Law mate - Designing an Simple and accessible experience for crime reporting

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Law mate ?

This product aimed to simplify crime reporting process by providing a fast, simple, and user-friendly experience for the users

• Platform: Mobile app
• Role: Product designer
• Type: Assignment done for Designerrs academy
• Duration: 4 month

Problem statement

Across India, many citizens experience difficulties in reporting crimes and seeking timely assistance from the police. This challenge stems from a lack of awareness about available reporting methods, insufficient information, and overly complex, lengthy processes. Additionally, individuals visiting police stations often face the inconvenience of repeated visits to follow up on previously filed cases, adding to their frustration and delaying resolution.

Core problems

1. Lack of awareness and information about Law and rights.
2. Lengthy and complex processes that discourage filing complaints.
3. The inconvenience of repeatedly visiting police stations to follow up on previously filed cases.

1. Research🔍

I began by Researching the current user Behavior, pain points, and opportunities for improvement.

Methods Used

1. Secondary Research: Analyzed the current mechanisms for reporting crimes, including helplines, online portals, and traditional police station procedures, to pinpoint inefficiencies in the system.
2. User interview: Conducted interviews with five potential users through forms to understand their frustrations with the existing crime complaint process.

Key Findings

1. No Immediate Support: Users feel helpless during emergencies due to the lack of an accessible feature for instant help.
2. Lack of Guidance and Awareness:Users are often unsure how to begin the complaint process and lack basic knowledge about their rights and available platforms. Common questions remain unanswered, adding to user frustration.
3. Cumbersome Processes: Filing complaints involves lengthy and unclear steps, discouraging users from initiating and completing the process.
4. Lack of Transparency: Users face difficulties in tracking the progress of their complaints, resulting in repeated visits to police stations for updates.

2. Ideation💡

I used user personas and journey mapping to ideate solutions for the identified pain points. This led to the development of key features, each designed with intuitive user flows for a seamless and accessible complaint reporting process.

User Persona

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Solutions

1. Solution for no immediate support:

A swipe-based emergency SOS assistance mechanism allowing users to instantly contact the police, ensuring ease of use in high-stress situations.

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2. Solution for lack of guidance and awareness:

A chatbot designed to answer common queries, guide users through the reporting process, and escalate issues to human operators when required.

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3. Solution for cumbersome processes:

A simple and intuitive online file complaint interface to enable users to file complaints without visiting a police station, reducing barriers to entry.

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4. Solution for lack of transparency:

A complaint tracking Page for users to track the status of their complaints, offering updates in real-time and eliminating the need for follow-up visits.

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3. Design🎨

with the finalised solution from ideation, I moved on to prototyping. I created high-fidelity user flows for each key feature to ensure a polished, realistic user experience. These user flows reflect the final design and demonstrate how users will interact with the system.

1. SOS feature — Solution for no immediate support

The SOS flow allows users to send instant alerts to authorities with real-time location and 10 seconds of audio, video from that device, enabling quick response during emergencies.

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2. Ask citizen — Hybrid chatbot (Solution for lack of guidance and awareness)

as an example This flow focuses on how the chatbot answers common user questions, providing instant, accurate responses to frequently asked queries and reducing user effort in finding information.

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3. Complaint filing (Solution for cumbersome processes)

This flow simplifies the complaint filing process with step-by-step guidance, ensuring complete details and generates a acknowledgment for updates.

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4. Complaint tracking (Solution for lack of transparency)

The flow shows how users can monitor complaint progress in real time, ensuring transparency and reducing the need for follow-ups.

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Figma Prototype

4. User testing📋

To ensure the design was effective, I conducted usability testing with three potential users using interactive prototypes. The focus was on the SOS, Complaint Filing, Complaint Tracking, and Chatbot features.

Using the SOS feature

• Feedback: Users appreciated the swipe gesture but struggled to reach the swipe area.
• Refinement: Moved the swipe gesture to a more thumb-accessible location.

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Chatbot

• Feedback: Users found the chatbot interface user-friendly and appreciated its seamless flow.
• Refinement: No changes were needed, as the interface was already effective.

Complaint Filing

• Feedback: Users liked the tab-based separation for personal and complaint details.
• Refinement: No changes were made, as users found the layout intuitive

Complaint Tracking

• Feedback: Users wanted to idenify complaint quickly and see the complaint status before opening the complaint details
• Refinement: Added a status indicator and Added color on the complaint card for better visiblity

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5. Impact and Benefits

The design solutions directly address the pain points, focusing on simplifying crime reporting, improving awareness, and ensuring transparency:

1. Faster Access to Help (SOS Feature): Users can send alerts to law enforcement within 10 seconds, ensuring immediate assistance during emergencies.
2. Improved User Awareness (Chatbot): The chatbot guides users through the process, providing instant answers and empowering informed actions.
3. Simplified Crime Reporting (Complaint Filing): The online complaint filing system reduces the need for repeated visits to police stations, streamlining the process.
4. Increased Transparency (Complaint Tracking): Real-time status updates enhance trust and reduce frustration by keeping users informed.

Few Extra things

1. Design guidelines

I have followed material design guidelines throught this project

2. Accesiblity

I have ensured the colours used in this project follow atleast minimum contrast ratio of 4.5:1 based on Web content accesbility guidelines (WCAG)

And… That’s a wrap!

Thanks for checking out my case study! I really appreciate your time and any feedback you have to share.

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Law mate - Designing an Simple and accessible experience for crime reporting was originally published in Dtalks on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.