2. Design & UX
The Technology and Human Rights Project aims to address human rights challenges by identifying needs that can be addressed by new technologies. Working with a diverse network of developers, security experts and end-users, we aim to develop innovative tools that can be used to protect and defend human rights as safely and effectively as possible.
One of the first tools we have developed is Panic Button, a mobile phone application that alerts a user’s pre-selected contacts that they are in an emergency. The app has been designed for Human Rights Defenders (HRDs) and other individuals at risk and will develop it towards an initial release. In it's prototype version the app was referred to as 100Roses, a disguise name to deter malevolent interception of the app.
Panic Button was the product of an open innovation process that was co-run by Amnesty International and the design consultancy IDEO at the end of 2011. The challenge focused on a problem statement from the Security with Human Rights Campaign, and asked designers, developers, and partners or members of AI to collaborate find a solution to the following question: How can technology help people working to uphold human rights in the face of unlawful detention?
The first Panic Button prototype was created at a ‘make-a-thon’ weekend in February 2012 by a team of designers, coders and human rights professionals. The concept was then iterated on over six weeks where software engineers and designers helped to turn it into working software that we could use as an advanced prototype for testing.
Design process
Required features
Full breakdown of the features which were identified and analysis of similar applications is available.