BLTN

by Multitude Insights

Redesigning an information sharing service to improve usability and promote user interaction.

Project Summary

BLTN is a service that aims to promote interaction between police departments and ultimately help them solve cases more quickly and efficiently by providing a platform to create, manage, share, and collaborate on police bulletins.

Working with two other designers, I researched and designed an update to an existing platform to increase user interaction and improve overall usability.

Team: 3 Designers

Time: 2 1/2 Weeks

My Role: UX Designer

I conducted user interviews and business research, and helped with data synthesis and analysis. I also contributed heavily in sketching, wire-framing, and prototyping, and I conducted user testing.

Tools Used: Figma, FigJam, Slack, Google Suite, Pen & Paper

Foundational Research

First, we met with the client to establish a strong working relationship and discover their needs as we embarked on this design sprint.

The stakeholders wanted to to promote user “stickiness” (buy in), encourage collaboration and enhance user enjoyment.

I developed an understanding of the current service by **comparing** the **features** our clients had to what was offered by others in the market and **analyzing** the **heuristics** of the platform.
I discovered BLTN was most notably **lacking** a **map** feature, something found commonly amongst competitors.

Understanding the User

We first sent out surveys to gather basic quantitative data and find users for interviews.

We utilized data from our 12 survey respondents and 6 user interviews to understand BLTN’s user base.

Defining the Problem

We **leveraged data** from all our research **to create a user persona** - a representative of the target user whose problems we would solve for.

This persona served as a guidepost to help us determine our **problem statement** - what specific problem(s) we would solve with our design.
We determined that, to boost user **connectivity**, **“stickiness,”** and **enjoyment,** we would design **intuitive** page layouts, **clear** channels of communication, and **useful** visual aids.

Initial Designs

We developed a **user flow** by mapping out the path a user would take to complete a task using BLTN.
With that in mind, we **sketched** our initial ideas for a solution.

After deciding on a design as a team, I helped turn sketches into **digital wireframes**.

I continued developing the wireframes and turned them into a **clickable prototype** to **test how successful** our new design was.

Does it Work?

I conducted usability tests to understand how users interact with our new design by asking users to complete a series of tasks.

Users responded positively to the new features implemented in the redesign, but had some trouble navigating.

Leveraging feedback from the usability tests I conducted, we updated our design to better meet user needs and business goals.

Updating the Design

Addressing the navigational issues was top priority. Most of the functionality was tucked away in a dropdown menu, hiding features users were looking for.

I reworked the top menu bar to place more control right at the user’s fingertips and display more of the system’s functionality. The redesign also created an opportunity to highlight the current page so the user always knows where they are.

We utilized the updated menu bar to streamline navigation and reduce confusion on the homepage. Additionally, we changed “Roll Call” to “Department Priorities” to more clearly express what information was being presented to users.

Lastly, we received valuable feedback about the bulletin detail view page during usability testing. There was **not enough room** to comfortably fit all the information into the spaces for Suspects, Vehicles, and Collaborators.

I **redesigned the presentation** of this information **utilizing a tab function**.
This allowed me to display **more information** in a **more readable** **presentation** without taking up additional screen real estate.

The Prototype

Please enjoy this short walk through of our redesign of BLTN.

If you would like to check it out for yourself just follow the link below.

Try it Out!

Next Steps

Looking ahead, there are a few things we think would be most impactful to implement in future design iterations.

One of the most powerful additions would be the ability to scrape information from already-made bulletins to create new bulletins within the system. As noted earlier, users are already spending about half their days filling out paperwork. Removing the hurdle of additional paperwork could turn that potential pain point into a pleasurable experience and could vastly increase user interaction with the service.

Adding a search function within messages could increase functionality and usability for the new messaging feature. Additionally, including time and date stamps on messages could help users keep track of their conversations.

To continue improving bulletin quality, we would need to determine what information is most useful for each type of bulletin. We could leverage that information to inform the bulletin quality meter and provide better feedback to user as they fill out new bulletins.

Combining this with the ability to scrape pre-made bulletins could help indicate to users what information could be added to their pre-made bulletins to make them even stronger.