Designer | Four members | Protothon - May 4th-5th 2024 | Figma
A web app designed to aid the SFD with resource allocation.
For the Protothon, my team chose to go with the Enterprise track. Our task was to design a platform that aims to streamline communication, resource management, and emergency response coordination for the Seattle Fire Department.
Problem
The Seattle Fire Department is experiencing an increase in caller volume and incidents and need a way to dispatch resources.
This past year has kept the Seattle Fire Department extremely busy with a rising call load. We have seen an increase in calls across many areas, including vacant building fires, scenes of violence, automatic fire alarms, suspected overdoses and responses to those who are unhoused.
A concerning trend they have begun to see is an increase in cardiac arrests, which appears to be correlated with the rise in suspected overdoses. In all, they sent resources on a record-setting 111,319 responses in 2023 – a nearly five percent increase over the prior year. Dispatchers need a way to track their resources while making sure the proper supplies are reaching each incident.
Goals for Dispatching Tool
01
Track Incident Data
Dispatchers will be able to distinguish between active and inactive incidents, as well as resource trends among incidents and batallions.
02
Dispatch Resources
Dispatchers will know what resources are available to use at the time of an incident.
03
Informed Decisions
Based on incident tracking data, dispatchers will be able to optimize their operations.
User Personas
Our primary users are the dispatchers within the Seattle Fire Department as well as any other employees that deal with incident management.
Research
The Seattle Fire Department (SFD) operates 33 fire stations grouped into five battalions, dispatching the nearest available resources based on the nature of the emergency, such as fire suppression, BLS, ALS, technical operations, or Health One services. The EMS department emphasizes cardiac arrest survival through rapid deployment of BLS and ALS resources, aiming for CPR within four minutes and paramedic services within eight minutes of an event.
Mobile Integrated Health Program provides enhanced services for frequent 911 callers and individuals with complex social or medical needs, offering immediate response and long-term navigation for medical, mental health, and social support.
Operational challenges:
Call processing within 60 seconds has dropped significantly, indicating a need for improved unit assignment and dispatch efficiency.
Data Utilization Gaps:
Limited use of historical data analytics and reporting hinders trend identification, resource planning, and informed decision-making.
Lo-Fi Sketches
Before starting on our digital design, we all took time to visualize the different interfaces that we had in mind. These were some of the sketches for the map view, incident view, dashboard, and incident tracking interfaces.
After everyone was done sketching, we met back up to discuss our ideas. It was interesting to see how everyone had different visualize for the interfaces. After a thorough discussion, we settled on the designs that we liked and split up the work.
Review summary statistics and improve response rate.
Now having access to information regarding resources, incident types, and battalion specific statistics, the Seattle Fire Department can have informed decision-making.
Quickly dispatch resources to all active incidents.
In the map view, you are able to see the five different battalions. All the active incidents are marked in red while the closed incidents are marked in blue. To dispatch resources, select a location on the map and fill out corresponding information.
Track and filter all incidents.
Easily find the incident you are looking for, whether using the filters or simply searching. To mark an open incident as closed, click on the incident, write down the case notes, and close the incident.
Personal Reflection
In the future, spending more time understanding the process of operations, either through user testing or comparative analysis.
Going into the design process, none of us were well versed in what a dispatcher needs in order to successfully track and attend to an incident. When doing research, there wasn't much information regarding the dispatching process, forcing us to make decisions based on what we thought the dispatcher might need. If we had more resources and time, holding interviews with dispatchers would have helped us better understand what to include in the tool through methods such as affinity mapping.
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