FireOPS | Jannis Wäder

Context

Bachelorthesis

University Project

Team

Philipp Henzler

Saba Mayer

Role

Research, Concept,

UX, Visual Design

An ergonomic workspace that ensures an overview of all the important information the user needs to see, gives the user a better work experience and lessens time consuming tasks.

*The following video resembles an old status of the interface

Different tasks to fulfill

The people at the fire departement have many different tasks to fulfill like checking equipment and maintenancing vehicles. But during an emergency the workspace shifts.

Different tasks to fulfill

When the fire departement gets informed of an emergency, everyone at the station drops anything they are doing and prepare immediately for the deployment.

Get used to new surroundings

To gain more information on the emergency one person needs to take a seat in the control center.

Gain information fast

Here, the person needs to get a quick overview of the emergency, send out an alarm to other fire fighters and provide the keys to the vehicles needed.

Since time during an emergency is critical, the person

arriving first in the control room needs to switch

from an

analogue work environment

to a

digital workspace

and get an overview

of the situation as quick as possible.

Overcrowded workspace

The current workplace is overcrowded with screens, extremely dark and too large for the person in charge. In addition, there is a constant change between taking notes with pen and paper, radio contact and digital logging of the confusing software.

Many different programs

Four independently running programs (documentation, radio and vehicle protocol, list of persons, navigation) are used in the operations centre, in which it is difficult to find one's way around. In general, the programs are poorly designed. The font sizes are too small. Icons and pictures are hardly used. Buttons are not arranged logically. Small distances between the contents cause confusion and a lot of white space is used.

Tedious documentation process

After finishing the operation the person in the control center needs to document the whole deployment by hand. In addition each squad leader delivers a sheet with information regarding people on each car and equipment that was in use.

The person in the control room needs to

handle multiple tasks

on a

chaotic workplace

and has to

document the whole deployment

which results in them

loosing valuable time

for other tasks.

fireOPS is a workspace that enables users to…

have a complete overview of information

With the new setup of two screens and the layout updating dynamically depending on the current situation users are now able to have a complete overview of what currently is going on and what needs to be done,

automate processes

By automating processes such as vehicle status, present people and splitting up tasks we reduce the workload on the person in the control center thus enhancing communication during a deployment and accerelating the overall tasks to be done.

Our Redesign

Our revision of the workstation includes a software that combines all four programs with each other, as well as the implementation of an ergonomic workstation with two widescreen monitors arranged one above the other, thus making it possible to always have everything important at glance. Both monitors serve different purposes. The upper monitor mainly displays information like the car states, a map and information of an ongoing alarm.

The lower monitor serves as an „interaction area“. Here the user can take notes, document the deployment and provide helping information on fire detection systems and others for the fire fighters on site. By limiting the use of color and designing a calm UI, the person working can focus on their work without being distracted.

Tracking cars, radio calls and reports

Here the user can switch the view between the protocol, radio messages and an overview of the reports for each vehicle which will be filled out by the responsible leader of each vehicle.

Map

When an alarm is triggered the system calculates a route immediately which can be send to the vehicles needed for the deployment.

Alarm

The right hand side panel gives an overview of all necessary information regarding the alarm like the location, the corresponding danger level and the vehicles needed.

Documentation

The main interaction area contains the report section were every alarm is shown and other pages including messages, settings, maps and contacts. Each new alarm automatically generates a new report and gets filled with collected data of vehicles and received reports from firefighters.

Saving time with automation

With this feature almost all of the current tedious documentation process gets automated with the person in the control center now only having to check the inserted data and add an additional report.

Mobile reports and essential information on site

With many things being automated, the documentation process for each vehicle now is possible through a smartphone or tablet and can thus be sent immediately to the control center. This eliminates another long step in the documentation process.

Process

In this project we kept close communication with a local firestation. By interviewing fire fighters and getting a tour at the firestation we were able to gain insights on what the work surrounding the firestation consists of, what problems occur and what processes could be optimized.

Shadowing

Through shadowing we were able to gain insights on how a person works in the control center during a real emergency. With the help of interviews we were able to get a better understanding of the software used at the workspace and what information is really needed. By presenting ideas we generated we were able to tailor the workspace to the needs of the fire fighters.

Forming a concept

By visualizing the process of an alarm experimenting with different workspace setups and analyzing the existing software in depths we were able to come up with an efficient solution to the current problem.

TOOLS USED