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OKGiven the scale of the project, its important to consider the larger picture. I reviewed LA's vision and goals for the 2028 Summer Olympics, and spoke to transportation experts to find out how LA is preparing to host the world's biggest sporting event.
Los Angeles intends to transform the sport through innovation. The games of 2028 will:
Deliver the ultimate personalized experience for the Athletes.
Produce a fresh blend of sport and entertainment to help refresh the Olympic brand worldwide and capture the imagination of youth.
Reignite America's passion for the Olympic Movement for generations to come.
Embrace the principles of Olympic Agenda 2020 through fiscally prudent games that deliver enduring benefits to LA and the Olympic Movement
What does hosting the Olympics mean to a city/county? The general trend inferred from many reports reveal a tension between economic opportunity created by the festival and financial burden placed on the host. At its roots, transportation heavily influences the festival's impact on the economy.
What can we learn from success and failures of previous hosts?
Rio showed that entertainment in Olympic venues can excite and attract new fans.
Prioritising hospitality and embracing diversity was Rio's natural strength.
Vancouver saw success because they prioritised user experience over economic growth.
They proved that establishing a common goal and enabling every stakeholder to participate can derive a win-win outcome.
For 16 days, a city with a global reputation for traffic, freeways and smog was transformed into an efficient, accessible and healthy community.
Fixing transportation was the key to transformation.
Inspired by secondary research, I was curious about the role of community in transforming LA for the Olympics.
My hypothesis is that an untapped motivator exists between the 'festival' feeling of hosting Olympics and daily lifestyle practices. Based on several reports and primary interviews, I found that people will experience mindshifts up-till the Olympic festival (graphically depicted).
To further my understanding, I documented the current user journey of 5 infrequent (or) occasional riders and went on ride-alongs with 2 of them. I empathized with their experience and understood how their lifestyle influenced their public transit usability.
There is a gap between access to sustainable mobility (like public transit) and awareness about its benefits. How might we bridge this gap and change how LA's public transit services are perceived from the bottom up.
Who is the ideal user to drive change? Addressing the right user group is critical for public transit innovations.
The intent behind the design of smart mobility program is to find inspiration from the Olympic culture to cultivate sustainable mobility practices in LA.
Based in design thinking, these design principles have been delineated to guide the UI design to achieve desirability, feasibility, and viability. However, brand alignment and identity of LA Metro is not considered for legal reasons.
Inorder to attract users, the interface architecture has to be desirable and effective; as it relates to the design principles. So I made low-fi prototypes of key features and tested them with few folks. I asked them to stack the screens based on their motivation(s) to use the app.
I would prefer to know the possibility of winning a quest before actually putting the effort to use transit...
I want the quick tap button to be visible easily... ohh.. especially when the train is already there.. I get soo anxious fearing i'd miss it.
The whole point of your app is to enable transit so i guess this comes first...
I think I wanna see my rewards after I take the trip.. cos I do that when I Uber so that'd be nice...Is it like instant reward or you...
I am not interested in monitoring my transit usage but if I can brag about how my medals have paid me with rewards... then maybe..
I would prefer to know the possibility of winning a quest before actually putting the effort to use transit...
I want the quick tap button to be visible easily... ohh.. especially when the train is already there.. I get soo anxious fearing i'd miss it.
The whole point of your app is to enable transit so i guess this comes first...
I think I wanna see my rewards after I take the trip.. cos I do that when I Uber so that'd be nice...Is it like instant reward or you...
I am not interested in monitoring my transit usage but if I can brag about how my medals have paid me with rewards... then maybe..
I realised that users needed useful motivations as opposed to mundane processes. The feedback I received re-affirmed my hypothesis that people develop interest in physical activities during fitness festivals like Olympics.
The user interface is designed to prioritise the value proposition over mundane functions.
Transit challenges are a set of personalized games inspired by the LA 2028 Olympics. These challenges are designed to achieve three goals
To make the user's transit experience fun, informative and rewarding.
To encourage new riders to adopt transit culture and sustainable mobility practices.
