Gargi — Nari Shakti
Commissioned by Lok Bhavan, Uttarakhand, Gargi Nari Shakti combines AI guidance, emergency assistance, and grievance management into a single digital platform — accessible, trustworthy, and action-oriented, empowering women with confidential support and direct access to institutional services.
- Year
- 2025
- Discipline
- UX · UI Design
- Duration
- 4 weeks
- Design
- Arnab Gupta & Sukalp Dabral
- Client
- Lok Bhavan, Uttarakhand
CONTEXT
Building a trusted digital companion
The Gargi AI chatbot is a visionary digital initiative launched at Raj Bhavan, Uttarakhand to empower women through personalised technological support. It serves as a human-centric AI companion designed to provide immediate guidance and bridge the digital divide for women across the state.
The brief from the Government of Uttarakhand asked for two things in one product: an empowerment platform that women trust enough to use repeatedly, and an emergency surface they can reach in seconds when they need it.
METHODOLOGY
Design Process
DISCOVER
Secondary research, user research, competitor analysis.
DEFINE
User persona, empathy map, journey map.
IDEATE
Mind mapping, user flow, information architecture.
PROTOTYPE
Wireframes, design system, high-fidelity prototype.
TEST
Usability tests, user reviews, iteration.
RESEARCH INSIGHTS
What users told us.
An online survey was created and conducted via Google Forms with a sample size of n = 100 respondents selected randomly.
85%
of respondents stated they would prefer an AI mentor for sensitive career or personal questions over a human contact due to guaranteed anonymity.
90%
of users rated “immediate access to locally relevant emergency and government helplines” as a top-three necessity.
35%
Only 35% could reliably recall more than two Uttarakhand-specific contact numbers.
78%
of users reported feeling their formal complaints were ignored or lost when submitted via traditional email or paper channels.
90%
stated that real-time status tracking was essential to build institutional trust.
85%
of women trust an AI more than a human for sensitive questions. That trust is the foundation Gargi is built on.
INFORMATION ARCHITECTURE
Categorizing the Information
Chat with Gargi
Talk to Gargi AI
Grievance Portal
File · Track
Helplines
Uttarakhand-specific directory
SOS
One-tap emergency contact
Profile / Mission
Account · About Gargi
DESIGN SYSTEM
Designed for clarity & accessibility
PROTOTYPE
28 screens, 5 flows, 1 product.
01 · ONBOARDING
Seamless Onboarding
Streamlining the login process with options to log in via ID & password, Facebook, or Google. The first impression is calm, clear, and free of busywork — the user is on a flow inside three taps.
02 · GRIEVANCE
File and Track Grievance
Fearlessly file and track complaints through a transparent, secure, logged process. Every submission gets a tracking ID and a real-time status — institutional accountability becomes the user's default experience.
03 · HELPLINES
Access Support
Immediate access to critical support — both essential national helplines and the emergency / government contacts specific to Uttarakhand. CM grievance cell, state police, district medical — surfaced first.
04 · CHAT BOT
Chat with Gargi
The Gargi AI is your confidential mentor — immediate, non-judgmental support for all matters of empowerment and self-advocacy. The chat surface is the front door; everything else is a tool inside it.
05 · MISSION HUB
Profile & Mission
A personal hub to manage account details, language settings, and preferences — and the central place to read about the Project Gargi mission. Schemes, Helplines, SOS, and Chat sit one tap away.
“Gargi is not a complaint app dressed as a mentor — it is a mentor that, when needed, opens the right door.”
— Lieutenant General Gurmit Singh, PVSM, UYSM, AVSM, VSM (Retd)
REFLECTION
Key Takeaways
Government projects often prioritize process and administration. This project presented an opportunity to focus on people instead. The most important design decision was treating Gargi as a single cohesive experience rather than a collection of independent features. By positioning mentorship at the center of the ecosystem, every other service became easier to discover, understand, and use.