Designing a GUI for Innovative Police Drone Technology.
Marc Ward C.E.O. of Socian Technologies assigned our student UX team to design a graphical user interface [GUI] for his new police drone startup.
The Drone is to be powered by Artifical Intelligence [AI] and used by 911 operators to inform first responders of the scene.
Understanding a 911 operators workflow to learn where this interface will fit in.
We first wanted to get an idea of 'what is going on in this space'.
Data collected via a contexutal inquiry visit to a 911 operators station, four 911 operator interviews, five 911 operator concept tests, YouTube, Reddit, and the world wide web.
911 operator work flow learned from visiting a 911 operating station in West Lafayette, IN.
Overall, we were enlightened to make little user interaction with our interface. We also found that this program needed to be easy on the eyes and scannable.
How will our Design Function?
Drone GUI story going through a 911 call.
From talking to 911 operators to our weekly meetings with Marc, we crafted three critical user journeys that our design must complete.
1) As a user I can identify and click a camera of high urgency / easily switch which camera I am viewing.
2) As a user I can quickly and clearly identify different suspects / people at the scene.
1) As a user I can identify and click a camera of high urgency / easily switch which camera I am viewing.
Mark also informed us that he wanted our MVP to look like something that came out of Marvel. We then began researching design inspiration.
A comparison of the different interfaces we evaluated.
Throughout this journey we designed increasingly higher fidelity interfaces. Iterations came from interviews, concept testing, task based usability testing, and meetings with Mark.
Two Variations of Designed GUI Mockups Phase 1
Two Variations of Designed GUI Mockups Phase 2
Two Variations of Designed GUI Mockups Phase 3
Two Variations of Designed GUI Mockups Phase 4
Until we crafted our MVP, right in time for our deliverable due date.
Final Design MVP
Testing our CUJs
Due to time constraints towards the end of this project, we tested our CUJs success with Purdue students, not 911 operators. But based on the student tests and our previous task-based usability tests, we are confident we accomplished our mission.
1) As a user I can identify and click a camera of high urgency / easily switch which camera I am viewing.
One question we had wondered is if the main camera should automatically switch to a camera of high urgency, or leave it up to the user to switch. unfortunately we had no time to test, so we left it up for the user to switch.
2) As a user I can quickly and clearly identify different suspects / people at the scene.
1) As a user I can identify and click a camera of high urgency / easily switch which camera I am viewing.
The Value this Design Provides.
There is a $2+ trillion negative economic impact of crime in the U.S. annually.
There are 2 million first responders operating 24/7 to secure 328 million Americans across 50 states using outdated technology. This design is an attempt to bridge the gap of 911 operators leveraging AI in a real world scenario.
At the time of this designs delivery, Mark was seeking investors for his startup company Socian Tech. This design was used to market his EDGE drone product.
Reflection.