Introduction

SafeLinks is a system designed around that one idea: give female travellers in India enough information, trust, and support that exploring stays their decision.

INDIA, 2023–24

This is a self-initiated, hypothetical case study exploring how design and systems thinking can address real safety challenges for female travellers in India.

SafeLinks is not a live product but it's a research-driven concept built to demonstrate my process, from problem framing through to a working UX strategy, visual brand strategy and business model.

I'm a solo female traveller myself. The tension is one I know firsthand you want the freedom to explore, but you're constantly trading a little of it for a little more safety.

Where you go, when you go, what you wear, who you tell, whether you go alone at all — safety concerns don't just sit in the background of a trip, they actively reshape it. Conversations with friends confirmed I wasn't imagining this. I wanted to see, as a designer, whether that trade-off could actually shrink instead of just being accepted as the cost of travelling while female.

Project goals: Understand the real challenges female travellers face in India, design solutions that meaningfully empower them, and aim for measurable positive impact not just another safety app.

System map

I started with a blank sheet with just one open question:
What does a travelling system on trips in India actually depend on?
From there I worked outward like a system: every stakeholder I could think of went on the page from government, transport, hosts, family, local vendors, influencers, police, NGOs and then I kept asking what connected to what. Not only how did they exist, but also how they interact, who depends on whom, and where trust and information actually flow between them.
Some relationships were one-way, some genuinely reciprocal. That messiness is what let the real leverage points surface later instead of me guessing at them upfront.

From there, secondary research told me how big and structural the problem was. Talking to travellers themselves told me how it actually felt, day to day.

Stakeholder mapping plots every actor who touches a woman's journey (government, transport, hosts, communities, family, influencers, travel agencies)
Secondary research on the systemic environment
Primary research (interviews/surveys) to validate what the system was missing
Leverage-point analysis where in the system a small design intervention could create outsized impact

SECONDARY RESEARCH

Safety spans around the journey

✓ Solo travel is growing fast: 46% planned to travel solo in 2023, up from 38% in 2022 (Booking.com)

✓ A 2018 Thomson Reuters Foundation report ranked India among dangerous countries for women travellers.

✓ Common precautions: not revealing solo status, staying alert on transport, dressing conservatively, reputed stays.

✓ Many find safety in community: forums, advice from experienced travellers.

✓ Government efforts include reserved transport spaces and public safety measures.

✓ Core challenges: safety, language barriers, cultural differences, loneliness, unfamiliar navigation

Information exists. Nothing is backed by authority that's what breeds distrust, not a lack of knowledge.

PRIMARY RESEARCH

Key findings

Understand how women find travel companions, manage safety on trips, and what builds enough trust to use a platform like this.

Verification is the #1 trust blocker led to mandatory selfie verification
Women want age-irrelevant, interest-based travel companions → shaped the follow/message model
SOS needs to work before unlocking the phone led to the lock-screen SOS flow
Safety info today is informal and scattered led to verified Safety Zones
Check-ins are wanted, but only if automatic led to scheduled pings over manual logging

Affinity Map

Trust & Verification (nothing is authority-backed),
Fragmented Information (scattered across platforms, no single source),
Family as a Safety Net (reassurance runs through people, not systems),
Cultural Confidence (navigating unfamiliar norms, not just physical risk).

Persona + Empathy Map

Everyone whose behaviour actually shapes her safety. What struck me while building these is how differently each of them defines "safe enough" which is exactly the tension the product had to hold.

Women travelers are stuck choosing between two half-solutions: social apps that help them find travel companions but ignore physical safety, and safety apps that protect them but don't help them find anyone to travel with. SafeLinks merges both companion-finding, trip planning, and real-time safety in one app.

Visual System

To create a powerful and recognisable identity that conveys the app's mission of empowering female travellers with safety, confidence, and global connections. By combining impactful visuals, clear messaging, and user-friendly design, the app strives to become the trusted travel companion for women everywhere.

Logo meaning:

The upward-pointing arrow symbolises individual growth and empowerment.
The three arrows converging represent community support and collaboration.

Reflection

The line I kept coming back to:

Don't design a cage, design a compass.

What worked: treating this as a system, not just an app
no single feature could fix a problem that lives across
government, transport, community, and family.

What I'd do next: Usability-test the SOS flow under real pressure,
design the actual verification workflow behind the trust badges,
and design for the low-connectivity regions where many solo travellers actually go.