of use, visual design, and safety impact. Findings will identify improvements to the prototype and highlight the most essential features users want for staying safe.With clear requirements captured, user can start drafting interface sketches and user flowsn (Zhang et al. 2022). A simple, clean interface with high-contrast colors will be easiest to process at a glance. Intuitive navigation focused on voice prompts is essential, along with clear indicators of hazards and prompts to regain the user's attention. Easy access and shortcuts to key features like reporting new hazards should also be emphasized. The user flow itself needs optimization for quick, distraction-free usage while walking.

Report Template

What challenge area are you addressing?

Area 2: Pedestrian Mobile Users, Ages 18-21

What is the overall concept for your Road Safety technology?

A mobile application platform that allows students Road Safety for Pedestrian Mobile Users.

Who are the target users of your technology?

Students aged 18-21 who are Pedestrian Mobile Users

What does your technology do?

Allows pedestrians to use a platform and Users can also share advice to report dangerous traffic and safer walking routes.

What form does your technology take?

A mobile platform for smartphones.

Where does your technology get used?

Used by pedestrians on their phones

Conclusion

In conclusion, this report has outlined a human-centred design process for developing a mobile platform to enhance road safety awareness for young pedestrians aged 18-21. Personas and storyboards provided crucial insights into user behaviors and needs. These informed MoSCoW prioritization of platform requirements, with hands-free navigation and real-time hazard alerts identified as must-have features. Wireframes and user flow structured the platform architecture and usage journeys for core tasks. An interactive, high-fidelity prototype enabled immersive testing of the user experience. Finally, the evaluation plan would assess the platform's usability and ability to effectively prompt users' attention during realistic walking scenarios. While the current concept focuses on young pedestrians, future work could investigate adapting the platform for other high-risk demographics. Additionally, emerging technologies like augmented reality could be explored to enhance navigation and hazard visualization. Gamification elements could also promote continual engagement and safe walking habits. By following a rigorous human-centered design process, centered around safety requirements, the prototype aims to demonstrate the feasibility of a mobile platform to reduce distracted walking and enhance awareness. User testing and feedback will be critical to iteratively improving the concept and ensuring it achieves the intended safety impact once deployed.

Reference list

Journals

• Albalate, D. and Bel-Piñana, P., 2019. The effects of public private partnerships on road safety outcomes. Accident Analysis & Prevention, 128, pp.53-64.
• Elvik, R., 2021. Why are there so few experimental road safety evaluation studies: Could their findings explain it?. Accident Analysis & Prevention, 163, p.106467.
• Furlan, A.D., Kajaks, T., Tiong, M., Lavallière, M., Campos, J.L., Babineau, J., Haghzare, S., Ma, T. and Vrkljan, B., 2020. Advanced vehicle technologies and road safety: A scoping review of the evidence. Accident Analysis & Prevention, 147, p.105741.
• Hysing, E., 2021. Responsibilization: The case of road safety governance. Regulation & Governance, 15(2), pp.356-369.
• Khan, N., Muhammad, K., Hussain, T., Nasir, M., Munsif, M., Imran, A.S. and Sajjad, M., 2021. An adaptive game-based learning strategy for children road safety education and practice in virtual space. Sensors, 21(11), p.3661.
• Outay, F., Mengash, H.A. and Adnan, M., 2020. Applications of unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) in road safety, traffic and highway infrastructure management: Recent advances and challenges. Transportation research part A: policy and practice, 141, pp.116-129.
• Roque, C., Cardoso, J.L., Connell, T., Schermers, G. and Weber, R., 2019. Topic analysis of Road safety inspections using latent dirichlet allocation: A case study of roadside safety in Irish main roads. Accident Analysis & Prevention, 131, pp.336-349.
• Vecino-Ortiz, A.I., Nagarajan, M., Elaraby, S., Guzman-Tordecilla, D.N., Paichadze, N. and Hyder, A.A., 2022. Saving lives through road safety risk factor interventions: global and national estimates. The Lancet, 400(10347), pp.237-250.
• Zhang, Y., Li, H. and Ren, G., 2022. Estimating heterogeneous treatment effects in road safety analysis using generalized random forests. Accident Analysis & Prevention, 165, p.106507.