Aegis
Project Genesis: Surrounded by constant safety-related news, I began paying closer attention to how people react in uncomfortable situations: the hesitation to pull out a phone, the instinct to stay unnoticed, the need to regain control quickly rather than document what is happening. These observations led me to question how safety tools could exist within the moment itself.
Project Duration: October, 2025 - November, 2025
PROBLEM
Individuals’ sense of safety & control is undermined in confined spaces.
In India, everyday spaces often carry unspoken risks, and rising incidents of harassment continue to expose the limitations of existing safety measures. These moments highlight the need to understand how individuals across genders experience vulnerability in close, low-visibility settings.
SOLUTION
Aegis, a gender-inclusive pen that merges technology & self defence, discreetly.
A pen-based personal safety system designed for situations in closed spaces where speed, discretion, and physical response matter more than screens. The pen functions as the primary point of action during an incident, while the mobile app exists only to retain and organise evidence once the situation is under control.
Alongside enabling safety and escape, Aegis also integrates a discreet voice-recording capability supported by on-device status feedback.
Captured audio is surfaced through a mobile app designed for evidence storage, smart script and reporting. The interface supports users once they are in a safer environment.
The mobile interface functions as an extended system surface for post-access review, smart transcription, and structured reporting of recorded evidence.
Recordings are converted into a chat-style transcript with speaker separation, allowing users to isolate specific text and its corresponding background audio for focused review. The controls page centralizes key actions, giving users direct control over how recordings are reviewed and shared.
EXISTING SOLUTIONS
The ecosystem of safety tools is reactive-heavy, with limited proactive mechanisms to support users before or during escalation.
Safety features added to everyday objects such as phones, wearables, bags, or keychains often become visually apparent, reducing discretion, while trusted systems tied to these objects tend to respond only after an incident rather than during it.
MIXED METHOD APPROACH
Users default to avoidance & informal coping strategies, driven by cognitive overload & fear of escalation.
The survey captured how users respond when feeling unsafe and why existing safety tools are often avoided. Interviews unpacked the reasoning behind those choices, hesitation under pressure, fear of escalation, and low trust in systems that feel slow or complex. Impact-frequency mapping revealed a clear gap: safety fails not in intent, but in moments where fear, uncertainty and pressure to decide quickly co-exist.
A SNAPSHOT OF OUR USERS
Harm in closed spaces is rarely loud or obvious, but its impact is immediate, isolating, and leaves users without the ability to respond or prove what happened.
Incidents occurred in familiar yet enclosed environments where reactions were constrained by shock, power dynamics, or fear of escalation. By the time users processed the incident, the moment had already passed and evidence was absent.
SHAPING THE IDEA
The pen emerged as the final concept because it is the most socially invisible object that users already hold naturally, allowing safety activation to happen discreetly and reliably under stress.
During ideation, objects like e-wallets, pendants, bottles, coffee flasks, and chargers were explored, but most demanded visible effort, intentional access, or fine motor control: all unreliable under stress. Ergonomic decisions accounted for shaky hands, reduced grip strength, and cognitive overload, shaping tactile cues, pressure-based activation, and a cylindrical form that works without visual focus, keeping safety interactions discreet and dependable when precision breaks down.
Every control is positioned and calibrated to reduce cognitive and physical load, allowing silent activation and evidence capture even when fine motor control breaks down.
RESEARCH & IDEATION
FEEDBACK SURVEY
Early feedback showed alignment with the concept direction, alongside uncertainties requiring refinement rather than rethinking.
The Maze survey captured how users interpreted the proposed safety system at first exposure. Responses showed that the core idea was generally understood and not perceived as intrusive or unrealistic. Neutral feedback clustered around questions of scope, edge cases, and situational fit, pointing to refinement opportunities instead of conceptual rejection.
FAILURE POINT & TAKEAWAY
Due to rendering and visualization constraints, the OEM interface screen could not be accurately represented within the Blender-rendered product, resulting in a gap between the intended interaction detail and the final visual output.
This project taught me the importance of designing for real human reactions rather than ideal behaviours. It pushed me to question assumptions around how people respond under stress and to prioritize simplicity, discretion, and trust over feature-heavy solutions. Aegis became less about adding protection and more about understanding when and how design should quietly step in without demanding attention.
© 2023 Aakriti Srivastava
Research-forward. Design-focused. Let's build what matters.