Mobilising Intelligence
for Personal Safety:
A Case Study
of WOVER

AAA accessibility — — Mobile application design — — Branding

Summary

WOVER, the brainchild of Mobiltron, was a groundbreaking mobile application I had the privilege to design as the UX/UI Mobile Designer. Responsible for the iOS mobile application, branding, and AAA accessibility adaptation, I worked closely with the iOS developer to ensure seamless integration of accessibility standards.

It was a mobile app designed to address the critical need for fast and accurate emergency reporting in various emergency scenarios. With its innovative approach, leveraging wearable sensors, utilising protective analytics, and including a safety social network, it was able to provide emergency assistance.

Introduction and Chronological Retrospective:

A brief overview of Mobiltron's mission to mobilise intelligence and the inspiration behind WOVER.

Back in 2014, I joined Mobitron's team to work. A group of intelligent people created a mission to mobilise data to build a tool that will help people in emergencies. WOVER was inspired by all the high technology achievements of that year, especially by iOS's abilities for personalisation as well as the rise of wearables, big data, machine learning algorithms, and mHealth technologies.

  • The first generation of smartwatches was out there, and everyone brought amazing innovative ideas to the table, besides their limited functionalities.

  • Traditional analytics seem to have become obsolete due to machine learning algorithms. The future was about those algorithms that can learn from the data they process and can be trained to improve as they process more data. #bigdata

  • Our mobiles, in connection with the wearables, turned our devices into personal assistants able to give recommendations and advice based on health monitoring and wishing to improve people's lives and upscale healthcare to be more efficient.

  • In November of that year, Apple launched its new typeface, San Francisco SF Pro as well as SF Symbols, which was able to support all the different accessibility needs, among other features like Greyscale, Improved Zoom, and In Case emergency card.

The opportunity:

At that time, the market was dominated by Personal Emergency Reporting Systems (PERS) targeting the elderly with limited functionality and high costs.
WOVER aspired to offer a user-centric experience, addressing a wider age range and offering customisable features at an affordable price point.
The market for personal safety was evolving rapidly after the appearance of wearables, driven by increasing awareness and demand for healthcare solutions, so WOVER tried to incorporate all the bright new technology into their solution. 

The solution:

An iOS app that would integrate the data metrics from the iPhone and Apple Watch to feed our detection engine, our smart algorithm, and understand if the user needs help.
The intelligent emergency detection system would be able to identify emergencies even if the user could not or was not able to communicate with and notify the right individuals to take action. The vision was to strengthen a trusted network of people who can "watch over" their loved ones and gradually build peace of mind.

Target audience, users, and decisions:

Our target audience was the Sandwich Generation, people between 45~65 years old, who care for their ageing parents while supporting their family, husbands, and children. Our users would be a wider group of ages and technologically literate people.

Looking at the audience and the application objective, we end up with three main values that we have to work with:

Practicality // Connectivity //
Accessibility

Design and Development:

Description of WOVER as an iOS app designed to act as a lifeguard for the user.

  • Emphasis on the app's role in notifying the user's connections in case of emergencies.

  • Consideration of accessibility guidelines, particularly AAA accessibility rules, throughout the design and development process.

  • Details on how colours, gestures, positioning, and code structure were tailored to prioritise accessibility.

Key Features:

  1. Real-time emergency detection and notification.

  2. Customisable emergency contact list.

  3. Integration with iOS accessibility features for users with disabilities.

  4. User-friendly interface designed for ease of use in high-stress situations.

Design contribution:

The logo idea

After analysing the brand's core values, including emergency, danger, prevention, need, connection, safety, and lifeguard, the concept for the WOVER logo emerged swiftly. Recognising the frequent use of dogs in assisting individuals with special needs and their remarkable history of saving lives, the incorporation of a dog silhouette alongside the initial "W" and a subtle suggestion of a buzzer button formed the foundation of a powerful logo perfectly aligned with the app's objectives.

The colours

Covering as many accessibility aspects as we could, we started with the colours.
The primary colour palette, the WOVER red #E00004, the dark grey #585959 and the sugar white #F6F5F4, passed the colour contrast in WCAG scale at least the AA and they were used in very specific combinations.
All the secondary colours were there for secondary actions that did not require reading.
Moreover, all the colours were visible as tones, for all the colour-blindness limitations (Deuteranopia, Protanopia , Tritanopia, Grayscale)

The font

The use of Apple's system font, SF Pro is preferred for several reasons. Firstly, it offered simplicity, ensuring a familiar and consistent look and feel of the iPhone, thereby enhancing the iOS user experience. Secondly, it supported personalisation by allowing the design to adapt to environmental variations such as device orientation, display size, resolution, colour variations, and split view. Thirdly, it minimised effort for developers while still supporting accessibility features, enabling adjustments in font weight, size, and colour to emphasise important information and maintain readability. Guidelines are established, including a minimum font size of 16 pixels and maximum adjustments based on user preferences in Accessibility settings, ensuring readability and avoiding truncated text. Overall, SF Pro provides a comfortable reading experience, enhancing usability and accessibility across different device settings.

Thanks for passing by!

Hope you are still alive!