[deif]

So in the cases of domestic abuse, the victims usually contact a charity that organises a way for them to escape safely. That means setting them up with a new place to live, a job so that they can afford to live (as usually victims will be dependent on their partners), etc. This takes a bit of time and the victims usually stay in their abusive environment if they can (due to over capacity of shelters and other reasons, I'm not the most knowledgeable about all this). But a support network will be available and they'll have a number to call, or friends and family that they can call instead.

The problem is that even though this support network exists, victims often have their phones taken away from their abusers so they end up stuck. If friends and family go round to the house, their abusers can refuse entry and say that the victim is fine or sleeping when in fact they're in danger. This app does not intend to phone authorities, it is down to the individual support network to organise that as they see fit, this app only intends to reach out to the support network as fast as possible when it is needed. If there is a true emergency and they can call emergency services then they can do so, emergency services are set up to handle this. In the case that the victims only want to notify their support network then they can do so from the app using the panic button.

It might be the case in the future that I build contacts with emergency services for a more involved response but I simply do not have the contacts at this point in time.

[jonahx]

Constructive feedback: All the copy on both your website and in the app store assumes that one knows what a dead man's switch is in general, and what it means in this context in particular (ie, what you wrote above).

I had to use wikipedia to even (sort of) understand what you were selling.

[gowld]

It's also an absolute gobsmackingly terrible term to use for this application.

[jones1618]

It's memorable and could be a plausibly "cute" name for an actual hang man game. Still, it might set off alarms of the abuser who's already constantly on the lookout for emotional/physical defection by their victim.

I agree, too, the target audience might not know what a dead man switch is nor do you want them to think this is a last resort and literally only useful when they are dead. I'd market it as a "fail-safe switch" or "silent alarm." Maybe change the name to "Dead Spell Man" which sounds like something a non-English developer might call hang man and diffuses the "I want to kill my husband" kind of connotation.

Otherwise, the idea and intention of this app make it a really, really worthy thing to put out in the world.

[deif]

What makes you say that? It operates exactly like a dead man's switch.

[DonHopkins]

How is that not gobsmackingly obvious to you??! Look at the words you just typed.

There are millions of other innocuous games whose names don't invoke death, men, capital punishment, gallows, prison, nooses, lynching, strangulation, hanging, suicide, murder, etc. For God's sake, pick one of those, instead of "hangman" and "dead man's switch".

Might as well call it "Kill My Abusive Boyfriend".

The whole point is NOT to be obvious when an abusive boyfriend looks through all the apps on your phone.

Hangman's not even a plausibly amusing game. Who even plays hangman on their phone?

How about "Pokemon NO!"

[deif]

I completely agree with you, but as I explained in the article I am limited by Apple's restrictions. I could get around this by side loading the app but then I make the barrier to entry higher.

If you can believe it originally this was a 2048 game (see the android version) but Apple suggested they would only approve the app if it was a hang man game and I named it 'Dead Man'. I wish I were joking. You have to understand that this functionality did not exist before today and my target audience previously were travellers, students, journalists, and privacy conscious people so I'm stuck trying to be relevant to multiple sets of audiences and a technical term that has 'dead' and 'man' in the name.

[DonHopkins]

I'm not sure I get what the issue with the Apple store is. I read the article, and I'm still confused. What did you want to do, and why did they not yet you do it? Why does the name of the app need to have any relation to what it does? There are plenty of apps named things like "Blorg" that do all kinds of things that there's not even a word for. The name doesn't need to be descriptive, it's just a brand. "Pokemon Go" doesn't have any meaning outside of the totally fictitious Pokemon universe. Just make something up like that, like "Glork Zonker Pro".

[staticautomatic]

"Kill my abusive boyfriend" sounds like a valuable service.

[klipt]

Many people are against capital punishment, even for abusive girlfriends/boyfriends.

[russell_h]

Your target audience substantially isn’t men, and would probably be put off by the “dead” part too.

Since I’ll bet your target audience doesn’t already know what a “dead mans switch” is, you get a chance to come up with a better targeted term.

[deif]

Technically this is a niche subset of my target audience.

As I wrote in the article, the ideal scenario was that I had two separate apps where it has a completely different name, but due to Apple restrictions I was forced to name it Dead Man (actually suggested by Apple themselves when I spoke to them over the phone discussing this issue) as the name has to cover both parts of the functionality even though the target audiences are completely different.

But this is not really going to be used by abuse victims of their own accord, it's more likely to be picked up by charities that need to set up a robust support network. It's a fine balance of SEO, networking, naming relevance, and sensitivity that I am tuned into.

[toomuchtodo]

Yes, but understanding how it operates and your target audience are distinct. Make it clear it is a "domestic abuse panic button". Put yourself in the user's shoes. It is still a "dead man's switch", but that's not what to call it to effectively market it.

[wizardforhire]

Compelling app, I see where you’re coming from I know what a dead man switch is... but gowld is right it’s a terrible term to use. It conveys the wrong imagery for the just the wrong amount of time to cause the most cognitive dissonance when parsing ya’lls prose. To paraphrase the old adage that gets tossed around here, you are not your user.

[johnmarcus]

i don't think the target audience of this app wants to think about being a "dead man", or dead anything, when this app would be useful. It's a fun nerd term, but if your life is actually in danger it's far from where your mind wants to wander, even though it's technically correct.

[JensRex]

>a fun nerd term

It absolutely isn't. Lots of things have dead man switches, like locomotives and heavy machinery, and they're named as such.

[johnmarcus]

Nerds work on locomotives and heavy machinery too. Those hard working folks are smart also. Unless your talking in a pirate voice, this is a nerd term for anything that kills something instantly.

[sho]

Thanks for explaining. So basically - this app acts like a concealed/plausibly deniable dead-man's switch with the capability of contacting third parties who might be able to help if the phone is taken away/destroyed by the abuser. And the reason the action isn't taken immediately is that it can take some time to set up a proper "escape" - but if critical, this can be expedited.

That makes sense now. It's not immediately obvious to a newcomer.