Help Out
Mobile application design creating for a disaster information hub
My role
Research, Wire-framing, Rapid Prototyping
Research, Wire-framing, Rapid Prototyping
Tools
Adobe CC, Sketch, InVision
Adobe CC, Sketch, InVision
Timeline
Nov 2015 - Dec 2016
Nov 2015 - Dec 2016
Overview
218 million people were affected by natural disasters on annual average between 1994 and 2013. Although technology has developed greatly in the last 20 years, the supporting system has not evolved and addressing the issue.Help Out is a disaster information hub. It provides action-driven volunteer opportunities assisting communities affected by natural disasters. A person can search any upcoming natural disaster all around the world through the application. Also, he/she can search options to support people in any form such as volunteering, providing resources or fundraising. No requirements are needed for any type of basic participation. The only thing a user needs is a willingness to jump in, to work hard and to help out!
Why Disaster Application?
International Relief Co-operation like Red Cross or Unicef or other relief agencies could participate in the second step which is rehabilitation and reconstruction. However, the first step, response and recovery, doen’t operate efficiently and it delays all the rest of steps and finally affects victims of the disaster. They hardly get help as soon as they need it.💬 We cannot stop natural disasters but we can arm ourselves with knowledge: so many lives wouldn’t have to be lost if there was enough disaster preparedness.
by Petra Nemcova
Problems Of Existing Applications
Disaster related appsDisaster Alert
Too many options on one page. The overview page is too complicated for the user to understand and utilize.
Layers? It is named with an uncertain name, and it makes uses challenging to figure out what each title means.
Earthquake Tsunami Pro
Any other options? The app is only available in one list view. Also, there is no access to a map view.
Inappropriate matching. Background color tone and text color match are difficult to read the information.
UB Alert
Some apps allow users to report disasters by themselves. HOWEVER, What is Verified? Or Not Verified?
The ‘Report’ process makes the alert page more complicated for the user who could misunderstand
There will be a lot of scams that are not proven by trusted organizations and it could lead the user to stop using the app
American red cross apps
There are 12 different apps just under the Red Cross. Each one has a different purpose as a hurricane tracker or an earthquake alert. All those are united together under a disaster information or relief app. In that way, users don't need to download all 12 different apps.
Like the number 3 on the image above, one of the apps called Volunteer Connection contains a great feature allowing volunteers keep tracks their activities and connecting with others, but the application turned out as a contact list.