Hawa Camara

Get 2 Steppin': A pedestrian wayfinding app that assists UCLA students by presenting the most efficient routes and report hazards around Westwood.

Westwood village is home to many UCLA students, workers, and residents and is supplied with dozens of shops and restaurants in the area. With the impact of this we have observed several mobility obstacles for pedestrians like blocked off streets for an event or construction, several accounts of dangerous pedestrian crossings, and congestion due to heavy foot and vehicle traffic. UCLA students that walk through and around Westwood to fulfill timely obligations can find it difficult to avoid these obstacles.

During our interviews, we noticed most interviewees were unsatisfied with the public transportation and traffic around Westwood. Magaly a UCLA alumna, expressed her troubles navigating around Westwood through bus and ridesharing. She preferred walking because of the inefficient systems in Westwood,however, she wanted to feel safer walking around congested sidewalks with foot traffic and construction in the way. Surprisingly, most of our interviews had brought up the issue of inefficient public transport and some like Magaly found walking and biking to be a practical and beneficial alternative.

Get 2 Steppin': a pedestrian wayfinding app that assists UCLA students by presenting the most efficient routes around Westwood. A main feature of the app is that the user can report and clear hazards along streets and sidewalks on their route. That way, other students are notified of these hazards and advised to steer clear of them. Students can also take action and report on the app, or notify the city when a hazard has been ignored for a while. We want gamification to center the app so it is a positive, playful, and productive experience to walk around Westwood throughout the day. Some key features are achieving badges, earning discounts to restaurants and shops, and selecting cool shoe avatars to customize different themes within the app.