The Safety for All project represents my place-based approach to instructional design in action — combining human-centered research, iterative learning design, and empathy-driven spatial awareness to reshape how micro-mobility companies engage with riders of color. While ADDIE and SAM provided the structural backbone for this work, place grounded every phase — transforming a conventional design process into one deeply responsive to the lived realities of riders and their environments.

In the Analysis phase, we mapped physical, social, and emotional geographies: neighborhood conditions, policing patterns, and community trust. This spatial lens allowed us to identify not just learning needs, but place-based barriers — from helmet access to the fear of enforcement. During Design and Development, we applied SAM principles of rapid prototyping and iteration, hosting multiple on-site engagements and live usability tests in Atlanta and Washington, DC. Each iteration reflected local context — from the pavement textures riders described to the routes they most trusted — ensuring that the program grew organically within each place, not apart from it.

Using Bloom’s Taxonomy, we scaffolded the learning experience from simple awareness (“knowing the rules”) to critical reflection and application (“navigating safely while challenging bias and fear”). By embedding empathy into Bloom’s framework, learning became not just cognitive but contextual — tied to the daily experiences of riders whose perspectives are often excluded from safety narratives.

Adding spatial and empathetic layers to these design models turned an app modification into a tool for equity and belonging. Safety for All demonstrates how instructional design, when rooted in place, can go beyond awareness to foster agency — helping people learn not just how to act safely, but why safety, trust, and inclusion are interconnected outcomes of design.