Development Log

Research and Context : Women’s Safety and Invisible Labour

My research begins with a personal observation, as I have grown in age and experience, I have not grown in confidence when it comes to feeling safe in public spaces alone as a woman. Instead, over time this awareness has developed into increased fear, anxiety, and an understanding of the need for constant vigilance. While this is rooted in personal experience, it also reflects a much wider reality. Research by UN Women UK found that ‘97% of women aged 18–24 have experienced sexual harassment‘ (Choudhury,22) highlighting how common these feelings of unease are. Through converstion women share advice on how to avoid danger, while also feeling a sense of exhaustion and disappointment when yet another incident occurs despite taking all the “precautions” recommended to us. These repeated experiences contribute to a wider emotional and mental burden, where safety is something that must be continuously managed rather than assumed.

It is also important for me to acknowledge, that I am speaking from a place of privilege as an able bodied white woman living in the UK, who doesn’t know complexities of safety for women of minorities or living in other areas of the world.

To explore this further, I have created a FigJam board to visually collect and analyse existing campaigns and design responses, allowing me to identify patterns in how women’s safety is communicated.

Across my research, I identified a recurring pattern in how women’s safety is communicated, with many campaigns focusing on extreme outcomes or prevention. Projects such as the REDress Project and Women’s Aid demonstrate the impact of symbolism, emotion, and interaction, but often centre on highly visible forms of harm. This can position women as responsible for their own safety, while simultaneously excluding everyday men from recognising themselves as part of the solution. As a result, a disconnect is created, where men may not see their role in shaping safer public spaces, as they are not directly associated with the extreme situations these campaigns often highlight.

While these approaches are important, they often overlook the everyday behaviours women adopt and the ongoing mental and emotional labour this creates. In response, I aim for my project to highlight and imitate the tiering and repetitive nature of constant decision making when the “wrong choice” could be fatal for a woman.

Conceptual Development


Building on my research, I considered a broad range of conceptual ideas to explore different ways of communicating the mental and emotional load discussed above. I started with sketchbook drawings and brain storms to map out recurring themes within my research. Focusing on repetition, uncertainty, and ongoing decision making.

I specifically stumbled on the idea of “try again” which could imitate:

• No permanent success
• Ongoing vigilance
• Emotional exhaustion
• Cyclical behaviour
• Mental load

Pen to paper brain storms of how I could represent mental load or decision making.

Next I used a Figma board to collect initial thoughts on early concepts. These initial ideas explored a range of approaches including print campaigns, interactive systems, and audience participation. At this stage, I was less focused on aesthetics and more interested in understanding how different formats could influence emotional engagement and audience perception.

Rather than viewing these communication methods as separate ideas, I began considering how they could work together to create a more immersive campaign. I started with poster sketches to test how interactive activity and print could operate together to creat a larger campaign. This allowed me to start considering user journey, participation, and emotional response alongside visual communication.

I next made a figjam board of references of how i could use colour / shapes to communicate a friendly and gender inclusive campaign.

After this research and imagining how I could use the lines and shapes, The fortune teller felt like the strongest direction. As its repetitive structure is based on decision making, plus Its interactive format also shifts the audience from observer to participant, while remaining low-cost, accessible, and easy to reproduce. This could be paired along side a information stand and tactile printed information aimed to get people talking and hands on. I went back to pen to paper for further development.

Experimentation & Prototyping