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We know that click could cost you a lot
Summary
Team
In today's digital age, scams are rampant and often prey on impulsive decisions. To address this issue, we've launched the Are You Sure? initiative.
The Are You Sure? initiative aims to offer users a brief moment to reconsider their actions. This pause is intended to safeguard people from making rash decisions that could lead them into a scam or other impulsive online behaviour.
Truly an "all hands on deck" project with significant contributions from everyone. Outside of the team's weekly design work, my contributions included; Strategy and Copywriting team member as well as the ideation of the Are You Sure sticker.
Are You Sure?
By Mitchell Saunders, Abdulrahman Ataallah, Alessia Leonardo, Alexandra Bourget, Komal Nathani, Priya Ramakrishnan. Coached by: Evan MacEachern
The Challenge
How might we protect people’s personal information in scam situations?
The Insight
Scammers rely on creating a fast-paced scenario where victims become emotionally unstable, disrupting rational decision making.
The Strategic Idea
Provide people a moment to pause before handing out personal information
The Strategy to Life
Take advantage of technology's auto correct feature, to auto correct any personal information with "Are You Sure"
Measurement
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Social impact
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Campaign reach
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Brand awareness and consideration
Context
Global scam economy
Scams have become a global issue, effecting both individuals and businesses around the world. In 2022 Americans lost a reported $8.8 billion to scammers, and monetary losses due to scams are increasing by 30% every year as per the Federal Trade Commission. Not only are victims often unable to recover their stolen funds, but AARP states that the mental health of scam victims is significantly effected as well.
First Steps
Our team noticed the widespread occurrence of scams and their impact on people close to us, even ourselves. To start, we conducted primary research and interviews, developed journey and empathy maps, engaged with scam victims, and employed innovative design thinking. Our work led us to four main points of tension:
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We all know someone who has been scammed yet scams aren’t readily talked about.
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Victims don’t realize they’re falling into a scammers’ trap. Major red flags are ignored because of the psychological tactics used by scammers.
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This emotionally traumatizes victims making it difficult to overcome the scenario and face themselves at self-conscious level due to guilt.
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Scammers use false urgency to disrupt victim’s decision making ability
Using these points of tension we developed How Might We statements to develop a common theme, that lead us to our insight.
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The Insight:
Scammers rely on creating a fast paced scenario where victims become emotionally unstable, disrupting rational decision making
Then through some ideation...
Storyboarding...
and Prototyping...
We developed our solution:
Our target audience findings indicated that victims are anyone who is enticed to act out of emotion. So how do we deal with scams that impact countless people from a range of socio-economic backgrounds? Our research showed that 56% of Canadians use their smartphones for online shopping, presenting us with an opportunity...
The Solution: Protect your personal information (credit card, SIN, etc.)
by auto-correcting it to Are You Sure?
It’s user-friendly and quick to set up. The outcome is a feature that is both intuitive and effective: the Are You Sure? autocorrect feature. A simple five step process that could save you hours of self-reflection.
The Are You Sure? Sticker
we also made
Stick it, see it, stay safe
A different method, same message
Having a small physical reminder that’s always in view is a practical and effective way to avoid scams, and second guess impulsive online decisions.
Also, a great conversation piece, and an opportunity for Are You Sure to add some aesthetic value to your computer while staying true to the cause.
The Are You Sure? initiative. User tested and proven to keep you safer while surfing the traitorous waters of the world wide web.
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