Julie Méance - Safe girls in the city app

Safe girls in the city app

I developed this project for my thesis in 2019 (UX Design certification from Gobelins).
It was so engaging that I’m still working on it in 2025. The complete thesis is available here.

Pictures - Exploratory walk with residents

Exploratory wallk with residents

Context

Montigny-le-Bretonneux is a seemingly quiet suburban town in Yvelines. However, women report :

Feeling unsafe, especially at night in certain areas (city center : train station and shopping mall entrance)
Adjusting their behaviors and routes based on the time of day, surroundings, urban design, or the presence of other pedestrians

How can we make public spaces feel safer for young women ?

Approach

Documentary research

Interviews with public and private stakeholders

7 semi-structured interviews with residents

Exploratory walk with 5 residents and 2 observers (city officials)

Ideation workshop : Image-ination

Solution 1 :
Poster

Evaluation :
UX scale

Solution 2 :
Mobile App

Evaluation :
User testing

Hypotheses

I found it interesting to involve young women in my approach.

Seeking their viewpoints through interviews and an exploratory walk provided one of the best sources of information and helped confirm my hypotheses.

Focus on : ideation workshop

Objective

Generate solutions to reduce women's fear of insecurity in public space
Expand the thinking and explore beyond existing knowledge

Method
Image-ination

Proposed solutions

Lighting
Street art
Meeting spaces
Empowerment of women
Community ownership
Mobile app

Mobile app solution

The Safe Girls in the City app offers a 'safe' walking path, including :

Brigh lighting
Active, frequented areas
Shops that are open
Residential buildings
Clear signage

Features

Get a route
View open shops along the way
Alert the police
Notify the community in real time about an unsafe areas
Share your route to a friend or family member
Confirm your safe arrival

Impacts

The results of the project were presented to the Community of Agglomeration (SQY), the city council and SNCF.
Since 2023, the city center has been in the process of transformation, with a new public space design

Last article 2025

To go further, I would recommend

Deepening the research phase by studying a larger sample of user groups
Conducting user tests on the app’s usage in real-life situations
Use mind maps alongside the interviews, asking the residents to draw the city as they perceive it
Test the proposed solutions generated during the ideation workshop and assess them using predefined metrics

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