CJN
Web Application Extension
Client: Criminal Justice Network of Dakota County
My Roles: UX/UI Research, Design & Testing
Methods: Contextual Inquiry, Current State Journey Map, Sketching, High-Fidelity Wireframes, Prototyping, Usability Testing, Annotations, Design Presentation
Tools: Figma, Google Suite, Zoom, Microsoft Teams, Powerpoint
TL;DR
PROBLEM
Police departments who partner with CJN currently have inefficient and antiquated methods of dealing with reports from the Minnesota Adult Abuse Reporting Center.
SOLUTION
A new feature within CJN’s web application allowing supervising officers to view and take action on MAARC reports.
PROJECT INTRODUCTION
PROBLEM STATEMENT
The Minnesota Adult Abuse Reporting Center (MAARC) receives and distributes reports of abuse or neglect against vulnerable adults, such as senior citizens or adults with cognitive or physical disabilities. Many police departments currently have inefficient and antiquated methods of interacting with MAARC reports. The Criminal Justice Network of Dakota County (CJN) wants to design a way to digitize this workflow, allowing supervising officers to view and take action on reports within their existing web application.
PROJECT GOALS
🚔 Understand how MAARC reports are integrated into users’ current workflow and digital environment, and how these differ between departments
🚔 Identify common tasks, pain points, and opportunity areas of existing workflow(s)
🚔 Design a workflow in which users can view and take action on MAARC reports within CJN’s existing web application
🚔 Assess overall usability and intuitiveness of design and the extent to which users needs were met
RESEARCH & INSIGHTS
I began my research by conducting CONTEXTUAL INQUIRY interviews with six current CJN users:
👮🏻♂️ Sargeant J 27 years in law enforcement
👮🏻♂️ Commander O 22 years in law enforcement
👮🏻♂️ Sargeant R 16 years in law enforcement
👮🏻♂️ Sargeant K 20 years in law enforcement
👮🏻♂️ Commander M 30 years in law enforcement
👮🏻♂️ Sargeant C 10 years in law enforcement
This research revealed that the current workflow around MAARC reporting is tedious, inefficient, and a waste of time and resources.
I also discovered that, while there were certainly shared themes in the common tasks and pain points described by the users, each department has a slightly different process for dealing with MAARC reports.
Journey Map showing current workflow as described by users
DESIGNS & FEEDBACK
With the insights gained from the contextual inquiry interviews, I created SKETCHES of 3 potential solutions to integrate the MAARC reporting workflow into CJN’s web app.
Two of the solutions incorporated MAARC reports into existing features for other report types, and the third involved creating a new feature solely for MAARC reports.
I presented these sketches to the team at CJN. With input from the developers and project manager, we eliminated one of the solutions due to the complexity and time that would be required to develop it.
I then presented the two remaining sketches to the selected user group to get their feedback. The users unanimously agreed that the new feature idea was the best solution to meet both their collective and differing needs. With that, I decided to move forward with that design.
EARLY IDEATION
I turned my sketches into HIGH-FIDELITY WIREFRAMES and a PROTOTYPE
Images from first iteration of prototype
EVALUATION & REVISIONS
I conducted USABILITY TESTING with the same group of current CJN users who took part in the contextual inquiry interviews and design feedback sessions.
Tests were conducted in Zoom sessions lasting between 45 to 60 minutes using the Think Aloud protocol.
In addition to giving feedback on overall usability and intuitiveness, users were asked to complete tasks related to the 5 most common scenarios that arise when interacting with MAARC reports, as uncovered during contextual inquiry:
🚔 Report indicates evidence of criminal activity
🚔 Report indicates NO evidence of criminal activity
🚔 Incident occurred outside of department’s jurisdiction
🚔 Duplicate information (same incident, multiple reporters)
🚔 Need to find old report
Usability test with version 2 of the prototype (edited for user privacy)
Two rounds of usability testing were conducted. In between, I revised the prototype based on the feedback I got from the users as well as the project manager and developers from CJN.
Revisions included:
🚔 Using language, labels, and colors that are consistent across other parts of CJN’s web app
🚔 Adding alerts to draw users’ attention to important information that might otherwise be overlooked
🚔 Getting rid of in-app CAD/Case # generation
🚔 Displaying report history more readily
Finally, I created ANNOTATED WIREFRAMES and a PRESENTATION that included a set of recommendations for next steps and future state iterations.
Recommendations included:
🚔 Provide training to users to ensure that they understand more nuanced aspects of design (e.g. alerts)
🚔 Continue to gather user feedback on what is and isn’t working well, and to what extent the design meets their needs
🚔 Consider adding a feature allowing users to generate a CAD / Case # within this workflow
🚔 Add an option to automatically push MAARC reports to RMS for records keeping & tracking purposes in a way that doesn’t require users to write an incident report. Consider adding options for canned narratives to reduce typing and increase efficiency for users.
🚔 Follow a similar methodology with other user groups who regularly interact with MAARC reports to further develop the MAARC reporting feature (e.g. patrol officers, investigators, records and office staff members)
🚔 Adjust UI elements as needed to match updated aesthetic and ensure consistency across CJN (e.g. colors, corner rounding, icons, etc.)
🚔 Create Design system to ensure consistency in UI across CJN and for future UX projects
CONCLUSION
Throughout my lifetime, my mother has worked as a caretaker for adults with cognitive disabilities. I spent a lot of time as a child around her clients, so felt a close personal connection to aspects of this project. I am proud to have designed a tool that not only benefits law enforcement officials by making their workflow more efficient, but ultimately also helps vulnerable adults who are experiencing abuse or neglect.
This was also the first project where I had opportunities to collaborate closely with developers and a project manager. There were frequent meetings in which I had to explain my design rationale, advocate on behalf of the users, and make compromises based on development limitations. This was a great learning experience, and I am grateful for the opportunity.