To help users achieve their long term fitness or financial goals.
The Metro Fit tracker helps users monitor their transit behaviour, competency and fitness levels. The tracker also informs users about their goal progress.
The Metro Fit app promotes LA Metro’s destination discounts program as an incentive to use public transit. Patrons can TAP anywhere and anytime during their transit journey and use LA’s public transit effectively and efficiently.
As the lead product designer at Automotus - a pioneering camera vision startup specializing in curb management solutions for cities and airports, I've spearheaded the design and development of a diverse range of B2C, B2G, and internal products. In parallel, I played a pivotal role in improving product development by - establishing design and hand-off processes, implementing a robust design system to streamline engineering workflows, as well as instituting research cycles and collaborative brainstorming workshops within the product team. In this article, I have covered few interesting projects I tackled through human centered design and systems thinking.
Automotus offers B2G products to all cities they operate in. They are intended to inform the city's operations and policy decisions as well as strengthen partnerships. But, cities tend to respond slowly to data which impedes growth and scalability for Automotus. The product team at Automotus was tasked with making B2G more profitable
What feature can add profitable value to city operations and policy decision making?
After discovery research, discussions with client success team, and analysis of industry signals, the B2G product manager planned, scoped, and spec-ed a preliminary PRD for a Real Time Curb Occupancy (RTO) feature – the first of its kind in the industry.
The RTO feature provides real time visibility into curb activity. This data is valuable to cities as it can improve operations with respect to parking enforcement and revenue as well as policy. Moreover, this feature also promotes Automotus’ proprietary camera vision technology which helps the company penetrate new markets.
Due to the novel nature of this feature, it was imperative to conduct desirability research. I collaborated with the PM early on, to ideate in parallel, as the feature scope and requirements were delineated. I built wireframes and low-fi prototypes to not only test the key functions with our target users – the city stakeholders, but also inform the PRD with additional use cases, business cases, and prerequisites.
While the feature received positive response during validation, its novel nature came with complex problems related to design, engineering, and policy.
Since RTO boasts real-time information, accuracy is key. However, creating an accurate digital twin of the curb is very challenging since the real world context is constantly evolving and filled with variables. A framework was needed to simulate the curb. In collaboration with the PM, using the ideation done earlier in the project, I spearheaded brainstorming workshops with the CV team to analyze many hours of camera vision data for reliable variables and metrics to establish a framework.
Creating accuracy thresholds for each zone state allowed RTO to deliver on client requirements while accommodating camera vision constraints.
RTO is designed as a map-based feature since maps are information rich, and effective for situational awareness. However, the idea of information richness can easily slip into information overload. To prevent this problem, visual and information hierarchy was a rule of thumb in the design process. I specifically conducted card sorting exercises with our users to brainstorm & determine information priority.
Curb management is unique to cities; every city has different needs, priorities, and landscape. This characteristic nature of curb management had to be considered when designing the RTO feature. The organization of information on the map and outside it needed to be flexible for different kinds of clients, and scalable from 0 - 10000 smart loading zones.
During ideation and design development, screen real estate optimization and usability were actively considered. Each element was tested for bespoke requirements prior to implementation.
The final high-fidelity prototype was tested with 3 cities. Feedback from these tests were designed for and shipped into dev-backlog. This feature is currently being rolled out in production.
Automotus' mission to make the curb safer, sustainable and efficient was quickly challenged when they launched their B2C solution, now known as CurbPass. CurbPass is a webapp that is designed to improve access to the curb and reduce loading zone abuse by providing a handsfree pay-to-park solution post sign-up.
For nearly 4 months, the conversion rate of CurbPass stagnated just below 11%
The V1 version was quickly rejected by gig/fleet drivers -- our target users.
I advocated for design research to leadership and subsequently planned, structured, and conducted ethnographic and quantitative research in collaboration with my teammates.
Due to financial constraints, field research was not possible. So I proposed using google maps street view to simulate the overall experience even though it is not typical.
