default-output-block.skip-main
National | Drowning

WatchMe app design hopes to decrease drownings

After six years of working as a swimming pool lifeguard and seeing some ‘near misses’ of children drowning, design student from Massey University Gretchen McAleer has developed a new app called ‘Watch me’.

The concept of the app is to help parents and caregivers focus more on supervising their children while in a swimming pool.

“I have been involved with helping at many aquatic incidents, some more medically serious than others, but what has been the most frustrating part for me is the lack of active supervision of children under eight years old and it just doesn’t seem to be improving.”

Her app focuses on three sections – create, explore and learn, which aims to change the attitude, knowledge, and behaviour of guardians while supervising their children in the pool.

“It’s focused on five to seven-year-olds who don’t need a parent [or guardian] in the pool but do need them alongside the pool.”

Water Safety New Zealand says an average of six infants under the age of five drown each year with 34 others hospitalised due to poor adult supervision.

McAleer says, “No parent likes to be told how to look after their child, hence my conversational angle of using the child’s voice as the main point of communication.”

She also says, “Having their own message in that environment gives them some status and to feel good about it and the message becomes really important for the parent too.”

The app can be used as a tool to educate adults about common poolside distractions such as cell-phones, reading and general conversations with other people.

McAleer hopes her design can eventually be applied not only at local swimming pools but also at uncontrolled aquatic environments such as private pools at home or at the beach.

She also hopes the combination of straight-talking information with childhood engagement will attract further interest from water safety organisations.