The Survivor Project
Empowering survivors of domestic abuse to seek help confidently without compromising their safety
Team
2 designers
3 developers
3 project managers
My Role
Accessibility audit Accessibility scripts
Industry
Financial services
Duration
6 months (ad hoc)
As pockets start tightening as a result of the cost of living crisis, people are paying more attention to where their money is going. Offering a feature to categorise spending on a granular level helps customers to feel in control of their money by understanding their finances in a digestible way.
Discover
Many aspects of this brief were already mapped out before involving design in the process. The design process involved working around and adapting to the infrastructure of how this feature would work as we were using a third party to push the categorisation capability. Some of the challenges were around data visualisation, user journeys and information architecture.
After experimenting with ideas, pushing back on requirements in favour of a better user experience and showcasing work to the client, we arrived at a simple yet meaningful solution.
Define
The final flow considers 4 key journeys: onboarding first-time users, assigning categories, viewing categories and recategorising. The design process also took into consideration the presentation of data and unhappy paths.
A mobile-first approach
It was important to understand how the four key journeys were going to intertwine with each other. Iterating on this helped to bring clarity in the core functionality of each screen when designing the experience of the interfaces themselves.
Outcome
The mid-fidelity wireframes and journeys were finalised and signed off before moving onto high-fidelity screens. These were created in Sketch using design system components, and then reviewed by a UI designer to ensure that the screens were consistent with the rest of the app.
Mobile
Desktop
Key design decisions
Enhanced site-map
The initial website was disorganised and non-intuitive. Finding important information wasn't easy to find, and some pages didn't have any content in them at all.
By digging deeper into what the needs were of each of our core users, we improved the information architecture to best serve the needs of those in crisis, or those who are in need of support. It was important to think about how each page is relevant to each other, and how one page of content could spark curiosity or realisation to continue reading, or ideally to take action and seek help.
Donation functionality
Building out a donate feature in the website that lives in the navigation bar of the website draws the eye towards the button. Once the user is on the page, immediately the user learns about the value that different amounts of money can bring to a survivor and their loved ones, making the experience of donating money online more tangible.
Quick escape
No matter what device they're on, survivors of domestic abuse could be in a very dangerous position if they are caught browsing support websites by their partner. It was crucial for us to implement a 'quick escape' function that is visible on every page at any scroll position so that users can exit the page without compromising their safety.
By clicking the quick escape button, the users are taken to the BBC Weather website and their history for that session is erased, meaning they don't leave a trail that their abuser might find later.
Entry-points for exploration
The platform needs to serve users at different stages of awareness. Considering that there would be users would be in a stage of denial when using the website, it was important to consider the pathways the user could take through the website to be well informed enough to reach the awareness and realisation stages from thinking about their own experiences.
Below is just one example of how a user visiting the site for the first time could potentially experience the different stages of this cycle. The reality of the situation is that it is a lot more complex, but the goal is that The Survivor Project's website is the 'lightbulb' moment for as many people as possible. Therefore, through these journeys, it was important not only to be informative, but also create a platform that users can trust and feel safe using. Embedding survivor stories allows users to relate their own experiences to others, and empathise with the struggles but also how they got the help they needed safely.
Tone of Voice
Tone of voice was a key aspect of our design process. Striking a balance between sounding friendly but also trustworthy was a priority when building out the experience because this increases the likelihood of survivors feeling comfortable with acknowledging their abusive relationships and ideally, feeling comfortable with seeking help.
Using first person narratives for headings such as 'I need help' and 'I want to help someone else' helps users to resonate with the content based on their own lived experiences, adding a layer of personification.
Relatability counter
In the context of domestic abuse, the mechanism of social proof is nuanced in the sense that some people reading other survivor's stories, for example, may be in an abusive relationship but not yet realise it.
Adding a relatability counter helps those in the contemplation stage to self-validate their feelings, and feel a sense of control in signalling to others that they feel the same way without leaving a digital footprint that could leave them in a vulnerable situation, like a lot of forums would do.