Path
Path is a walking safety app that proactively reroutes users away from unsafe areas while monitoring their safety in real time. Unlike traditional navigation tools, Path detects potential threats and automatically notifies emergency contacts if needed. The goal was to deliver a seamless, non-intrusive safety experience that worked across cities, public transport, and variable user reporting activity.
Team:
2 Product Managers, 4 Frontend engineers, 2 Backend engineers, 2 external Google Maps API specialists, External stakeholder / founder, External illustrator
Role:
Lead Product Designer
Time:
10 months
The challenge
Reliance on manual unsafe-area reporting in other apps left gaps in safety coverage.
Crowdsourced data needed reliability filtering to avoid false positives.
Required multi-modal navigation including public transport, without losing safety features.
Needed to reduce user cognitive load in potentially life-threatening situations while still offering advanced controls.
My role
Shaped the end-to-end UX strategy, from safety feature design to onboarding
Led cross-functional collaboration with PMs, engineers, and external mapping specialists.
Created a design system and interaction library to unify visuals and streamline dev handoff.
Advocated for minimal data entry during onboarding to align the experience with user expectations.
Process and approach
Problem definition
Analysed limitations of existing safety navigation tools.
Reviewed incident reports, user feedback, and helpdesk tickets to identify pain points in safety and routing.
Solution design
Crowdsourced Unsafe Zone Drawing: Users could draw areas directly on the map, feeding into a scoring algorithm that weighed severity and recency of reports.
Public Transport Integration: Designed routing that could detect when a user boarded or left a bus, adjusting safety logic accordingly.
Safe Spaces Network: Partnered with local businesses to create emergency reroute points within walking distance.
Emergency contact features
Simplified contact adding by removing approval step, ensuring instant safety coverage.
Added behavioral monitoring: deviations, sudden stops, or abnormal movement triggered safety checks and alerts.
Onboarding and education
Replaced one-off intro screens with progressive onboarding — contextual prompts teaching features as users encountered them.
Collaboration and systems
Daily QA and iteration with developers.
Coordinated with Google Maps API experts to extend routing logic beyond default capabilities.
Built a reusable component library and interaction map to maintain consistency.
Impact
Redesigned experience improved user safety confidence and reduced onboarding friction while increasing adoption of advanced safety features.
+21%
-66%
+24%
-35%
support request for feature clarification
