Fieldr is an enterprise/government grade multi-site surveillance platform that helps security supervisors keep whats important safe, while empowering field staff with the tools to know whats happening at every moment.
In this project, I redesigned the whole user experience and UI, while introducing whole new feature sets and workflows.
8 Weeks, 2023
Product Designer
Project Lead
Research
Figma
Illustrator
Zeplin
Jira
For the last few years, the platform’s mobile app experience had been subpar and had lost its competitive advantage. Here are the key pain points with the previous experience.
Navigating through the interface is just plainly unintuitive and confusing. The two main nav buttons take up the entirety of the screen for no discernible reason. The user has to go back to this main screen to go to the other section.
With no clear navigation, users tend to get frustrated that they aren’t able to view event details with the associated video clip since they are required to navigate back to the main page.
Giving the user no context of where their devices are located causes numerous problems at scale. This can lead to immense frustration, especially when cameras are given random alphanumeric labels.
At scale this problem can become a major security vulnerability as users are left scrambling between devices to figure out what is going on.
Data is what gives context, but when it is not effectively organized or visualized it can feel overwhelming. To the average user all this data wont mean anything and just isn’t helpful.
Without basic data visualization/organization the user is left to being the middleman to connect the dots.
Since there was no reasonable existing UI or UX experience everything had to be rethought from the ground up. The most important point was to make an interface that has a natural and consistent flow that any of the users could understand, while introducing advanced tools.
It’s important to make this platform easily scaleable so that clients with multiple sites are able to effortlessly interact, switch, and stay updated. Even when their sites are thousands of miles apart.
Data streams should always be dynamic and tell a cohesive story. In surveillance and security there can be dozens of data streams coming from a multitude of cameras, sensors, and devices. Organizing and relating the data into easy to understand and helpful ways is what draws the line in keeping a site safe.
Having another security app that only views cameras is a last-gen way of security thinking. Giving the user context of whats happening through automated events and interactive responsive tools keeps the user in the know without ever needing to look at a camera feed.
Before the design process we needed to assess who our user base was. The company’s business model is primarily B2B and B2G meaning that our end users would consist of personnel hired by the client.
By looking into most security staff systems we found 3 user archetypes with their mapped day-to-day priorities.
They are the personnel that are actively onsite, surveilling the perimeter in person. As the first responders to any situation they are the first line in keeping facilities safe.
In their normal work days they will usually surveil a given area in person or guard sensitive areas.
These are the ones in charge of the day to day priority. Field staff will usually report to the Supervisors. Supervisors are usually based in security control rooms.
It is their responsibility to set the response priority and communicate clear and decisive information to field staff.
The admins oversee all the reports and data that are collected. They set the overall security procedures and response measures.
Mainly look over all the ongoing and completed reports. They make sure that everything is filed correctly.
To find where we could have a market advantage, we first needed to analyze our direct to larger competitors. With this analysis, we found that our direct competitors have some of the key features for an advanced security platform, but package them in expensive plans. They lack key collaborative features such as internal chats and field communication tools.
Larger competitors, such as Nest and Ring, lack many advanced surveillance tools. They primarily offer basic video-feed and analytic solutions. While extremely basic, many small-medium businesses choose the larger competitors because their interfaces are easier use than the more niche enterprise competitors. What we found was that this opens up a key opening in the market for Prosumer and small-medium business space that desire more advanced feature sets at a reasonable price.
The process was initiated by first facilitating collaboration across multiple departments. The CTO, Project Manager, and Product Manager expressed their ideal vision of the mobile platform. Out of many discussions had, we pulled a few points to focus on.
"Field staff should have the ability to know whats going on around them and be given the tools to respond decisively"
"We need a way to apply end-to-end accountability for the way field operators respond to situations"
"An internal communication tool would be great for standardizing coms between supervisors and field staff"
After understanding stakeholder needs we moved on to analyzing our end users workflow. What we found was when situations happen on their site, there is very little record keeping and most of the communication is handled over 2-way radio. Field Operators have no way of seeing any further details other than what was told. This leaves them in the dark for a potentially hazardous situation.
We were now tasked to create a user flow that incorporates a robust case manger that provides every detail in an easily digestible fashion.
