SAFE ALL NIGHT: A systemic design approach to drink spiking prevention
- 9 hours ago
- 2 min read
2026 January 〜 March
Collaborator: Goda Lab (UTokyo), UNIST (South Korea)
Drink spiking is a widespread problem in nightlife environments — yet it remains chronically underreported and poorly understood. Existing prevention strategies largely rely on individual vigilance: personal testing kits, behavioral advice, and detection tools that place the burden of safety squarely on potential victims. Safe All Night is a systemic design project that challenges this assumption.
The project began as a collaboration between the UTokyo DLX Design Lab and the Department of Design at UNIST (Ulsan National Institute of Science and Technology), emerging from a Treasure Hunting workshop in which designers and scientists explored applications for SERS (Surface-Enhanced Raman Spectroscopy) sensor technology developed at Goda Lab, UTokyo. The initial research question was straightforward: could Raman spectroscopy reliably detect a spiked drink?
Three rounds of laboratory testing - conducted across multiple labs and devices - revealed both potential and fundamental limitations. While statistically significant spectral differences were detected under controlled conditions, results proved inconsistent across beverage types, substance concentrations, and equipment sensitivities. What works in a laboratory does not automatically translate to a crowded nightclub.
Rather than treating this as a failure, the project reframed it as a finding: drink spiking is not only a detection problem, but a structural vulnerability embedded in nightlife culture. This led to a deliberate pivot - away from technological detection and toward infrastructural redesign.
Safe All Night proposes a venue-embedded safety system operating across three layers. An awareness campaign addresses the common misconception that spiking effects are indistinguishable from alcohol intoxication, using reflective prompts at key moments before and during the night. Physical drink covers - provided with every drink as a default - create a non-stigmatizing barrier to opportunistic tampering. And parallel reporting pathways, connecting guests to trained staff or a digital reporting bot through familiar messaging platforms, reduce the procedural friction that currently prevents most incidents from ever being reported.
The outcome is not a product but a coordinated ecosystem - one that redistributes responsibility from individuals to venues, staff, and the broader nightlife infrastructure. Safe All Night was supported by the Toshiaki Ogasawara Foundation.
UTokyo DLX: Fe
derico Trucchia, Max Fischer
UNIST: Juhyun Nam, Minju Park
