2023 / USC IYA Integrative Practices Residential
SafeLit
SEPT 7 - SEPT 11
5 days
Context
The Integrative Practices Residential asked us to challenge an industry to think bigger and look toward the future. The open prompt for this IPR was:
“What is the future of (what) for (who) at (where)?”
My team’s final deliverable is a wearable device that connects with an app to enforce the safety of festival attendees.
My Contributions
→ Conducted research on existing technologies
→ Broke down app task-flow
→ Developed user personas
→ Identified risks and mitigations
→ Crafted low/high-fi wireframes and mockups
MY ROLE
Project Lead, High Fidelity Wireframes, Prototyping
User Experience - Mobile App Design
TEAM
Freddy Janney, Emma Krempa,
Dennise Minjarez
OVERVIEW
What is the problem?
SafeLit - A safety device and app
Our client
Our goals
The Challenge
In the past few years, there has been an increase in safety hazards at outdoor music festivals due to crowd behavior. In 2021, a fatal crowd crush at the Astroworld Festival resulted in 10 deaths due to accidental compressive asphyxiation and hundreds of other injuries. Other events such as EDC and TomorrowWorld also experienced severe overcrowding and numerous injuries. Attendees for such events reach well over 150,000.
What is the future of social responsibility for promoters at entertainment venues?
SafeLit is a wearable device that utilizes RFID, LED lights, location tracking, and haptic feedback to ensure that festival attendees can have a fun and safe experience & that emergency services are able to respond quickly and efficiently to those in need of medical attention.
Our (mock) client for this project is Live Nation Entertainment, one of the largest event promoters and venue operators. We chose LNE because Ticketmaster controls the majority of the ticketing market and Live Nation controls the majority of the event venues market.
How can SafeLit help better communicate safety procedures and festival guidance tp the end user?
How can SafeLit combine and utilize existing, successful technologies to address the need for safety and social responsibility?
How might we approach the UI design to cater to all types of attendees?
We want the SafeLit device to be sustainable and reusable for different entertainment events. Our goal is to create an all-in-one wearable device that integrates ticketing services with safety aids for emergency services.
Stakeholders to keep in mind:
Festival attendees + friends/family
Emergency services
Music artists + staff
Event promoters/organizers
With the research and interviews we conducted, we formed 2 unique personas to visualize our users. Iris represents the responsible, experienced festival goer while Finn represents the nervous, first time festival goer.
1.3 Ideation/Sketches
Our group chose a rapid ideation approach, with each member sketching out as many ideations as possible in a 30 minute time frame.
1.4 Convergence
Taking into consideration what we could feasibly design within our 5 day sprint, we decided to design a wearable device that connects to a mobile application. We also thought about how we could build on top of and utilize already existing technologies.
As our prompt was asking us to think into the future of our industry, we made the assumption that entertainment venues could eventually be equipped with private and secure wifi networks that have enough band-with to cover the entire venue.
1.5 Goals
Tak
RESEARCH
1.1 Research & Insights
We wanted to gain insight on the different types of festival experiences people have so we could make sure our solution would accommodate all types of users. I interviewed several peers who have attended these types of events in the past. We also conducted second-hand research on previous events (such as Astroworld) to identify the root cause of these disasters as well as what barriers exist for controlling crowd safety at entertainment venues. From there, we identified the gaps and pain points we can address in our solution.
1.2 Personas
INFORMATION ARCHITECTURE
2.1 User Journey
This user journey focuses on the flow of events and emotions our user might feel when at the venue.
2.2 App Task Flow
2.2 Wireframing
After breaking town the task-flow of the app, I wireframed the key screens and actions.
2.3 High-Fidelity Mockups + Prototyping
FINAL SOLUTION
Before the event - signing up
When onboarding, we want users to have the option of including their medical information so that emergency services can provide better care and can access pertinent information if needed.
Before the event - registering your ID
We are addressing group safety as well as individual safety - keep track of your group memvers and regroup easily.
After registering with your ID number,
Before the event - creating a group
We want to address group safety as well as individual safety - keep track of your group members and regroup easily through the SafeLit app. It’s easy to add friends through ID number or quick-scans to groups for different events.
During the event - finding your group easily and receiving helpful reminders
If you need to exit the crowd to get water, use the restroom, or visit a medical tent, the SafeLit app will direct you to the nearest stations.
Attendees often pass out at festivals due to dehydration, heat exhaustion, and crowd claustrophobia. The SafeLit App will send you reminders on how to take care of yourself throughout the event.
During the event - activating your SafeLit for a medical emergency
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RATIONALE
⚠️ Risks
The biggest factor we had to take into consideration for this device to work as intended is that it is extremely reliant on human behavior. While there are many good samaritans that attend these events, we have to rely on them being observant and mindful. This behavior is also difficult to encourage when attendees are under the influence or simply too distracted.
Another risk we are worried about is users tampering with the device or abusing it for non-emergency events - this would be a misuse of time and resources.
Users may not know how to use the device properly - We also want to make sure that the device cannot be accidentally activated, given the amount of pushing/shoving that might occur in an event space.
👌 Mitigations
To mitigate this, the SafeLit will use haptics in addition to the LED lights to grab users’ immediate attention. In addition, a drone with red LED lights (approved by the venue) also will hover over the attendee area for a stronger visual cue that someone is experiencing an emergency. We will also ask featured artists to educate their fans and promote good samaritan behavior.
As the SafeLit is connected to the user’s unique registration ID, we will impose a fee for tampering or abusing the device. Because we intend for this device to be reusable for sustainability purposes, we will also impose a small fee for not returning the device after the event ends.
The SafeLit is designed to be activated only with intentional action, requiring the user to hold down the buttons for a full 5 seconds before emergency services are notified. Users will be required to go through detailed instructions and a demonstration video when registering their SafeLit on the app.
REFLECTIONS
Overall Thoughts
What’s next?
Our hope is that in the future, SafeLit will be a way to ensure that entertainment events can be a fun and safe experience for everyone. It is the social responsibility of promoters, organizers, and artists to make sure their attendees are well protected throughout the entire event.
Integrating Billpay - we decided it was out of the scope of our 5 day project but it is something we would like to include. They would make a good potential partnership, as we know it is already being used at many clubs and festivals already. However, given that we want this device to be returned/reusable, we have to think about the logistics of connecting payment to it.
Working on a 3d mockup of this device - come back soon!