911 Dispatch
911 Dispatch is a web application that allows police dispatchers to quickly and efficiently communicate location data of the 911 caller to the responding officer.
Overview
Currently, there is no process to deal with 911 soft client calls (calls that are made over the internet). My team at DALI was tasked with creating a solution that helps dispatchers quickly source and communicate crucial location information from soft client calls to responding emergency teams.
My team and I had to find a way to be able to pinpoint the caller's location and display the call and location information in an easy-to-use/read interface for the dispatcher to communicate that information to the responding emergency teams.
Understanding the User
For this project, we worked with dispatchers and officers from the Hanover Police Department and the New Hampshire Police, officers from Dartmouth’s Department of Safety and Security, people that run Dartmouth’s phone company, and IT specialists from Dartmouth Network Services.
In working with a diverse group of stakeholders, we had to come up with a solution that both worked best for dispatchers and responding emergency personnel while also considering making the solution one that works well within the workflows and technical systems of each stakeholder.
Competitor Research
Insights
Dispatcher Pain Points:
“LOCATION, LOCATION, LOCATION!”
Introduction of Jive--apps on laptops and phones to make 911 from callers’ end--caused the BIG problems. User can take this soft client "phone" to Hawaii or wherever to make a 911 call, but when the 911 call registers, it will say that the call is coming from NH. The Jive soft client on phones are fine if they provide GPS coordinates. It will act as a normal cellular phone with GPS coordinates when made through this call. On the other hand, the Jive client on the laptop is the REALLY BIG PROBLEM. Some laptops do possess GPS coordinates, but many don’t.
Current apps don’t provide accurate and clear enough information of where caller could’ve possibly made the call.
If they can't tell, for example they would need to search Baker Library FOR ALL OF THE FLOORS in a time of emergency. Unless explicitly stated, e.g. 3rd floor, they cannot find the person in times of emergency.
What we learned:
What information would help dispatchers do their jobs more efficiently and effectively?
Campus has numbers on buildings, floor number of call, approximate best guesses of location of caller, device + type of call made, location of wireless access point the device hits, whether or not it’s from a Dartmouth device
Information Priority for 911 Dispatchers:
Type of call made on type of device > whether or not it’s Dartmouth related > location, location, location
What type of end product is most useful?
Website: Might be good for dispatchers but is debatable
Prototypes
From the insights we gained through interviewing dispatchers and police officers, we made eight paper sketch iterations and then developed 16 different iterations of the 911 Dispatch web application.
We first defined specifications of what the application should have and wireframed how a dispatcher would navigate getting to each screen. We played out multiple scenarios with dispatchers and got their feedback in their thoughts of our paper and low fidelity prototypes and went back to the drawing board. After we did a few rounds of low fidelity iteration, we created our first high fidelity prototype. In this prototype, we prioritized minimalism, simplicity, and clarity as dispatchers prioritized these characteristics as they deal with high pressure situations where time is of the essence. Lastly, we cycled through building multiple versions of screens for each feature to A/B Test with Users and landed on our final version.
Solution: 911 Dispatch Web Application
911 Dispatch is a web application that allows police dispatchers to quickly and efficiently communicate the location data of a soft client 911 caller to the responding officer. As soon as a 911 call is placed, our web application pulls the call and location data of the 911 caller and displays it in an easy-to-communicate format for dispatchers to relay the important information to responding emergency teams.
