RESTORING POWER TO THE PEOPLE
MOBILE JUSTICE APP REDESIGN
Duration: 2 Weeks
Deliverables: Hi-Fi Prototype
Team: Kristin Kerney – Project Manager; Justin Nathaniel – Design Lead; Noura Ibrahim – Research Coordinator
Tools: 
The ACLU was founded in 1920 as a nonprofit organization with a mission to “defend and preserve the individual rights and liberties that the Constitution and the laws of the United States guarantee everyone in this country.”
Unfortunately, even after decades of civil rights reform, we are still far from equal rights for all.
RACIAL BIAS AMONG LAW ENFORCEMENT
About 1,000 civilians are killed each year by law-enforcement officers in the United States.
Black men are estimated to be 2.5 times more likely than white men to be killed by police during their lifetime.
Black people who were fatally shot by police seemed to be twice as likely as white people to be unarmed.
Given the existing gap in human rights, our team set out to create a mobile solution that combats civil rights injustice by enabling individuals feel more confident, prepared, and visible.
We conducted a 2 week sprint to re-design the existing ACLU Mobile Justice App to ensure that the ACLU’s existing information and technology capabilities were more easily accessible and intuitive to their users.
2-Week Design Sprint
We started our research process by conducting expert interviews and a thorough literature and news review in order to better understand more about our existing social environment and the ACLU’s existing civil rights efforts.
EXPERT INTERVIEWS
LITERATURE & MEDIA REVIEW
Our initial research helped us to validate the following assumptions about our current civil rights environment:
- Many individuals, especially racial minorities are fearful of encounters with law enforcement given existing racial biases.
- Individuals need more easily accessible rights infor in order to protect themselves.
- Younger populations are participating in more movements and need resources that help prepare them for these situations.
We conducted a Competitive & Comparative Analysis to understand what other apps offered assistance to individuals in encounters with law enforcement and other emergency situations.
These apps demonstrated how simplified UI can increase ease of navigation in emergency situations. We leveraged these effective design heuristics later in our ideation phase.
The Reyets App stood out as our most direct competitor with a much more simple & intuitive interface so we decided to observe our users with this app as well as the existing ACLU Mobile Justice App to understand the benefits and drawbacks of each.
We conducted 7 User Interviews & Tests to see how our users navigated each app in a hypothetical emergency situation as well as gather more information on their thoughts & feelings regarding encounters with law enforcement.
ACLU MOBILE JUSTICE APP REVIEWS
3.4/5
★★★★★ 3.4/5
802 Total
We also compared user reviews on the app store for both apps to better understand from individuals who are using the app in real life. Our users behaviors and commentary were consistent with the app store reviews for both apps.
★★★★★
December 14, 2020 Read More
This version keeps crashing. Unstable. Also does not have TEST or witness mode anymore. New icon sucks. Should stick w icon ACLU is known for. In an emergency can not waste time trying to figure out how to use it. and worse; have any crash and restart caus more delay and loss of evidence
★★★★★
January 10, 2021 Read More
Idea is great but the execution is awful. App crashes constantly, and does not give you the ability to add a report if you don't do it after submitting the video, which as the app clearly states won't be reviewed if not completed. This app desperately needs to be 100% reliable.
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We found that the Mobile Justice App was confusing for users across the board even though it had a ton of information and resources available.
On the other hand our users found the Reyets App was much more simple and easy to use.
Meet Darius. Last year his brother was shot by the police after he refused a search of his vehicle during a routine traffic stop. Darius fears that a run in with law enforcement could end his life. He wants to be there to watch his son grow up and knows that knowledge is his best defense.
