Hackathon

Walkbuddy

A place where UW students will never walk alone at night again.

Time Line:

24 hours
(1 day)

My responsibility:

UX Design
UX Research
UI Design

Project Deliverable:

Mobile APP
App Interaction
Protpe

Team:

UX Researcher
UX Designer


The theme of the Winfo10th hackathon was “Embracing the new”.

Our team decided to focus on the UW students and help them solve their problems based on the theme.

Recently, since the Seattle area and UW nearby accidents frequently happened at night, many students whose classes or activities finished at late night might feel unsafe when going home.

So, how might we help the UW students who need to commute at night?

Research

We conducted a survey of UW students asked about their experiences when going home at late night.

75% Don’t Feel Safe

75% of respondents rate their night walk “not much safe” and “Very unsafe”.

50% Walk Alone

Half of the respondents don’t have a person to walk with at night.

83% Want a Buddy

83% of the respondents believe walking with other people would be safer.

Although there are about the majority of students might want a person to walk with, when we asked



“If there is an app that could help you find a walking buddy, would you be using it? Why or why not?”
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I might use it depending on whether the walking buddy I get paired with seems like a “safe” person. Basically, if everyone on the app was background checked first.
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Student A

Hard to say. I will try it but sometimes it’s hard to trust strangle. I will prefer people I know. If the app is about I can see friend I know is walking I will definitely walk with her or him.
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Student B

Maybe, I'll be a little worry about what kind of people my walking buddy might be and safety consequences that comes along.
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Student C

Not sure if i can trust ppl from the walk buddy app. Also I would muck likely to grab a Uber than walking with a stranger.
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Student D

Problem (User Concern)

UW students want to have a walking buddy who they can trust.
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Solution

ID verify, School Student ID log-in, and emergency contact functions to keep users are as safe as possible.

Low-fi design & Prototype

We draw low-fi wireframes of the solution and hackathon mentors give us advice to build a more effective solution.

High-fi design & Prototype

Next, we created the high-fi design and prototypes of WalkBuddy.

Reflection

The Winfo 10th hackathon was my first time joining a hackathon event, and I felt very engaging. Although the mission require time for brainstorming and designing was a little intense in only 24 hours, I learned how to communicate efficiently with my teammates and mentors and enhance corporate skills in team design. I would conduct a usability round with students if I have time to see if the functions design can help students feel trust to use.

I was very happy to meet so many intelligent people who designed inspired products only in one day, and I got many insights for my future design. Even this is an online event, I hope I can have a chance to join more in-person hackathons to gain more different experiences.

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