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Sana
Date
Fall 2022
Colleagues
Mengying Li, Jing Wang, Sanchita Chugh
Activities done
(1) Created a poster to pitch the project idea
(2) Conducted two interviews: one with a domestic violence cybersecurity researcher and one with a social worker
(3) Developed low-fidelity prototype
(4) Designed a Figma prototype
(5) Conducted two remote usability tests
Video
What is SANA?
An mHealth app to help survivors of domestic violence self-reflect on their well-being.
What motivated me to design SANA?
Domestic violence (DV) is a public health issue that affects people of all genders and socio-economic statuses worldwide. Because of the strong emotional attachment they have with the perpetrator, many survivors are not able to identify red flags in their relationship, or struggle to reach out for help.
My first research project consisted of identifying and analyzing how apps with legitimate purposes can be misused by abusers in DV scenarios. This further motivated me to think about many ways of empowering DV survivors. While DV cannot be solved by technology per se, it can empower survivors in many ways, such as encouraging self-reflection on their relationship.
Design considerations we had in mind
Many survivors still live with the perpetrator. Others might be at risk of having spyware installed on their phone as abusers want to know where they are and what they are doing. Thus, we considered our proposed app to have covert features such that they do not put survivors at risk of an escalation of abuse.
