ACCESSOS
making emergency help
accessible
PRODUCT
37 million Americans can't hear or speak out loud. AccesSOS app allows them to contact 911 without the need to speak and hear.
CHALLENGE
My main challenge is to make the emergency reporting process quick, while collecting enough information about accidents for dispatchers.
SOLUTION
More automation, and new functionality that will allow users to pre-save their personal information and automatically send it to dispatchers.
RESULT
Following the redesign, the number of steps was reduced from 12 to 8, decreasing completion time from 8 to 3 minutes.
TOOLS
TECHNOLOGIES
iOS, Android, PWA
RESPONSIBILITIES
TEAM
Project Manager, UX Researchers,
UX/UI Designers, Developers, Marketing
DURATION
Oct 2023 — Jul 2024
1
Discover
2
Analyze
3
Design
Ideation
Wireframing
Testing
Prototyping
Testing
4
Test
CHALLENGES
Balance between user and dispatcher needs
How much freedom to give users?
Can they select multiple emergency types?
What will they write in textboxes?
Find study participants
People with disabilities who previously were in emergeny
situations are a very specific target group.
Organize emergency scenarios
With about 20 emergency scenarions identified,
how do we present them to users to choose from?
DISCOVERY
Unlike other apps and means to contact help that rely on speech or understanding English text, accesSOS is icon-based and silent.
Deaf and Hard of Hearing
Non-verbal
Low English Proficiency
Cognitive Disabilities
1
The app locates you
2
3
Answer questions
about your situation
4
Send the generated SMS
created according to dispatchers' needs
5
Wait for help
and try to stay calm.
While the app offers features like automatic location detection and gathers vital details about the nature of the emergency, certain critical information such as door codes, vehicle descriptions, floor and apartment numbers are omitted for the sake of brevity. These details hold significant value for dispatchers.
Very few emergency icons
Vague location
In the initial designs, users were presented with 12 icons to describe their emergency: 4 for Medical, 3 for Police, 2 for Fire, and 3 for Mental services. This limited number of options lacked a clear order.
Moreover, the system lacked options, leading users to select "None of the above" which was uninformative. Enhancing icon selection efficiency emerged as a critical need from these findings.
A lot of user reseaarch has been done in the past, especially among people with disabilities.
However, there were significant gaps in team's understanding of user behaviors.
No Emergency Experience
People who experienced emergencies before were not included in research
No Experience
Calling 911
People with experience contacting 911 were not included.
No Testing in Emergencies
How can you replicate the anxiety of an emergency situation? No usage metrics available.
To cover these gaps I conducted a lot of desk research about people's (disabled and not) experiences with 911 and surveyed 911 dispatchers.
Preparation for Different Situations
Users with disabilities, particularly cognitive disabilities,
prepare for possible emergencies and rehearse their plans.
Unclear Thinking
Impacted by fear and panic, people can't provide relevant
information. Many can't provide any.
Simple Descriptions
Few callers possess a medical diagnosis; most rely on
describing their symptoms.
Caregiver Dependency
They often depend on designated emergency
contacts for assistance during critical situations.
DOES A SIMILAR APP EXIST?
Not really.
Among similar apps, I found a common reliance on voice or two-way texting interfaces. None of these solutions effectively targeted our entire audience.
The most significant insight from this competitive analysis was the potential of integrating a pre-filled personal profile feature. These profiles would contain medical conditions, physical appearance, disabilities, and other considerations, and would be automatically sent to dispatchers, saving users time.
ANALYSIS
KEY ACTIONABLE INSIGHTS
Prepare & Rehearse
Let users test the app
Save personal info
Save frequent addresses
Influence of Panic
Need clear structure Need directions
One step at a time
Dependency
Add emergency contacts
Can notify them, not 911
Users with disabilities, particularly intellectual disabilities, prepare for possible emergencies and rehearse their actions.
Impacted by fear, panic, and confusion, people in emergencies can't provide relevant information.
Dispatchers need information, but users want to spend as little time as possible reporting an emergency.
Users experience heightened panic and decision-making time increases as the number of options provided to them increases.
Individuals with disabilities often depend on designated emergency contacts for assistance during critical situations.
In specific sensitive emergency scenarios, users may feel apprehensive about engaging with public services.
Incorporate features within the app that facilitate users' emergency preparedness.
Restrict free typing and implement structured input methods in the app to enhance effectiveness.
Enable users to expedite the reporting process by allowing them to pre-fill essential information in the app.
Limit the number of options, or restructure their presentation to expedite decision-making.
Integrate a feature that allows users to easily access and notify their emergency contacts in times of crisis.
Design the user interface to offer alternative means of accessing support.
DESIGN
WHAT ICONS DO WE NEED?
How do we choose what icons users will see?
How do we provide more options without overwhelming the user?
In which order do we present icons?
1
Severity or frequency?
Display most severe or most common emergencies first?
What is more severe, chest pain or a seizure?
2
Symptom or diagnosis?
Do we display medical terms (stroke) or common symptoms
(pain, weakness)?
3
Choose multiple?
How do people decide what emergency services they need?
Who would they contact if there's a traffic accident with wounds?
UNSUCCESSFUL ATTEMPTS
Below are screenshots of our multiple attempts to make sense of different emergency scenarios.
Why none of them worked? Based on multiple A/B testings and usability studies, we identified key issues: freedom to choose multiple options slows down completion time, scrolling increased decision-making time and is difficult for people with cognitive disabilities, scrolling is not convenient when moving, severity does not guarantee frequency.
BETTER APPROACH: NO SCROLLING, GROUP BY FEATURE
This redesign is based on official statistics, dispatcher surveys and usability studies findings.
This way of presenting led to a significant cut in average completion time - decreased to 3 minutes.
My process:
1
Identify the most frequent scenarios in each emergency type (medical, police,
fire and mental) according to 911 statistics.
2
Group the scenarios by key symptom/feature.
3
Present icons from broader to a more narrow category.
4
Limit to 1 choice.
To better organize emergency icons on the page, I analyzed
911 statistics available online.
RESULT: MORE DETAILED OPTIONS
As a result, the need to scroll was eliminated and users were given more choices to describe their emergency.
REDUCING THE NUMBER OF STEPS
SOS ID
By giving users a way to save their personal information on their emergency card, we could remove name, accomodations from the flow.
More automation
accesSOS app will automatically send the generated text, users don't need to open their messaging app anymore
Frequent addresses
Allow users to save frequent addresses (home, school, work)
Less priority
Focus on the most important details. Other info, like who needs help can be given to dispatchers later through texting.
User flow went from 12 screens to 8.
SOS ID
ACCESSIBLE INTERFACE
When building a design system, we kept in mind accessiblity standards, environmental factors such as bright daylight or shaking hands, aimed for simplicity and minimal content on page to avoid distraction.
To improve language clarity and accessibility, we used the Common European Framework of Reference for Languages (CEFR). CEFR is an international standard for describing language ability and it organises language proficiency in six levels - A1 to C2. We audited the wording across the app and converted higher proficiency levels (B1 to C2) to basic level (A1, A2)
We also revamped the presentation of certain questions in our app to enhance their actionability and highlight their significance.
Since I joined the accesSOS team, we have saved 89 lives with our emergency reporting app.
NEXT STEPS
Test final
prototype
App update
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