My Dare to Challenge experience through the “Safe n Sound” app project
During this semester and in the context of Ms Betty Tsakarestou’s lab “Dare to Challenge” we had to build a startup application, providing the solution to a social issue of our choice.
My team’s (Charis Zarbalas, Christos Daniilidis, Asimina Christodoulatou, Danai Lyratzi, Martha Davari, Frossini Drakouli) project is called “Safe n Sound” and the social issue we had to deal with is rape and rape culture.
We started by learning more about the problem in question, doing research and asking people about rape and rape culture.
Rape Culture is an environment in which rape is prevalent and in which sexual violence against women is normalized and excused in the media and popular culture. Rape culture is perpetuated through the use of misogynistic language, the objectification of women’s bodies, and the glamorization of sexual violence, thereby creating a society that disregards women’s rights and safety. (You can read more about our findings in Charis’ article)
We also worked a lot on the SDGs (Substainable Development Goals) that our project is relevant with: SDG 5 that has to do with achieving gender equality and empowering all women and girls and SDG 16 that is about promoting just, peaceful and inclusive societies. (Read more about the SDGs we worked with in my first article about Safe n Sound)
So, after setting our goal, to fight rape incidents we had some brainstorming sessions that led us to the idea of “Safe n Sound”, an application that would help its users reach their destination safely by showing them the lightest and most crowded routes. It also offers a red button service, so that the user can ask for help and a forum where users can share their experiences.
This application’s Minimum Value Product is to reach your destination safe and unharmed. The above features help and contribute to achieve this goal. In conclusion we must say that the purpose of this application is to avoid any pathogenic phenomenon souch as rape, violence or mugging incidents. (You can learn more about how this app works by reading Christos’ article.)
Having concluded to the application’s goals and features we had to ask our possible clients if they would use it, what they would possibly change and if they think it would be useful to them. So, we made a questionary and did some interviews, from all of which we got great feedback. (In Martha’s article we share with you the results of our research)
Also, we got some great feedback from the people attending Web Summit 2016 at Lisbon.
Web Summit is a technology conference held annually since 2009. The company was founded by Paddy Cosgrave, David Kelly and Daire Hickey. The topic of the conference is centered on internet technology and attendees range from Fortune 500 companies to smaller tech companies. This contains a mix of CEOs and founders of tech startups together with a range of people from across the global technology industry, as well as related industries.
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No doubt, this conference is indeed “Europe’s largest technology marketplace”, full of interesting people with innovative ideas, experience and skills. Therefore, we are absolutely sure and really proud of our own idea and project for gathering all these comments of excitement by these specific people.
During Web Summit we also had the chance to come across some similar services, like Ushahidi and Shecall, talk with their founders and exchange ideas. (Read more about the experience of Safe n Sound at Web Summit 2016 here)
We were then ready to build our application starting from the UX (User Experience) map.
However before starting to develop the UI (User Interface) as weel, we surely had to meet up with a developper, just to be sure that our plan is achievable.
The meeting with the developer went well. His constructive criticism and his experience in the startup business will help us correct our mistakes and creat a more realistic startup plan for Safe and Sound. (Read more about the meeting in Charis’ article)
After that we built our application’s protoype, which you can see below: (The whole prototype building process is available to read here)
I think that I learned a lot during my Dare to Challenge experience and by building this application.
Fist of all, I surely realized the importance of focusing on the MVP (Minimum Value Product), to always check your ideas with your clients and some experts, like a developer and that team work and team brainstorming are basic tools of this whole process.
Finally, the best and most important part of this experienced was the feedback we got every time by Ms Tsakarestou, by our colleagues, by our cilents.
Don’t be afraid to both give and receive feedback. If it is well meant and intends to improve the project/service/product it should be welcomed. Listen to your audience’s stories, accept and appreciate their feedback and turn them into productive steps for the improvement of your project! (You can read about the importance of feedback for us in Frossini’s article)
Our Facebook page: Safe n’ Sound
Our promo video.