From nearly 20 sessions comprising of surveys, interviews, and focus groups, we discovered the following painpoints
Users did not know how smart loading zones worked
Users did not want to pay for infrastructure that was historically free
Users did not understand how CurbPass worked
Users often dropped out just before completing their payment
Ultimately, CurbPass V1 created unnecessary confusion and disruption to the drivers's journey. Through synthesis of findings and quantitative data, and collective brainstorming, we developed greater insight into these issues.
There were not only severe usability issues in the V1 release but also behavioral, cultural, and experiential factors that made the product undesirable. The insights I gained from synthesis were:
How might we encourage drivers to comply with smart loading zone regulations when they have historically not paid for loading zones and hate paying for parking?
Initially, the product manager wanted to take an iterative approach due to engineering and project management constraints but I strongly suggested a complete redesign -- a better UX -- since smart loading zones were scheduled to launch in 3 new cities there after and the program's future in those cities depended on CurbPass' adoption. Through rigorous ideation, brainstorming, rapid prototyping and user testing, I re-strategized user flows and resolved challenges users faced to a great extent. The key was to reduce/remove barriers to entry and provide value through experience over time. I then delivered on this strategy through the following solutions.
An improved landing pageA new landing page with key interactive features and crucial information structured appropriately (an interactive map, loading zone rates, menus, etc.)
In-app feedback and instructive components (snackbars, alerts, etc.)
Optimized tasks and onboarding, and implemented intuitive navigation models
Visual and information hierarchy improvements
A simplified, user friendly, and effective pricing model and payment process
Google/Apple integration into onboarding (under development)
19% increase in conversion
4000 pts increase in MAU
Propelled GTM in 10+ new cities
Reduced support tickets by 50%
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In order to re-imagine the Peugeot Brand for the American Market, we as a team had to first understand people’s current perception of the brand; and also familiarize with the brand ourselves. I drafted the preliminary interview questions in this process.
A high-cultured society that embraces style and sophistication. Historically, French culture was influenced by Celtic and Gallo-Roman cultures as well as the Franks, a Germanic tribe. They embody romance and passion but are also known for fashion, cuisine, art and architecture.
Giving the Lion its roar! Gilles Vidal
Peugeot brothers diversified their facility-run mill by manufacturing saws, coffee grinders, bicycles steel strips for dressmaking and springs for watch-making.
Traditional and Automobile manufacturing separated when Armand Peugeot created 'Automobiles Peugeot', an LLC.
Peugeot believes that its brand DNA evokes Excellence, Allure and Emotion.
Brand Perception plays a huge role for Peugeot. Primary research revealed that the brand Peugeot lives as an intellectual knowledge in Americans - learned from mass-media. We also found that people are sceptical of the new and unknown but nostalgic of the past; as it relates to the re-entry of Peugeot in America. However, the term “French” holds a special place in the hearts of Americans; and is commonly associated with elegance.
In order understand beyond existing research, we as a team planned and conducted primary research to map attitudes, values and beliefs of our potential consumers. In this process I synthesized insights under SOCIAL and TECHNOLOGY categories which informed our collective views on opportunity space, brand and design strategy.
What might Americans desire in the next decade and how do they perceive the role of an automobile in the future?
There is a fabulous opportunity for Peugeot to emanate its frenchness to create inspiring and tailored mobility experiences, while keeping freedom at its core.
What will happen to adventure seeking post-millennial Americans with upcoming trends? How might we design for them?
To design an adventure sport mobility solution for the digitally connected Gen-Z American, for the year 2035 by evoking Peugeot’s DNA shift that aligns more with the American way of life.
His entrepreneurial enthusiasm and love for his ideas!
Living and growing with his child-hood girlfriend, overcoming obstacles together and celebrating life.
To be a successful entrepreneur.
To be physically fit and retain his energy to travel around the world.
The astonishing beauty of the world through her lens.
Living and growing with her child-hood boyfriend, overcoming obstacles together and celebrating life.
To win the international photography award.
To seize each day without regret.
