The problem
Phones and networks fail exactly when safety matters most, and the most vulnerable people are least able to use them.
InSync
Wearable safety, reinvented. A satellite-enabled, jewellery-like device and companion app that keeps vulnerable people reachable where the mobile network can’t reach.
What I did
Ran a Lean UX loop end to end: research, proto-personas, a prioritised MVP, then a wearable concept and companion app.
Validation
Four hypotheses tested with five users. Every task was completed.
01The problem
When the network fails, the most vulnerable are left behind
Smartphones and cellular networks are the backbone of modern safety, and they break exactly when they matter most: in remote areas, disaster zones and the crushing density of mass gatherings.
Children, the elderly, women travelling alone and high-risk workers share the same fear, wandering off and getting lost. Yet every existing solution depends on a phone, a network and a level of tech fluency they often don’t have.
The spark
The Maha Kumbh Mela: 80 million people, stampedes, disappearances, dead networks. Elders in my family wanted to attend; their caregivers were terrified. How do you keep someone safe without taking away their freedom?
The reframe
A Fevicol campaign once sold oversized T-shirts that two people wore together so crowds couldn’t separate them. That low-tech idea unlocked the brief: a persistent digital tether. Proximity and reassurance, without the leash.
02The stakes
India is facing a quiet crisis of missing people
Rapid urbanisation, overcrowding and an ageing population are colliding with safety infrastructure that was never built for them. The numbers from the National Crime Records Bureau (2022) are stark.
170,000+children go missing each year, especially in Delhi, Mumbai and Kolkata
20,000+elderly people disappear yearly; dementia and Alzheimer’s drive wandering
25,000+people lost at gatherings like Kumbh Mela, which draws 80M+ attendees
19%of India will be elderly by 2050, up from 8% in 2015
03Approach
A Lean UX loop, run end to end
Designing for an emerging technology means designing under deep uncertainty. I structured the work as a Lean UX cycle: surface assumptions, turn them into testable hypotheses, and validate with real users before committing to the build.
Research & discovery
Secondary research, NCRB data, technology and market scans to map the real problem space.
Personify assumptions
Affinity mapping, proto-personas and mental models for children, elders, solo women and workers.
Hypothesis & prototype
MoSCoW-prioritised MVP, IoT and service blueprints, then lo-fi to hi-fi companion app.
Test & iterate
Moderated usability testing, hypothesis scoring and rationale-led refinement.
04What the research surfaced
Talking to caregivers, parents and pet owners changed the brief
Four themes recurred across every conversation, and each one quietly ruled out the “just build another tracking app” answer.
Core safety concerns
Wandering off and getting lost is the shared fear across children, elders, pets and pilgrims. Parents fear abduction and road accidents; for elders, medical emergencies top the list.
Usability challenges
Elders forget contacts and struggle with phone interfaces. Children are uncomfortable with wearables and pull them off. Pets need devices that work with any collar or harness.
Limits of today’s tools
Phones are unreliable when it matters. Home systems only work indoors. Maps fail at event-specific infrastructure, and helplines are overwhelmed and slow.
How people cope today
Families pre-decide meeting points, keep a basic backup phone at home, and rely on sheer personal effort to find a missing pet or person.
05Who we design for
Five lives, one device, and not one of them is a “power user”
Proto-personas built from real safety habits, mobility patterns and communication preferences. Designing for the least tech-fluent user in the room kept every decision honest.
Meena, 74
Elderly · early dementia
Independence without the wandering risk. Can’t operate a phone in a crisis.
Aryan, 8
Child · walks to school
Wanders in public; pulls off anything that feels like a “watch”.
Priya, 27
Solo woman · night commute
Wants a discreet, instant way to alert trusted contacts when something’s off.
Ravi, 34
Field worker · no signal
Works in remote zones where the network simply isn’t there.
Leo
Pet · variable collar
Bolts in open areas; the device has to fit any harness and just work.
06Market & competitors
A growing market, and a graveyard of half-solutions
$4.42Bprojected self-defence market by 2030, from $3.03B in 2024 (6.5% CAGR)
65.8%of that market is the women’s segment; personal safety is the demand driver
| Competitor | Target | Status | Why it stalled |
|---|---|---|---|
| Safer by Leaf Wearables | Women & elders | Inactive · 2019 | Couldn’t scale beyond a niche; low adoption. |
| Jiobit Tracker | Women only | Inactive · 2020 | Acquired; folded into the Life360 ecosystem. |
| Safe Locket | All users + pets | Inactive · 2023 | Limited features; couldn’t retain users. |
Build the dependable, always-on safety layer that works independently of the mobile network.
