UX CASE STUDY · FIGBUILD 2026

Tingl turns a mother’s intuition into a safety signal.

Tingl turns a mother’s intuition into a safety signal.

Tingl turns a mother’s intuition into a safety signal.

A two-sided safety app pairing an Apple Watch for kids with an iPhone app for parents — designed to protect without making care feel like surveillance.

A two-sided safety app pairing an Apple Watch for kids with an iPhone app for parents — designed to protect without making care feel like surveillance.

A two-sided safety app pairing an Apple Watch for kids with an iPhone app for parents — designed to protect without making care feel like surveillance.

ROLE

Product design + product management

TEAM

Team Spidey Senses · MHCID @ UCI

TOOLS

Figma, FigJam, Figma Make

Intuition that swings into action

Passive sensing, parent alerts, child check-ins, and quiet ways to ask for help.

The challenge: build safety without surveillance.

The challenge: build safety without surveillance.

The challenge: build safety without surveillance.

PROBLEM

Existing tools either track too much or react too late, leaving parents with worry but no trusted signal.

SOLUTION

A passive sensing layer that nudges a parent only when biometrics, movement, stillness, or route changes feel off.

USERS

A parent who needs confidence, and a child who needs independence without performing distress.

VALIDATION

A mother of two described the exact problem Tingl solves during testing, completely unprompted.

Research first, then flow decisions.

Research first, then flow decisions.

Research first, then flow decisions.

We grounded the concept in safety data, parenting studies, maternal intuition research, social listening, participatory design, and user testing.

01

Mapped the emotional and physiological basis of maternal intuition, including cortisol data, empathy science, and parenting research.

02

Ran participatory design in FigJam: every teammate sketched independently, and a nine-year-old contributed Apple Watch flow ideas.

03

User testing exposed that vague alert copy failed under stress; parents needed who, what, where, and why in the first three seconds.

Designing a safety loop that feels quiet until it matters.

Designing a safety loop that feels quiet until it matters.

Designing a safety loop that feels quiet until it matters.

Parent app

Mom sees a prioritized alert only when a pattern feels wrong — with enough context to act quickly instead of decoding vague panic language.

Child watch flow

Kids can send virtual hugs, tap mood check-ins, or reach mom silently — reducing the pressure to explain distress out loud.

Passive sensing

Heart rate, route deviation, movement, and stillness are interpreted as signals — protecting the child even when they do nothing at all.

The alert had to answer who, what, where, and why — instantly.

The alert had to answer who, what, where, and why — instantly.

The alert had to answer who, what, where, and why — instantly.

USER TESTING INSIGHT

A participant could not act on vague language while imagining panic. That finding reshaped the alert screen from a gentle warning into a focused decision aid.

What we learned

What we learned

What we learned

Trust, not surveillance

Designing for emotion and designing for safety are not opposites. The strongest safety tool is one that preserves autonomy while making help feel close.

Future roadmap

Priority alerts, a trusted third-party loop, a thirty-day intuition log, and a neighborhood safety network would deepen the product’s ability to support families over time.

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