The challenge at the design phase was to think holistic and disruptive. I envisioned the skeletal version of our proposed future ecosystem & business model; and contributed extensively in ideation and the design of the Macro - Meso - Micro level products, services and experience. I also solved various gaps in user experience flows through rapid prototyping, user testing & storyboarding, and as well as gaps in service offering through service ecology mapping.
PSA - Play is a reservation and subscription based mobility service designed to offer total exploration, maximum adventure and breathtaking journeys with minimal trip planning effort from users. PSA - Play provides customizable and gamified packages in the form of travel themes to meet the desires of adventure seeking users. Every experience is unique!
Taking an ecosystem approach allows Peugeot to embed into the lives of customers and move away from standardization of automobility.
The digital gateway is the application through which customers can join the PSA Ecosystem and explore the world effortlessly in a new way. The application also serves as the primary interface through which users can control their overall experience;besides their in-car interface. The app is designed to balance usability andstory; an adventure that is a fusion of reality and fantasy.
PSA Play allows users to escape reality in just 5 steps. Its that simple and effortless.
BROWSE . PLAN . PERSONALISE . BUNDLE IT . PLAY
PSA Play ensures that every new adventure is different and mind-blowing. Using technological advancements and cool gadgets, PSA Play rewards its users during and after every journey with fun new features, tech upgrades, points, side-quests, and real world offers.
Besides the PSA Play experience, the application also allows users to join the Peugeot family through its car booking and test drive feature. User's will also be able to personalize their test drive just like the campaign selection process.
BROWSE . PLAN . PERSONALISE . BOOK
ArtCenter College of Design & LA Metro collaborated to investigate the bus riding experience in LA County; and conceptualize its future. The Transportation Systems & Design department at ArtCenter framed the project as a UX Case Study conducted by 8 students; divided into 3 teams. The goal of this project is to present insight driven proposals and recommendations to LA Metro's NexGen Bus team.
Bus Lines
3 months
Ashwin Mohan
Khashayar Afshar
Haichao
Contextual Enquiry
Visual Coding
User Journey Mapping
Storyboarding
• Micro Transit strategy.
• Improved Transit Access & Onboarding
OTHER USE CASES
OTHER USE CASES
Waymo was born out of the Google self-driving car project in 2009. Since then, Waymo has been on a mission to make it safe and easy for people and things to get where they’re going.
To achieve that mission, Waymo relies on people's trust on its driver technology. However, there were problems in building human machine relationship. We as designers helped Waymo solve communication and interaction issues between people and the Waymo driver.
3 months
Ashwin Mohan
Nancy Tsai
Joseph Robinson
Ruoyi An
Design Strategy
Experience Architecture
3D Modelling & Simulation
Purchased in March 2020 by Waymo LLC*
This project was one of the most insightful learning experiences for me. I played the role of a design strategist and had the opportunity to exercise my range of capabilities in new territories. Using my design & systems thinking approach, I helped solve challenging design problems within the AV space. In this process I learned:
• to draw insights from today's experiences to inform future AV interactions
• about autonomy and its perception; in all sense of the term(s)
• how to align a multi-disciplinary team's skills and priorities
• to modify interaction principles to design new mental models
• to create a collective vision that excites everyone in the team
How might LA approach the future of autonomous transportation and what will the ecosystem look like?
Note: This project was done in parallel to a study away project. Hence research predominantly relied on secondary sources and literature.
Investment in younger population and community interconnectedness.
Advancements in UX, AI, and security might allow for new ecosystems.
Growing movement towards a low carbon, green-energy future.
Increasing impact on United State's global Economic influence, Global warming, and Eco-inequities.
Profound focus on accountability and public welfare through robustness of policy and regulation.
Increasing frequency and impact of natural and man-made disasters.
The population type in Glendale is predominantly female & the median age is 41; which indicates a mature population. There is a growing trend of declining birth rate and increase in aging population that is observed globally.
A need to invest in younger population & the health of communities is gaining voice.
There is a lack of active street life in LA due to its car-cultured setup. Additionally, there is safety and security concern for people due to recent events of gun violence. Events like Ciclavia and Parades are needed to bring life to the streets.
