StreetShine

StreetShine is a novel navigational tool providing a user-friendly map of the current streetlight visibility in the Downtown Providence district of Rhode Island. It uses provided luminance data from the associated IES* file of each light post, and coordinates with existing Providence streetlight maintenance systems such as PVD 311 and PRISM** to maintain an up to date record of currently operational lamps.

StreetShine is part of RISD DTPVD, a diverse suite of app designs created by the UIUX Design Fall 2024 Studio intended to meet Downtown Providence residents' needs through software. Students collaborated on a shared design system called Pyramid to be used in all DTPVD software, and each focused solving a specific problem for Downtown residents identified through their own research.

According to user research, including 6 intitial interviews with current Downtown Providence residents and public officials, along with a survey of supplementary news articles, many pedestrians feel unsafe walking at night which prevents them from fully exploring the city comfortably and leads to self-fulfilling negative perception of the area's safety. 

While software might not be able to directly influence the reality of safety in the area, it can help people’s real experiences. By equipping residents with a real-time, relevant resource, they can be more confident and empowered in their journey.

What my Figma prototype achieved:

If the app was shipped, the goal would be to attain:

I started by interviewing 6 stakeholders to the of Downtown Providence, including a selection of direct users (residents), partners (public officials, organization members), and clients (city planners and institutional leaders) to discover problems in Downtown Providence that could be addressed through software. I also conducted observational research of the city entailing ethnographic surveying and 4 on-the-spot interviews.

I then created an affinity map of this data organized into groups of the general city identity, specific daily experiences, and hopes and fears for the future.

The topic of perception vs. reality of safety became a consistent throughline within my initial research. I found that the reality of safety may be different than perception - some residents and visitors may perceive an unfriendly environment react negatively, while others develop behaviors to adapt and navigate the environment.

This discrepancy between public perception and reality of safety is supported by news articles about the city - in this 2021 article, 26 out of 30 people in Providence said they felt safe. I wanted to understand the perspective of the 4 people who felt unsafe and see if I could help.

This perception of unsafety may reflect reality. According to the Providence Police Department's November 03, 2024 Crime Statistics, the most common crime in the Downtown (District 1) in the past year are larcenies, and have seen a 5% increase since January 2023. Additionally, since last year, the biggest increase in crime Downtown has been a 78% increase in robbery without a firearm, along with 1 aggravated assault with a firearm.

Providence Police Department November 2024 Crime Report

Informed by my research on the topic, I thought I could add an important perspective to the conversation that accurately addressed residents’ complex feelings toward safety Downtown.

How might we make a safer downtown?

I created an initial user persona, Sally, who was a Downtown resident who is unable to explore more parts of the city because she does not feel comfortable going out spontaneously by herself.

My initial idea was a community-based public information platform for those with the “time and knowledge” of the city that Packer had referred to, to share their wisdom, helping residents who feel unsafe

My user flow for this idea was straightforward: within the forum, residents can ask or search for questions related to public safety, and reply to each other with answers.

To test this prototype I interviewed 5 people who were either Downtown residents or public safety officials, which were my target user groups for the app. 

I made an affinity map of the feedback from these interviews to determine takeaways and next steps from the data.

The most significant takeaways were as follows:

Taking away the feedback that users did not necessarily want generalized advice but rather real time updates on the city, I ideated again on who my target user was and what my app could provide.

From this advice, I went back to my initial research and found that users stated that streetlighting at night played a significant effect on residents’ perception of safety.

I also conducted another round of observational research in which I walked through Downtown at night, recording the visibility on the sidewalks of streets and alleys.

To focus more on the use case of night-time visibility, I changed my initial Sally persona to Claire, who specifically has concerns about street lighting at night.

Incorporating the singular use case of street visibility, my second prototype now specifically focused on providing a real-time lighting information resource.

The Figma prototype included a map with light pins corresponding to each lamp post in the city, functionality to report lamp outages in coordination with existing city maintenance systems (PVD 311 and PRISM*), create directions with respect to a minimum visibility (luminance) parameter, and a simplified “heatmap” map layer.

The luminance parameters were based off the International Engineering Society of America’s 2018 guidelines, Recommended Practice for Lighting Roadway and Parking Facilities, which states light value ranges for urban pedestrian zones (see the Light Mapping & Technical Feasibility section for more details) .

To test this new prototype, I interviewed 6 new people who were either Downtown residents or public safety officials, which were my target user groups for the app. Many of these participants were introduced to me by the 5 participants from the previous round.

From my testing with one particular resident who belonged to an older age demographic and lived in the city for many years, I discovered this app would not just be useful to inexperienced wayfinders, but also people who did have experience in the city but who were taking new, unfamiliar routes.

It also meant that I should push the “simplicity” of the UI to continue to make it accessible to older, non-tech users.

From this testing, I confirmed that there was a genuine use case of someone walking to an unfamiliar destination at night, and wanting a tool to help decide the route they should take.

Now that I had spoken to legitimate target users for this app, I refined my personas to more accurately reflect their backgrounds and desires, including Olga, an older resident who wants to travel to new destinations, and Francesca, a college student, who is in the city for the first time in her life.

Just like the last iteration, I made an affinity map of the feedback from these interviews to determine takeaways and next steps from this round of data.

For my higher-fidelity 3rd iteration, I revised this component to allow more precision in the time selection. 

I then customized this component for setting the visibility (luminance) level in candelas/m², in which the color transitions from blue (lowest luminance) to yellow (highest luminance).

I thought it was important to include a diverging color palette (blue to yellow) to show that the light is visible even if it is at the low end of the luminance spectrum.

These blue and yellow colors, when overlaid on a black background, reminded me of the color scheme for the Jewelry District, a neighborhood within Downtown Providence. This was the inspiration for the name StreetShine, which can mean the light on the roads, and also reference the “sparkling” jewelry manufacturing history of Downtown Providence.

The 3rd iteration of the app prototype can be found using the link below:

From this project, I learned that designing for the public, and specifically, designing for the topic of safety, is difficult because it is so multilayered and subjective. I think that the logo, and visuals are still areas for improvement in this project.

Since the EvariLux GIS software already exists, I believe that the city to consider an app like this. Even if it may not turn out to have a large safety perception benefit, I believe it is worth trying, and I have data to back it up.