The encyclopedia · Product & Design · Product decision · 2015–2016
IF Insurance's sat-nav swaps to a child's voice near schools
IF Insurance built a navigation app that switches to a child's voice near schools, using a protective instinct to slow drivers.
If Insurance
the move
If Insurance, a Nordic insurer, wanted to reduce speeding in school zones. Signs alone were not working: 65% of drivers still sped past them, and with them the chance of a child being hurt and a claim being filed.
Agency Forsman & Bodenfors built Slow Down GPS, a voice navigation app that looks like any other — except when the car approaches a school or day-care centre, the voice switches to a child's. They recorded real children's voices and manually mapped every school and day-care centre across Sweden, Norway and Finland to trigger the swap precisely.
The claim was that a child's voice shifts a driver into a caregiver state and slows them, where a sign or a warning does not. The app was also built to let users pin new 'child zones' such as playgrounds, so the map of risk grew with the community.
Rather than advertise safety messaging, the insurer gave the tool away free to everyone, not just customers, to maximise the effect it was trying to create.
why it works
- Plain signs were ignored, with 65% of drivers still speeding through school zones.
- A child's voice triggers an automatic caregiving response that a warning sign does not.
- Recording real children rather than a synthetic voice made the emotional cue feel genuine.
- Mapping every school and day-care centre made the voice swap effortless for the driver.
what transfers
To change behaviour, trigger an automatic instinct instead of issuing a warning; a subtle sensory cue reaches a reflex that an instruction cannot.
what came after
Slow Down GPS became one of the most downloaded apps in the Nordic region in 2015. It was offered free to all drivers, was covered by outlets such as Wired and The Guardian, and won D&AD and Clio recognition. The stated ambition was for carmakers to adopt a child-voice mode as a standard safety feature in all built-in navigation systems.
references
spotted an error? The archive wants to know.