Melissa Arias
Melissa Arias
Artemis
As a designer, I seek to understand life in a way that pushes boundaries and challenges the current world to move forward. I am drawn to human-centered design because it allows me to conduct research to understand behaviors and look to tackle complex challenges. Here I can gain knowledge to design in a way that doesn’t just solve one discreet problem, but solves problems people didn’t even realize they had. My goal is to design to make people feel understood and cared for on an intimate level.
With careful, in depth interviews, I was able to hear real stories and experiences that trouble young womxn in our current world. Artemis seeks to understand womxn on a personal level, to introduce a new level of protection, along with enhancing comfort and confidence to make womxn even more powerful.
Melissa Arias
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1 in 3 womxn have experienced physical or sexual violence whether that is physical sexual or mental harm or suffering against womxn, but even more than that experience unwanted public attention. This is something that happens every single day
These responses proved that the fear of traveling alone was very, very real.
Solution 01: The Extreme A discursive product made to challenge and intensify the public attention womxn receive in order to make them untouchable.
I revisited my research and talked with 3 of my original interviewees hoping to gain further insights into what a usual day would look like for them while traveling alone.
These fears are centered around examples of feeling alone, getting distracted by your phone, digging for items in your bag, and still having a slightly anxious feeling even when you’ve made it to your location.
From here I knew it was important for the design to prevent hesitation, eliminate distraction, and avoid placing an extra target on your back. The design also needed to be easily accessible, easily understood, and comfortable to use.
Through the app you can connect to your most trusted network. It allows womxn to view their members locations., receive and make audio calls, and also call local authorities.
Artemis has 3 major functions, connect, call your network, and call local authorities.
Womxn can have friends and family “walking with them”, and watching the journey on their phone. The “in between” is when womxn begin to feel unsafe. It’s for the moment of uncertainty, before the moment of danger. This is for when womxn want an extra set of eyes AND ears.
With the touch of a button, activate the device and notify your trusted network, of friends and family, of your travels. Your network will receive a notification of your location and destination. Through the app they can answer your audio calls and make emergency calls to the police for you.
A battery indicator light will let you know that your device is on and charged.
Call members of your network with the audio call button, by holding for 3 seconds. This will contact your network in an order previously decided through the app.
Varied textures make it easier to distinguish between the different buttons to avoid hesitation and errors.
With the emergency button, you no longer have to reach for your phone to contact the police. This eliminates the target a phone places on your back and limits error in times of danger.
There is a pointed edge on the bottom edge of the device along with an LED light (flashes when emergency button is triggered) to add to comfort by giving a subtle, non-lethal option for self-defense.
When you safely return home, hold the activation button for 10 seconds to end your journey and power off your device. Your network will be notified of your journey ending through the app, and be able to see that you have made it to your destination safely.