This is a glimpse of the early wireframe ideating phase. At this period we focused on formulating a layout for alert details in mid-fidelity. It was important to first make the data streams understandable for the end user.
After creating the early wireframes we shared them with our end users. Our goal was to get key insights on what the users thought of the basic layout and whether the hierarchy of information made sense.
The interview process consisted of video meeting and surveys where we asked pointed questions and for a general vision of what they’d like to see. These are some of the key insights we received from the user interviews:
See related devices that are around the alert
Easier scanability to decrease cognitive load
More interactive field communication & collaboration tools
Track alert history for greater field staff accountability
Ability to organize the map based on site locations
Field Operators now have the context of where everything is. Keep track of their site though easy to understand dynamic pins and quick search. No more getting lost in unclear communication.
No more uncontrollable alert data dumps. Alerts are now organized based on a prioritized que with all the important details at a glance.
Once an Operator chooses an Alert it proceeds to the Alert Briefing. This is where all the in depth information is viewable. The Field Operator now has the power to view the full context of an active situation.
After an Alert is resolved Operators might need to fill out a report. This feature keeps Operators accountable for the actions they took while responding. It also tracks the digital history of the alert to see the effectiveness of the response.
Communication across staff members is essential to creating consistent coordinated response plans. Keeping all internal communications within the platform minimizes security vulnerabilities and keeps Operators in the know.
The mobile platform now has full camera data control. Everything from camera feeds, location, related devices and analytic data is available to the Field Operators. No longer do Operators have to guess whats happening, they can see it for themselves.
This feature shows the devices on an interior site map. Operators will never have to go into sites blind. They are given the context they need to respond.
Many sites may have multiple floor levels or areas. Each level has detailed interior maps with available devices accurately placed. This enabling users to quickly switch between different levels, giving them full awareness of their physical surroundings.
This tool gives operators a way to create strategies on the field. Creating a well formulated game plan is essential when responding to dangerous situations.
This tool allows operators to leave custom notes for other personnel. It enables them to warn others about potential hazards that may be present on the field.
This tool lets operators filter in and out pinned assets. Making it easier to spot the desired asset type.
The #1 goal when we conducted the usability testing of the final prototype was to make sure Field Operators clearly understood how to conduct their workflow. A big priority was to make it as intuitive as possible, so that there wouldn’t be a need for extensive training.
There were 3 asks that participants had to complete:
Participating users stated that the new interface and feature sets were easy to navigate and saw great potential in optimizing their workflow. They successfully completed the tasks 96% of the time, with misclicks coming primarily from selecting the wrong camera. One user accidentally pressed the ‘later’ button when filling out the report and didn’t know where to find it. These were easily fixable problems.
Here are some other insights we gathered:
Users noted that the map overview screen was an outstanding feature to have on mobile devices. It would help greatly in larger facilities where coordination may become complex.
The alert prioritization method was well received by users. They really liked how each alert had a quick summary and priority level, which made it very easy to understand at a glance.
Users were ecstatic about the Alert Details Briefing screen. They noted that they could finally get all the info they needed and have immediate resources on hand.
Admin users really liked the idea of the Reports system as it not only collected form data but also the digital foot print of what happened while responding. They noted that it would be great for looking into vulnerabilities and training.
Field users were very impressed with the Site Map feature as they never experienced an interior maps system. They noted how simple it was to change levels and view devices. The collaborative tools (markup and notes) were seen as great situational planning methods.
Overall, the testing sessions proved that the prototype was successful and gave us the confidence to move on to developing the product.
When I first initiated this project there was pretty much next to nothing to begin from. It was a clean slate with some general points from stakeholders and users. From doing the market research and piecing apart our user’s workflows we found something that could keep people out of dangerous situations. The idea of the product evolved into something that has a high value proposition to current/future clients and a potential market advantage.
Interviewing the Field Staff users gave me a unique perspective about these users I had never experienced. I was in a sense designing them a system that could potentially keep them from harm. It was taking a whole different level in empathizing with the user, compared to the normal day to day UX work.
When you're creating a product that deals with multiple data types start by creating the information structure and hierarchy. Data must be sorted and prioritized in the way it is shown to users. You have to guide the user into the best conclusions.
Reducing user cognitive load comes from reducing the amount of outputs they are viewing. Its not about giving the user less to look at, but about prioritizing what they need to see at the moment.
