She’s Birdie was founded with the goal to help women be safe in uncomfortable situations. According to the Center for Disease Control, 1 in 5 women is sexually assaulted at some point in their life in the US. She’s Birdie came to us to develop the next evolution of their Birdie personal alarm, the Birdie+. The Birdie+ aimed to upgrade its current technology, usability, and functionality. During development, we worked to bring new safety features to the Birdie+ such as the ability to connect to a 24/7 helpline, an excuse-to-leave call, and the ability to connect to the Birdie+ app for even more features. A challenge during development was how to make the product subconsciously easy to navigate. To combat this, we choose to leave all the functionality to one button and the pull tab allowing for less confusion between controls in stressful situations. We also worked to upgrade the manufacturing process and parts for better performance. One of those upgrades was the speaker. Trying many different perforations styles and parts, we were able to find the best combination for the loudest speaker possible for its form factor. All the while, helping to lower the cost of the product for higher volume production.

• ClientShe'sBirdie
• Year2020