Coolight: Enhancing Nighttime Safety for Urban Student Commuters

TL;DR

Nighttime walking safety is unevenly experienced, especially among university students in urban areas. This paper presents Coolight, a safety-focused mobile app that combines an interactive live map, real-time incident reporting, location sharing, and a route planner optimized for safety, developed through a human-centered design process in Toronto. Through formative studies (questionnaires and interviews) and iterative prototyping (low-fi to high-fi) with students and families, the authors demonstrate that proactive, community-driven features can reduce anxiety and improve perceived safety. Usability testing shows strong effectiveness, efficiency, and satisfaction, with SUS scores indicating excellent usability, and the work highlights ethical considerations and potential for broader urban mobility safety applications.

Abstract

Safety while walking alone at night is a key indicator of a citizen's well-being and a society's inclusiveness. However, this is not equally felt across all demographic groups, especially for university students living in urban areas. We present Coolight, a mobile application designed to reduce stress and anxiety for nighttime walking through an interactive live map, real-time community incident reports, location sharing, and a route planner optimized for user safety. Coolight's design was informed through interviews, questionnaires, and usability tests with university students and their friends and families in Toronto, Canada. This paper describes the concept, research, design approach, and evaluation results of a solution addressing safety concerns urban commuters face at night.

Figures (7)

• Figure 1: Primary Stakeholder Responses Filtered by Males for "How safe do you feel walking alone at night?"
• Figure 2: Primary Stakeholder Responses Filtered by Females for "How safe do you feel walking alone at night?"
• Figure 3: Onboarding
• Figure 4: Live Map
• Figure 5: Location Sharing