Domestic Violence Prevention
Red Flag
A 2.5 day hackathon brought together engineers, designers, domestic violence experts, security and government agencies in an effort to build life-saving technological products.
Project Context
Project: Safe@Home Hackathon
Role: Sole Designer
Team: Noa Savransky, Michal Teverovsky
Timeline: 2.5 days
Tools: Sketch & Figma
Background
About: Tech solution to prevent domestic violence
Michal Sela was brutally murdered by her husband earlier this year. Her sister, Lili, founded the Michal Sela Forum with the goal of saving the next domestic violence murder victim through the development of products that raise awareness regarding warning signals along with products that use advanced technologies to prevent violence and protect victims in times of crisis.
Red Flag aims is to ensure women detect early signs of toxic relationships through a recognition of behavior cycles and patterns.
The Challenge: Create solution that raises awareness of dangerous patterns
Build an end-to-end mobile app that raises the user’s awareness of concerning relationships through informed understanding of the scope and dynamics of abusive relationships.
Terminology: definition of DV
Domestic violence, as defined by the NNEDV, is a pattern of coercive, controlling behavior that can include physical abuse, emotional or psychological abuse, sexual abuse, or financial abuse.
Empathize
Time for Research
quantitative data | qualitative data | subject matter interview
Research questions
What is the prevalence of domestic abuse against women, particularly intimate partner abuse, in Israel?
Are there factors that contribute to higher rates in certain subset of the population?
What are the factors that play into a victim's decision to either share/report the experience or conversely, keep the experience a secret?
Are there any patterns of behavior that can be identified for both victim and abuser?
Considering the sensitivity of the topic at hand, all the research done can only reflect information gathered from reported incidents.
Focus
The research of this product is the Israeli demographic with a focus on intimate partner violence.
Quantitative data
Unless otherwise noted, statistical data was collected primarily through reports submitted to Israel’s Civil Service Commission - Status of Women and Gender Equity Department, filed for the years of 2016-2017.
Numbers for context
10%-15%
10%-15% of women in Israel are victims of domestic violence
400-600k
The percentage translates to 400-600k women in Israel
15,000
15,000 cases filed a year with the majority reported by women
7
It takes an average of 7 years of violence before the first report
176
Between 2011 and June 2020, 176 women were murdered by first degree relatives in Israel. Majority of the cases were committed by intimate partners.
63%
Between 2016-2017 22 women were murdered by their partners. 63% had never filed a complaint to the authorities prior to the murder.
25-34
Domestic violence is a reality across all ages, ethnic groups and socio-economic classes. The majority of cases of violence reported are of women between the ages of 25-34.
8%
Majority of organizations combatting domestic violence focused on treatment, rehabilitation. Only 8% focused on education and prevention.
Qualitative information - SME
A subject matter expert was consulted to gather further information regarding identifying patterns of abusive behavior along with factors that play into a women’s decision to report or withhold information. The field expert is both an abuse survivor and a current advocate. I also utilized my own field expertise having completed my field training in art therapy at a shelter for abused women.
Cycle of Abuse
American psychologist, Dr. Lenore Walker explains the cycle of abuse. This highlights the range of emotions that a victim may experience.
Factors that contribute to under-reporting
Confusion
There may be moments of calm and reconciliation. This may instill hope in the victim and they may minimize the scope of the abuse.
Shame
A victim may feel a deep sense of shame for being in this vulnerable situation. As such, they may be reluctant to ask for help.
Isolation
Abusers tend to isolate their victims from family and friends. Limiting access to a support system, the victim will feel alone and isolated.
Fear
Women may feel scared for themselves or their family members. They may also fear the uncertainty of the unknown.
Define
Understanding the Conflict
empathy map
Empathy map
Understanding the user’s conflicting feelings and behaviors regarding an abuser is of utmost importance.
A victim often feels both love and fear, both helpless and hopeful that the situation can get better, both aware that specific incidents occurred while still denying a pattern.
Ideate
Keeping track to identify the problem
low fidelity sketches
Lo-fi sketches
The solution will have to take into account the safety and security of women in danger.
Considering the majority age demographic along with the need for solutions that address education and prevention, perhaps patterns of behavior can be tracked under the guise of a women’s health tracker.
Final Design
That’s a Red Flag
hi fidelity wireframes | prototype
Hi-fi designs
In creating the designs, it was crucial to maintain a consistent language between personal and relationship product layers. The calendars in both layers look and function in an identical manner. The colors in the relationship calendar correlate to the type of incident reported.
Upon choosing a given date a report can be recorded. These two reflect reports for the personal (left) and relationship (right) mode. The behavior sections along with checkbox list serve two purposes. Firstly, it makes it easier to report otherwise difficult incidents. Secondly, it familiarized the user with different types of red flag behaviors.
These two reflect the activity log and infographics of the relationship mode. The activity log makes it easier for the user to review all reported incidents. This can be useful to raise personal awareness, as a tool in therapy to discuss alarming patterns, and can be beneficial in a legal sense. The infographics collects the data and provides the user with clear visuals regarding patterns of behavior.
The user has to feel in control!
The option to not-act in the moment must be given.
Once the system identifies a pattern, it sends the user a notification with possible action steps. It is imperative to user non-threatening and approachable language. The user is in a vulnerable situation and care must be taken to ensure the user doesn’t feel the product is personally intrusive.
Presentation
Hackathon Semi-Finalists
short video presentation
Presentation video
At the culmination of the two day hackathon, a basic demo video was created to share the concept of the product with the judges. The presentations were done through video due to COVID-19 restrictions at the time.
Reflections
It was interesting to engage in the seemingly contradictory goals of creating a product that is easy to use for the intended user while ensuring it would be difficult to find and access for the unintended user, namely the abuser.
During day 2 of the hackathon, I had a thought that this app should be designed to be layered under any app as creating a specific cover can be easily identified if the abuser knows it exists.
Closely collaborating with developers on this project made me want to gain a better understanding of coding. The developers shared their code on Github, however, I was unable to engage in any meaningful discussion regarding their work. As such, I have been inspired to enroll in an introductory computer science course.