Having miraculously survived the 4th of August 2020 blast in Beirut, Lebanon, I tried calling my mother to let her know I was alive. 
Networks are saturated. Our phone calls can’t get through. 

This is when it first occured to me: 
“How is it that networks get saturated when people need it the most? 
What would a solution for that be? How can I use design to help my community when emergencies occur?”

CONNECTICITY MATTERS

EMRGNCY allows people to connect with their loves ones in times of crisis and check on their status.

The app uses a mesh network when regular networks or WiFi are down or saturated.

PREVENTION AS PROTECTION

Every second counts in times of need to save lives, understanding the visual cues of the platform beforehand helps significantly reduce the cognitive load of the users and saves a great amount of time when navigating a crisis.

The onboarding process allows users to get familiar with the semiotics of the app and informs them of the right way to deal with the emergency before it actually occurs.


PRIVACY MATTERS

Emrgncy values transparency in order to build trust by explaining why sharing these information can be useful in dealing with emergencies  and how many users already gave their consent and access to data.

An offline map is embedded into the app for when the GPS satellites are jammed.

The users always have the option to not share personal information such as location or contacts


EMRGNCY
Parsons MFA First Year Final Project


Research Process


Ethnography
Reaching out to the Lebanese community to assess how they wish they could have been assisted when facing an emergency and to understand their behavior and first reactions when they occured.


Semiotics
Going through symbols across civilizations and throughout history, from Petroglyphs to Egyptian Hieroglyps to the digitalization of signs, symbols and icons. 
What visual cues are most intuitive to the human mind?


Psychology of Emergencies
Reaching out to experts in the field to have a better understanding of the psychology of emergencies and the hierarchy of needs of the people going through them.


Behavioral Design
To make the app as quick and efficient to use as possible by decreasing the cognitive load and intervening in the user’s life to help them bridge the intention and action gap?”