A way for anyone in Nigeria to report a dead network or a security threat from any phone, by dialling *347#. Every report goes on a public map, so communities, network operators and the regulator all see the same thing, and everyone can watch it get fixed.
The live map. Blue is network, red is security, and a pulsing dot means someone said a person was in danger.
The problem
When the network drops in Gboko, or a kidnapping happens in Kajuru, the people closest to it have nowhere simple to say so. Complaints go to call centres, to social media, or nowhere at all. The regulator sees totals weeks later, and the community never finds out what happened next.
The people who most need to report are often the least served: older phones, no data, patchy signal. Any answer that starts with "download the app" leaves them out.
Start with the cheapest phone
So the reporting side is USSD, the short-code menus every Nigerian already uses to check airtime. It works on any handset, needs no data or app, and costs the reporter nothing. The trade-off is that every screen is a few lines of text and a number to reply with, and a session times out if you hesitate.
That shaped everything: at most four choices per screen, the most common answer first, and nothing to type unless there's no other way.
01 · Dial *347#DataBridge
1. Report network problem2. Report security concern
3. Check a report
4. About
03 · Confirm placeIs this where it is happening?Gboko, Benue · from your network, about 1 km1. Yes
2. No, somewhere else
04 · DoneThank you. Report DB-7K2Q is on the public map.
Dial *347*3# to follow it.
Location without typing
Typing a town name on a keypad is the slowest, most error-prone step in any USSD flow. But the mobile network already knows roughly where the phone is, from the tower it's connected to. DataBridge asks the network and lets the reporter confirm it with one key.
If the network can't say, or the problem is somewhere else, the reporter picks a state from a short paged list and types the town. That fallback stays, but most people never see it.
In a real pilot this would come from operators directly, or through a standard location API that several networks already support. The prototype simulates it with a "where is this phone" control.
Public by default
Security reports are visible to everyone, at the point they came from. The reasoning: a threat your neighbours can't see doesn't protect them. The reporter's name and number are never stored on the map or shown anywhere.
This is the decision I'd test hardest. Exact points help people stay away from danger, but they could also point back at whoever reported. A pilot should try an optional delay, or showing sensitive reports as an area rather than a point.
One map, two audiences
The public side answers one question: what's happening near me, and is anyone doing anything about it? The map, a short list grouped by state, and a status on every report. Detail only appears when you ask for it: tap a pin and you get what was reported, where, and its history.
Operators and agencies get a Respond view filtered to their own reports, with four steps that everyone can see:
NewAcknowledgedInvestigatingResolved
Every change appears on the public map straight away. That visibility is the point: it turns a complaint into a public record that someone has to answer. For people who live in this view all day there are keyboard shortcuts: J and K to move, 1 to 4 to set a status.
Built for the phone in your hand
Most people will open the map on a phone, often the same one they reported from. So mobile isn't a squeezed desktop. The map fills the screen and everything else lives in a bottom sheet:
Three heights: a peek with the totals, half for a report, full for the list.
Tap a pin and the map moves so it stays visible above the sheet.
Search, report details and the reporting phone are sheets you swipe down to close.
A tab bar with one clear action, Report, in the middle.
The prototype below is the real thing, running at phone size. It opens on the reporting phone: dial *347# to try it, or swipe the sheet down to explore the map.
Details
Danger pulses. A security report where someone said a person was in danger pulses until it's resolved, then goes still. If a phone is set to reduce motion, it shows a quiet halo instead.
Search for everything. One search box (⌘K on a computer) finds reports, towns and states, and lets you follow a report by its ID. On a phone it becomes a sheet with simple tabs.
Plain words. Internal terms were swapped for ones anyone understands: "Triage" became "Respond", and "median time to acknowledge" became "typical first response".
Light and dark, following the phone's setting, with a toggle.