Sevare

74% of the 200+ students Sevare surveyed admitted to using their phone while driving — not occasionally, regularly. The apps built to fix that ran on guilt and restriction, and they weren't working. Sevare's answer fit on one line: save lives, save relationships, save money.

At A Glance

One dangerous habit, one behavioral bet, one dial built to change it

The Real Cost

3,477 deaths and 500,000 injuries a year tied to distracted driving — a $175 billion problem with no reward for driving safe.

Checked Every 6 Minutes

The average driver checks their phone roughly 150 times a day — about three hours of screen time layered onto daily life.

The Insight

People didn't need to be told the phone was a problem. They needed a reason to put it down that felt better than picking it up.

Locked, Not Blocked

One button locks calls and texts for the drive, while music and GPS stay fully accessible.

Built On Real Drivers

Three personas — a student, a photojournalist, a professional under a safety incentive — kept the design grounded in real driving habits.

The Outcome

A high-fidelity prototype that argues incentive beats restriction — reward over guilt, at every touchpoint.

The Challenge

By Andy Lewis | Senior UX Designer | Sevare

Distracted driving is a well-documented problem with poorly designed solutions. Every year, distracted driving contributes to roughly 3,477 deaths and 500,000 injuries on the road — a $175 billion problem, and one with no reward built in for the people who do drive safely. The average driver checks their phone about 150 times a day, roughly every six minutes, adding up to nearly three hours of screen time layered onto everything else in a day. Survey research with more than 200 students found that 74% admitted to using their phone while driving — not occasionally, regularly.

The more revealing finding wasn't the number. It was the reason restriction-based apps were failing to change it. Apps that blocked access and issued warnings produced resentment rather than behavior change. People felt punished for a habit they already knew was dangerous. Guilt without an alternative is not a strategy.

How We Did It

From a $175 billion problem to a reward people actually want

Strategy & Insight

The team centered the design on one behavioral-economics principle: make the desired action feel like a reward, not a sacrifice. Eric, a college freshman distracted by social media at red lights; Julian, a freelance photojournalist pulled by notifications on long solo drives; and Tammie, a personal assistant whose employer incentivizes safe driving for insurance — all three personas shared the same underlying truth. They didn't need to be told the phone was a problem. They needed a reason to put it down that felt better than picking it up.

Differentiate The Approach

Competitive analysis showed the gap. PocketPoints targets students with food discounts earned through phone lock time, but stays inside a study-and-dining use case. DriveSmart blocks texts and calls but buries the experience in warnings. DriveSafely reads texts aloud in real time — replacing one distraction with another. Sevare borrowed the reward mechanic that made PocketPoints work, extended it to any driver, and kept the phone genuinely locked instead of narrated: calls and texts blocked for the drive, music and GPS still fully accessible.

Build The Reward Dial

The process ran the full research-to-prototype arc — user need identification, ideation, paper prototyping, usability testing, information architecture, wireframes, and high-fidelity mockups. The core UI decision to come out of it was the reward dial: a single lock button that begins accruing points when pressed, displayed as a building dial with the chosen reward visible at its center throughout the drive. The goal is always in view, and cognitive load stays low without cutting off functionality people genuinely need behind the wheel.

Brand It Like A Game, Not A Warning

The brand had to feel like the reward, not the reprimand: flat black and white grounded by four accent colors — light grey for subtle background variation, light blue for elements that needed to pop, purple as an accent, and red reserved for the one call to action that needed to stand out. Round shapes gave every button a sense of bounce, and reward imagery stayed colorful and lively enough that locking the phone felt like starting a game, not accepting a punishment.

The Results

What a reward-over-guilt design actually produced

High-Fidelity Prototype

Complete UX Foundation — Research, Personas, Tested Flows, Polished UI

3 Personas

Eric, Julian & Tammie — Real Driver Profiles, Not Assumptions

74%

Of 200+ Surveyed Students Admitted To Using Their Phone While Driving

The behavioral model at the center of the design — incentive over restriction, reward over guilt — is the argument the work makes. Whether Sevare shipped beyond this prototype, that argument holds: people don't need to be shamed off their phones. They need a better reason to put them down.

One project doesn't tell the whole story.

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