PROtect

Background

During the fall of 2019, PROtect partnered with Miami University to seek research and design

support for their personal safety application. I was selected as one of five designers to participate in this initiative, working closely with the PROtect team to create an entirely new user interface.

Our process focused on key UX methodologies, including wireframing, prototyping, A B testing, and usability testing. This experience strengthened my ability to collaborate within a design team while applying user centered research to drive thoughtful and effective interface decisions.

My Roles

Team Lead: Led a team of four other designers, through research, design & usability testing.
Lead UX Designer: One of two primary designers on the team, when developing the user interface.
UX Researcher: Worked with four of my peers to conduct in-depth interviews, A/B Testing & eye tracking tests.

Constraints

This project required researching and designing for two distinct target audiences, mothers and sorority members, each with unique needs and expectations. Limited access to interview participants challenged our research approach and required thoughtful prioritization of insights. Additionally, the design needed to resonate across more than one country and culture, requiring careful consideration of language, norms, and user behavior.

Early Discoveries & Insights

Early in the project, we conducted user interviews with our target audience using a basic question and answer format. The goal was to gain a clear understanding of their habits, needs, and expectations. From these interviews, we observed several key insights:

All participants (10 out of 10) had used some form of tracking app or another tracking method.
Many shared common activities they wanted tracked, including Uber rides, trips to the mall, dates, and nighttime walks.
Users wanted the ability to share their location and see the location of others.
Mandatory features, such as tutorials, needed to be quick and unobtrusive.
Clear and precise phrasing was essential to ensure correct understanding and use of the app.

Brand Guidelines

Our first task was to meet with the CEO of PROtect to gain a deeper understanding of the app and its goals. Following this discussion, we analyzed the existing app, studying its colors, fonts, and language. Through this review, we recognized the importance of maintaining a serious tone while also preserving the app’s distinctly feminine color palette.

In-Depth Interviews

After team discussions, we determined that conducting interviews with our target audiences would be the most effective way to understand how users perceive personal safety and how the app could address their needs. Our target audiences included sorority members and mothers in their 30s to 50s, so we recruited participants from these groups to conduct in-depth interviews. The insights we gathered provided valuable guidance for designing features, workflows, and interactions tailored to each audience. You can view the findings from sorority members here, and the findings from mothers here.

Personas

Based on our in-depth interviews, we developed personas to guide the design of the app. These personas were crafted to reflect both realistic users and the goals of the app, ensuring they felt like real people with authentic needs. The visual design of the personas aligned with the app’s aesthetic to make them presentable and engaging. From this exercise, we learned that the app needed to be easy to learn, efficient, capable of sharing location, facilitate simple communication, and, above all, make users feel safe.

Wireframing

It was time to begin our first iterations of wireframes. At this early stage, we were less focused on the details other than what we solidified in the Brand Guidelines. The goal of these wireframes were putting together workflows and identifying different layout possibilities. Each team member created their own version of the wireframes, which we then narrowed down to two preferred options for each screen to prepare for A/B testing.

A/B Testing

As we moved into evaluating our design ideas, we decided to run A/B tests using paper prototypes. At first, this approach felt almost archaic, but it quickly proved to be incredibly insightful. The goal was to understand user preferences for layout, color, typography, and wording, as well as to uncover any points of confusion in the interface.

During the tests, participants were presented with two versions of a screen and asked which they preferred and why. This helped us gain valuable feedback on the styling and visual hierarchy of the app. Next, we asked users to interact with the prototype as they would the real app, pressing buttons on paper to simulate navigation. We observed their behavior closely, noting moments of hesitation or confusion to determine what felt intuitive and what needed refinement.

The insights from these A B tests were instrumental in shaping our design decisions and guiding the overall direction of the app, ensuring the final experience was both user-friendly and visually effective.

Eye-tracking Usability Test

During usability testing, we incorporated eye tracking to better understand how users interacted with the app’s key features. This was by far the coolest part of the research portion of this project.

We closely observed the first moments of each task, from arriving at the home screen with the tutorial visible to creating an event for a date or a quick event while taking an Uber. We also tracked how users updated their profiles with a new phone number and how they accessed notifications to view friends’ upcoming events.

Watching these interactions in real time revealed patterns in attention, navigation, and decision-making, helping us identify areas of confusion and opportunities to make the interface more intuitive and streamlined.

After both the A/B and the Eye Tracking Tests, we reconvened as a team to turn these findings into actionable UI and UX improvements to make to the app.

Takeaways

Overall this experience is what opened my eyes into what UX and UI Design and Research is all about. I enjoyed this process from start to end. Here are some key takeaways from this process:

User-Centered Research is Critical: Conducting in-depth interviews, A/B testing, and eye tracking revealed clear user needs and behaviors, such as tracking activities, sharing location, and requiring quick tutorials, which directly informed design decisions.
Design for Multiple Audiences and Contexts: Researching and designing for two distinct target groups, mothers and sorority members, across multiple cultures highlighted the importance of accessibility, tone, and culturally aware design.
Personas and Early Prototyping Guide UX: Developing realistic personas and iterative wireframes allowed the team to explore design options, test workflows, and ensure the app was easy to learn, efficient, and fostered user safety.
Collaboration Strengthens Outcomes: Working closely with the CEO, cross-functional team members, and stakeholders throughout ideation, testing, and refinement improved alignment, clarified goals, and led to more effective design solutions.
Iterative Testing Drives Refinement: Paper usability tests, A/B tests, and eye tracking highlighted potential pain points early, enabling ongoing refinement of interactions, navigation, and interface clarity before high-fidelity implementation.