HopeShield: A User-Informed Mobile Application for Reporting Harassment and Domestic Violence in Pakistan

Abstract

HopeShield a smartphone App is designed to help protect people from domestic violence and gender-based harassment using the power of an anonymous reporting tool and linkages to support services (e.g. crisis centers). It is built on the belief that while there is significant technological potential to improve victims' safety through mobile phones, these technologies have been lacking in terms of being culturally grounded and aware of trauma experienced by many victims. A two-phase process was used to develop HopeShield. First a survey of 74 participants who were primarily women between the ages of 18 to 30 years old was conducted to assess their abuse experiences as well as their needs for technology in this regard. Second, a mobile application and dashboard system were designed using Agile principles based upon the input received from users in Phase One. Data collected during Phase One identified very high levels of both psychological and emotional abuse among the surveyed group; more than 70% of the women surveyed had never reported abuse or violence to anyone. The women surveyed also stated that they would use mobile tools that allowed them to report abuse anonymously, track locations, capture evidence, and link directly to support services. The data collected in Phase One was then used to inform the design of HopeShield's major features including one tap SOS alert buttons, secure audio and video recording, geolocation tagging, and a verifiable administrative dashboard for non-governmental organizations (NGOs) and law enforcement agencies. Testing of HopeShield was done internally to validate its functionality. Informal feedback about HopeShield has indicated that it is usable and relevant to real life situations and that its development represents a participatory design process which incorporates the ability of technology to foster trust and institutional integration. Overall, HopeShield provides a viable and scalable model for a national safety platform and addresses the need to bridge the gap between victim/survivors and response systems in resource-constrained environments.