Designing for Trust in Crisis

User Experience Designer

February 2023 - Dec 2024

Overview:

ResiliencePoint is a platform for emergency managers (EMs) to gather insights about their communities, hazards, and outreach effectiveness. It was developed as a successor to EM-Dash to provide a more actionable, clear, and human-centered interface for interpreting data and making decisions. The platform needed to balance rich datasets with simplicity, enabling EMs to quickly understand local conditions and adapt their outreach strategies.

Design Process & Development:

Our process began by analyzing EM workflows and needs:


User Research


Qualitative research and observations revealed that emergency managers needed rapid access to key metrics:


  • Number of community members signed up and using Hazadapt.

  • Hazard guide and Prep Check engagement in their jurisdiction.

  • Ways to search, filter, and visualize data for actionable insights.




Wireframing & Prototyping

Feature Planning: Through a series of research sprints and meetings with members of the product team, design team and development, we were able to land on the following for the MVP:


  • Prep check engagement summaries


  • Hazard activity heatmaps


  • Trending hazards and insight feeds


  • Search tied to individual graphs/tables

Testing and Observations

The top navigation created cognitive overload; users had difficulty understanding hierarchy.


Component-level search required repeated queries for each chart or table, slowing workflow, and key insights were difficult to locate quickly.

Accessibility issues appeared, some text contrast, alignment, and hierarchy made rapid comprehension challenging.

REMIX

This led to a redesign that emphasized clarity, hierarchy, and workflow efficiency, while addressing accessibility concerns.



Side Menu Navigation


  • Replaced top menu with a vertical side menu to reduce clutter and establish clear hierarchy.


  • Allowed more space for dashboards and summary insights.


Redesign & Enhancements


Overview Section


  • Added a concise overview highlighting the most important metrics: total population, hazard activity, and prep check engagement.


  • Brought key insights to the forefront for EMs to consume at a glance.



Page-wide search


  • Created a page-wide search placed at the top of the page instead of on individual components to improve workflow and clarity.

  • Increased clarity for for emergency managers, as well as community leaders to be able to navigate and parse through page level information based on a selection based interface, that also allows for the user to retain search selections to revisit as needed.



Residents vs Visitors Toggle (Added after the pivot)

During the revamp we realized something, we didn't have a way for community leaders to differentiate between data gathered from the residents in their jurisdiction and data gathered by visitors


  • Adding the toggle lends clarity to the datasets presented to emergency managers/community leaders to help drive community outreach based on the data presented.

  • Positioned on the map after realizing EMs needed to differentiate populations for more accurate insights.

Best Practices Overrides Familiarity

Even though we felt like we had something amazing, the writing was on the wall, the original idea to tie search to each graph (inspired by other platforms) was reconsidered. The addition of a resident/visitor toggle and having as well as having page-wide search provided faster, more consistent results.


  • Critical insights are now surfaced upfront, reducing time to interpret data.

  • Navigation and hierarchy improvements allow EMs to focus on decision-making.

  • Page-wide search and residents vs visitors toggle improve accuracy and actionable insight.

  • The platform is scalable for future features without overcomplicating the interface.

Oh And The Impact

ResiliencePoint illustrates the power of iterative, user-centered design. By observing EM workflows, identifying pain points, and pivoting to a cleaner, more efficient interface, we delivered a platform that balances rich data with clarity. The redesign laid the foundation for EMs to make faster, better-informed decisions, while keeping room for ongoing evolution.

The Conclusion

Up Next:

Prep Checks

Testing users knowledge in hazard preparedness through a series of interactive quizzes.

Coming Soon

View On Hazadapt

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