07Designing for emerging technology
The hardest UX problem here is the part you can’t see
Satellites, geo-fences and AI motion sensing are invisible to the person wearing them. When the technology is ambient and the user is a frightened elder or a restless child, the design job stops being about screens and becomes about trust, feedback and who sets it up.
On the body
The wearable
Discreet pendant · LED + vibration
In between
Satellite + geo-fence
Works with no cellular signal
In the hand
Caregiver’s app
Live location · alerts · check-ins
Non-terrestrial networks
NTN connectivity reaches remote and underserved areas where cellular towers don’t.
Satellite GPS tracking
Accurate location data for caregivers, enabling timely intervention.
Adaptive geo-fencing
Dynamic safe zones that flex to context: home, school, an event boundary.
AI movement detection
Sensors flag falls and abnormal motion before a button is even pressed.
IoT integration
Real-time, two-way communication between the wearable and the app.
The UX consequence
Replace screens with vibration and LED cues, and lean on caregiver-led setup so the wearer never has to “operate” anything.
08The solution
A safety device you’d actually want to wear
InSync is compact, always-on and deliberately jewellery-like: a discreet pendant for everyday wear across every age and gender.
No screen to learn, no stigma to carry. The intelligence lives in the satellite link and the caregiver’s app.
Gender-neutralMinimal & compactLong battery life
Six MVP features, prioritised with MoSCoW
01
Geo-fencing & safe zones
Set virtual boundaries; get an instant alert the moment they’re crossed.
02
SOS alert system
One-tap distress signal to caregivers or emergency services. No menus, no typing.
03
Real-time tracking
Accurate, continuous location powered by GPS and satellite systems.
04
Satellite communication
Tracking and SOS keep working even with zero mobile coverage.
05
Two-way communication
Talk and listen through built-in audio, or send pre-set voice messages.
06
Multi-user safety
One platform for children, elders, solo travellers, workers and pets.
09The companion app
For the caregiver, clarity at a glance. For the wearer, nothing to operate.
The app is built for the person doing the worrying. Faces over labels, plain-language alerts, and a colour system that reads “safe” or “needs attention” in a fraction of a second.
Three decisions that made it work for non-users
Feedback without screens
The wearer never reads a UI. Vibration and LED confirm an SOS sent or a safe zone entered: accessible to a child, an elder with low vision, or anyone in panic.
Caregiver-led setup
All configuration lives in the caregiver’s app. The hardest steps are done by the most capable hands.
One device, every body
A single gender-neutral form factor with software modes, instead of separate products that fragment trust and scale.
10Validation
Tested with real users, scored against the hypotheses
A moderated usability study with five participants put four core flows under realistic scenarios, measured on task success, time on task, error count and assistance required. Every task was completed, and usability scored strongest when a caregiver was in the loop.
5participants
4hypotheses scored
100%task completion
| Task | What happened | Result |
|---|---|---|
| Trigger the SOS | 100% success, the fastest task and the standout feature. | Validated |
| Understand GPS tracking | Clear at a glance; faces beat labels. | Validated |
| Respond to a fall alert | Confident responses; plain-language alerts landed. | Validated |
| Complete onboarding | Multi-step navigation ran slower. UI to simplify. | Refine |
Target outcome for the product: reduce time-to-locate during emergencies by up to 70%. This is a goal, not a measured result.
11Reflection & what’s next
Safety isn’t only a functional need. It’s an emotional one.
People want to feel secure without feeling monitored.
Quiet tech earns trust
Users responded best to tactile feedback, minimal interfaces and features that worked silently in the background.
Design away from screens
Designing for low-tech users meant stepping away from notification-driven patterns toward confidence-building cues.
Onboarding belongs in person
Remote, mediated testing was hard for low-digital-literacy users: a strong case for in-person onboarding support.
From emergency response to everyday care
- Health monitoring
- Heart-rate, body-temperature and activity sensing for early intervention, especially for elders with chronic conditions.
- Calmer dashboard
- A simplified caregiver view with voice-based prompts, reducing cognitive load during stressful moments.
- Deeper hardware
- Move the satellite, battery and sensor stack from concept toward a manufacturable, certifiable device.
- Institutional scale
- Explore how schools, elder-care providers and event organisers respond: the path to real deployment.
No one should ever feel helpless during a moment of distress, and good design can make sure they don’t.
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