1 - Home
2 - Unsafe
4 - Mark Unsafe
3 - Chat
5 - About

Safe Space

Safe Space is a portal for people who feel currently unsafe and are unable to contact anyone directly. It gives them the opportunity to talk to other people who feel unsafe to verify their status, and keep a log of their location.

Try It!

DOMAIN CHALLENGE: Safe Space is located at http://ineedasafe.space [i need a Safe Space]. Due to the domain being new, some DNS changes may not have yet propagated, so a sample is at https://sohinik.github.io/safespace-github/index.html.

To use safe space, first head over the the "unsafe" page. Then, enter in your personal information as well as a secret to verify your identity. The secret is not available publicly, and is what you can use to mark yourself as safe later. You can enter as much or as little information as you would like. Feel free to use the chat to speak to other people live, or fill out the unsafe page again to keep it updated of your location. Once you are safe, scroll down to the safe button and use your secret to remove your information from the "currently unsafe" table.

Inspiration

Last summer, I was living alone in an unfamiliar city for an internship, and decided to use local transportation and a train to visit my friend living an hour away. On the ride there, an unfamiliar and much larger man decided to sit next to me and started speaking to me. Out of societal obligation I somewhat responded, but he quickly became extremely crude and vulgar. I rode the bus to the end of the line, and although he initially mentioned his stop as much earlier, he ended up following me out of the bus and continued harassing me. It was only when I publicly called him out in front of some authorities that I was able to slip free. Given that at the time I was a smaller girl, barely 18, and by myself in an unfamiliar place without having told very many people exactly where I was, I remember being terrified, with my heart pounding, and wishing for anyone to talk to in order to ensure they knew about the situation. However, I wasn't able to immediately contact anyone. Since then, I've had some problems trusting public transportation when I am by myself, and I make sure to keep several people updated via paper trail about my location in similar situations.

That's why I decided to create Safe Space, for others in similar situations. A paper trail is better than no trail, so Safe Space allows people to log their location. Additionally, the chat feature allows them to talk to others, which is something that can be invaluable in feeling safer. I hope to use it in the feature whenever I am feeling safe, and I would like to expand it to improve it's UI/UX, add mobile features, add location features, and involve a more holistic record-keeping.

How It's Made

I used HTML, Javascript, and CSS for the frontend, and the backend is supported by Firebase. Additionally, I used Figma to wireframe, and Coolors to create the color palette.