Avia
How might we give solo women travelers peace of mind, offering instant connection to emergency services, live visibility to loved ones, and proactive risk insights, no matter where they are in the world?
Timeline
Sept - Dec 2024
Members
Agamjot Kaur, Sukena Abbas, Emily Chan, Scarlet Sun
PHASE 1: Defining the problem space
Female travellers often find themselves navigating unsafe environments without a clear sense of security.
Solo travel offers women a unique sense of freedom and independence, but it also comes with significant safety challenges.
Through a 1-week research sprint, our goal is to explore the safety challenges solo female travellers face, the factors that prevent them from travelling, and the strategies of how they overcome these obstacles.
Some of the questions I used to guide the conversation with our target groups include:
Do you use any resources when traveling alone? If you do, what are your thoughts on them?
How do you think your solo traveling experience could be made to feel more protected?
If you had a genie, what one wish would you make to ease your travel experience?
I organized data from 4 user-interviews through affinity mapping to gain these key insights
1.
Women avoid going out after hours and worry about security issues despite staying in reputable accommodations.
2.
Differences in social-cultural values that they might not be aware of before arriving in a certain country
3.
The struggle to find trustworthy connections abroad amplified the solo travelling anxiety
This also helped us form our user personas: an anxious student, a white-collar worker & a first-time traveller. Catherine is a student who wants to travel as independently as possible, but she still have many worries.
So, what did we discover?
Whether travelling alone for the first time or frequently for co-op and business, while most preventative measures like staying alert and researching the destination beforehand are helpful, they rarely address the real-time safety needs that arise during travel for these users. So we ask ourselves
How might we…
empower solo women travelers to feel safe and connected, anywhere in the world?
Alongside with 3 guiding principles of
safety, a sense of community & real time support
Phase 2: Ideation
Understanding the jobs to be done, the team spent time to brainstorm a number of solutions.
Mapping the ideas on an impact-versus-effort matrix and applying the MoSCoW analysis for each functional requirements. We came away with a clear image of high-impact priorities.
Crazy 8s & Storyboarding
I guided the team through a collaborative session to map out and refine the user flow, ensuring we had a clear vision for the app’s key interactions.
Making trade-offs
Preventing accidental triggers
Challenge:
The SOS button aims to provide immediate access to emergency services. How might we enable truly instant emergency activation while still offering a clear, fast cancel path?
Explorations:
Put it on the navigation bar that user press and hold if they sensed danger - ❌ small touch targets
Have user enter a code to cancel the process - ❌ adds cognitive load under stress
SOS as a large button on the homescreen, hold down for X seconds to confirm cancellation
✅ Solution : We went ahead with SOS as a large button on the homescreen, hold down for X seconds to confirm cancellation because it provides astest time-to-help and highest discoverability.
Scaling companion matches
Challenge:
How might we show a broad set of compatible companions that increases comfort through familiarity without overwhelming users or degrading match quality?
My initital approach: limit the results to 3 matches to avoid cognitive biases. However, coming back to our design principle of familiarity in a foreign environment, this actually surpresses it.
✅ Solution: show all compatible matches with strong ranking & controls
Phase 3: Design
Wireframing in Figma
Usability testing results
We ran an usability testing session and a cognitive walkthrough with 5 users using the lo-fidelity design. While they found the platform easy to use and navigate, a few issues still surfaced.
Establishing the Design System
I was 1 of 2 people on design system creation. This included setting up the font styles, color styles and the component library.
The Final Solution - Avia
Homescreen & Onboarding process
In An Emergency
The design prioritizes a seamless solution to minimize friction and provide a direct line to help.
Finding other important contacts
The Non-Emergency Contact Info provides location-based support for situations that require guidance but not immediate intervention.
Filter & search for companions
Users can form meaningful connections that enhance both safety and enjoyment during their journeys.
Travel guide, in your pocket
With Travel Handbook, a centralized repository of essential destination information, including cultural insights, activities, and safety tips,
Testing with users
Given more time, I'd want to….
✦ Add another layer of security, such as taking a photo of passport/identification
✦ Being more aware of WCAG standards: at this particular time our team were not aware of good UI practices, and we were also under a tight deadline to ship. Possibly simplifying UI to flat colors, and being more intentional about margins and font sizes.
✦ Change the title font into a softer and more elegant type face to match the interface of the app.
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Key Takeaways
Reflecting back on the process, what did I learn?
🔎 Research lays the groundwork
Designing from my own lens is easy—and limiting. I initially thought I understood what solo female travelers needed: stay alert, stick to safe areas, share your location. Interviews showed “stay alert” was a symptom of feeling unsafe; what they really wanted was reassurance, community, and real-time support. That pivot pushed me to drop assumptions, listen deeply, and let users’ stories drive the product.
🎯 Mastering design systems
I underestimated how much work goes into things like icons, border radius, button states, transitioning animations, etc. I came to realized how much attention to detail it takes to make a system scalable and consistent
🧸 Branding that feels like a warm hug
Our app wasn’t just made for women; it was made by women. I wanted the visual identity to reflect that sense of comfort and strength, which is why I drew inspiration from violet flowers. The result? A product that wasn’t just functional, but felt welcoming and intuitive.
