Socian Technologies

Using drone and AI technology to promote safer police encounters

ROLE

DURATION

TEAM

SKILLS

TOOLS

UX/UI Designer

August 2022 through December 2022

7 UX/UI Designers

Information Architecture

Figma

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1 Company Sponsor

Visual Design

Miro

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Product Thinking

Key Contributions

I conducted interviews and secondary research, and used insights to create high-fidelity designs. With my designs I also conducted multiple sessions of concept testing and uability testing to refine ideas.

THE CHALLENGE

The technology used by 911 operators to log and obtain information during calls is outdated and clunky.

The team needed to reimagine how new 911 operator software can display information to provide a more fluid experience and allow responders to more effectively when responding to emergency situations.

CAD system used by Sheboygan Police Department

Our high level goal was to provide 911 operators with a clean and futuristic graphical user interface that communicates the information a drone picks up at a scene.

Our team lacked the understanding of a 911 operator's workflow. We tackled the project in three phases which allowed us to empathize with the users, learn about their wants and needs, and what information needs to be displayed to them.

Who are our stakeholders?

911 Operators
Need to quickly and efficiently take relevant information about an incident/crime scene from the drones and communicate it to first responders with the capacity to manage multiple calls at once.

First Responders
May have access to the drone software but are limited to one monitor. They will primarily be receiving information from Dispatchers and Operators.

911 Callers
The safety and well-being of callers will be greatly impacted by how quickly first responders are able to obtain and properly utilize drone information from the scene.

THE DISCOVERY

Learning about the 911 operator experience

In order to understand a 911 operator’s workflow, we conducted two interviews with 911 operators from Sheboygan, Wisconsin, via Zoom. Our team was able to identify the wants, needs, and pain points of operators during emergency situations as well as explore the features they would like in the final design. Our team found the following:

"Location is the most important [piece of information during a call] because we might not know the situation but if we have a location, we are still able to send an officer"
- 911 operator from Sheboygan, Wisconsin

  • Location is a vital piece of information that 911 operator's need to collect during a call.

  • The team was able to get a better understanding of a 911 operator's workflow including the routine they follow when answering calls, what screens they interact with, and what information they look out for the most.

  • 911 operators use separate programs for each tool they use while on a call. These programs are not synced together, meaning they are their own separate software that needs to be individually loaded

After interviewing, the team sent two team members to the Lafayette Police Department in Indiana to conduct a contextual inquiry, where we learned about their procedures in response to a 911 emergency call, the applications they use, and what their work stations are like.

THE REQUIREMENTS

Conceptualize: strategizing & prioritizing our insights

Following the empathizing (research-heavy) stage of this project, we next moved to the conceptualization stage pre-design. Due to the influx of insights our team had recently gained, we decided to focus on prioritizing the insights in order to develop a strategy for the remainder of the project. In this stage, we created critical user journeys and persona/user stories to build the pillars of our design.

Our Critical User Journeys (CUJ's)

THE PROCESS

Designing a futuristic and intuitive user interface

After prioritizing our insights, it was time to start ideating. We had two major goals concerning our design:

  • Quickly and concisely convey information about a scene to 911 operators to encourage a quicker relay of information to first responders.

  • Design an aesthetically pleasing and futuristic interface.

Following our CUJ's, we created a user persona to demonstrate the wants, needs, and frustrations of 911 operators based on the data from our research. From here we found the following:

A 911 operator’s main duty is to collect critical information about a scene to inform and organize first responders.

Collecting information over the phone leaves room for interference, misinformation, and miscommunication.

911 operators use many different programs that don’t communicate with each other which can be overwhelming and slow the recording of data.

Based on this information, I learned that 911 operators need a program that requires very limited hands-on interaction.

Exploration

I created mid-fidelity mockups on Figma to explore the layout of the necessary information 911 operators need: camera, suspect/civilian information at the scene, and a map.

Option 1

Option 2

Option 3

Iterate, Iterate, and Iterate

After creating mid-fidelity prototypes, I continued to explore different layouts that highlighted the information that operators cared about most while reducing the visual draw of less important information. To do this, I created hi-fidelity prototypes using Figma so that our team could begin testing different layouts.

Option 1

Option 2

Option 3

Concept Testing

We presented 5 design concepts to 7 different design students to collect feedback.

With the team, I discussed what aspects the participants found favorable or confusing in our design iterations. We quickly narrowed down to three design concepts whose information hierarchy and aesthetic appeal was strong. Once we had gone through feedback from each design, we further scrubbed the feedback we had received from our critique session to identify which parts of our designs (camera, suspect list etc.) contributed to a positive experience.

Usability Testing

After conducting two rounds of concept testing, we tested the usability of our design with two 911 operators. We asked them to complete various tasks by interacting with our screen.

Our team found that the operators paid more attention to the map than we expected, noticing discrepancies such as the map not lining up with what was shown on the cameras. One operator stated:

"[The] most important thing for us is location, location, location. We need a way to identify the exact location, street names, and the direction people are moving. We need a cross street to identify where suspects are."
- 911 operate from Sheboygan, WI

The Final Design

After weeks of continuous iterating and testing, we finalized our design as a team. I created the Detection List (left tab on Home page) and elements in the Drone Information tab (right tab of Home page).

Home State

The home state displays a detection list which allows the operators to identify suspects and units on the scene. The drone has six camera angles which are displayed onscreen. The main camera (centecr) has identifying markers on individuals that the 911 operator might want to keep track of. The operator can also control what type of camera view is being used (night vision/thermal/normal) and what drone they are looking at (if multiple are at the scene).

Night Vision

In case 911 operators need a better look when it's dark, the cameras can be changed to night vision to help in identifying targets and also improve officer safety by giving officers the upper hand in nighttime or low light scenarios.

Map View

911 operator's are able to expand the map for a closer look. The map can display location data of the drones on the scene.

Previous Recordings

After the scene is complete, the operator or other stakeholders can view past recorded 911 call footage for investigation. The user has access to controls such as fast forward, rewind, pause and play, and export the video for further use if needed.

This project was an excellent reminder in designing for the user, not yourself

By conducting thorough research, creating prototypes on Figma, testing, and continuously iterating, I learned the importance of putting myself in the user’s shoes and creating fluid experiences in a problem space that I am not familiar with. In the beginning, my biggest challenge was creating a layout with effective information architecture (IA). Developing a clear and logical IA was crucial to ensuring that the operators could quickly and easily find the information they needed when using the drone interface. To overcome this, I conducted multiple research methods like concept testing, usability testing, and a comparative analysis. It was a challenging process, but one that was essential to improving my skills as a designer. In addition, I learned that visual design is a small component of a bigger picture.

Through this project, my love for visual design quickly grew as I spent weeks iterating, exploring different designs, and pushing the boundaries of creativity. Moving forward, I would test the final design and continue to iterate to ensure that all needs are met even if the design is already deployed.