Senior Thesis · UX/UI Design · 2025–2026
AERA
Safety
A community-first personal safety app — connecting you to your inner circle, your neighborhood, and the people who will show up for you, silently and instantly, whenever you need them.
01 — The Problem
The world has a presence problem.
Every day, individuals — particularly those susceptible to identity-based discrimination and violence — navigate public spaces where danger is real and bystanders consistently fail to act. The bystander effect tells us: the more people around, the less likely anyone intervenes.
My senior thesis, Design for Change: Reframing the Bystander Effect through UX Design, explores how digital intervention can prevent harm and encourage collective responsibility in public spaces.
Existing safety apps default to police escalation — a solution that actively harms the communities most at risk. Aera Safety asks a different question entirely: what if you didn't need 911? What if you just needed your people to know where you are, and your community to show up?
Aera is a public service app, designed to be free and accessible to everyone who needs it — and Kickstarter is how we get there.
02 — User Research
Listening to lived experience.
The research phase centered individuals most affected by identity-based violence and discrimination. Through a survey titled User Research: Lived Experiences and Digital Intervention Requirements, I gathered insights on how people experience vulnerability in public spaces, what existing tools fail to provide, and what a genuinely useful digital intervention would feel like.
Participants shared experiences of feeling unseen, unsupported, and unsafe in everyday situations — and articulated a clear need for tools that offer dignity, not surveillance.
Key insights shaped every design decision that followed: users wanted silence over alarms, trusted connections over strangers, and community presence over emergency escalation. They wanted to feel less alone — not more monitored.
All data collected was confidential and used exclusively for this academic research project, with the goal of building something that directly serves participants' stated needs.
"I don't always need police. I just need someone to know where I am and that I'm okay — or not okay."
— Survey participant, User Research 202503 — Design Process
How I got here.
From initial research through final prototype, every decision was grounded in what users actually need in a moment of danger: speed, simplicity, trust, and the ability to reach their community without making things worse.
04 — Wireframes
From concept to screen.
Lo-fidelity wireframes explored the full interaction model — a central press gesture, tiered alert circles, live GPS routing, community companion features, an encrypted evidence vault, and privacy-first settings. Every screen was designed around one constraint: it must work under stress, with one hand, in seconds.
05 — Core Features
Designed for moments that matter.
06 — Recognition & Showcase
Where Aera is going.
Aera Safety has been recognized across Winthrop University's academic community and will be presented publicly in April 2026.
Feel safe, everywhere you go.
Aera Safety is a thesis, a prototype, and a provocation — asking what safety design looks like when it centers dignity, community, and the people you actually trust.
Experience Aera ↗ ← Back to Work