Studies show a decline in child education enrollment & increasing loneliness. “Single Household” phenomenon is growing and is associated with poor quality of life in LA – i.e unaffordable housing, education, and unemployment. Additionally, the digital world is rewiring social behaviour and interpersonal relationships.
High taxes, unaffordable housing and poor access to opportunities make LA expensive to live in resulting in performance pressure and a stressed population. On the other hand, the demographic of Glendale is considered educated with lower poverty rate compared to LA and is viewed as less stressful city.
LA is a sprawling city known for Hollywood and Entertainment. The energetic vibe of LA exhibits unique fashion trends. In the future, we could see smart fabrics and more technological integration into fashion.
LA seems to be witnessing a gradual shrink of Blue collar workers due to the decreasing need for hands-on labor force. The demographic around the project site is predominantly service class with a hint of creative class.
With technology redefining urban planning and mobility, there is a growing concern for privacy and security. The fear of surveillance capitalism and cyberterrorism is prompting questions on the reliability of intelligent systems and smart cities.
Innovation is changing the way industries operate, manufacture and create value. This includes engineering solutions, material technology, and new processes.
Data Analytics & ML fuel most industries today with location based services leading the front. It allows companies to create tailored experiences.
The telecom industry is testing superfast speeds & high quality network technology like 5G, CEVA-XC DSP to set a foundation for autonomous technology to ensure quick access and efficient information transmission.
Issues like security, privacy, and user experience is gaining importance.
Human roles in the context of work have significantly changed since the “Gig Economy”. Most of the blue-collar jobs have been lost to automation and this trend is said to grow while removing the human component at the lower section of industry verticals.
Today, businesses have a different meaning and model; called as experience industry.
The largest industries in Glendale, CA are Health Care & Social Assistance, Retail Trade, and Professional, Scientific, & Technical Services. he region around the project site is predominantly occupied by service professionals as observed in the map overlay.
The service sector is rapidly growing in LA County, but it seems to worsen cost of living and global warming.
LA County has been facing housing crisis and high cost of living for more than a decade. Adding to this, many experts believe the possibility of recession in the near future. With the rise of autonomous technology, many people will lose a major income stream or face unemployment.
97% of climate scientists agree that climate warming trends over the past century are extremely likely due to human activities, and most of the leading scientific organizations worldwide have issued public statements endorsing this position.
Climate Crisis is being taken more seriously by US with the Green New Deal initiative in play.
The Glendale Narrows is an important ecological asset maintained by the city. The locally indigenous Tongva people used the Los Angeles River as a vital resource, and had village sites in the larger Glendale Narrows region.
Monopolies have been influencing the leadership of US for many years and nudging public behaviours in certain ways to ensure growth. In the future of digital age and smart cities, the power of data in the hands of monopolies is raising concern.
There is a lack of active street life in LA due to its car-cultured setup. Additionally, there is safety and security concern for people due to recent events of gun violence. Events like Ciclavia and Parades are needed to bring life to the streets.
Policies and governments are being increasingly scrutinized for ignorance, bias, and obsolescence.
The motivation matrix shows the positive and negative consequences resulting from the inter-relationship of the 5 systemic drivers. The purpose of the matrix is to reveal plausible themes and patterns; given the current state of affairs.
A connected future could create opportunities to leverage social capital for more thoughtful innovation and practice.
A thriving economy with high productivity may be observed if policies take a bottom-up approach i.e strongly supporting local businesses and caliber, and ensuring a sustainable use of technology.
The ubiquitous nature of technology can pave way for democratization of technology which will improve the overall literacy in societies.
A connected future may result in isolation and over sedentary lifestyle resulting in a desensitized society. Additionally, it may cause cognitive decay or performance pressure resulting in a hyper stressed population.
Poor oversight on the economic impact of small businesses may cause erratic market behavior.
The ubiquitous nature of technology may lead to ‘over-efficiency’ or accelerate consumption leading to resource extremities.
One possible future of LA could be: a redefined socio-economic landscape that has integrated education & employment under the umbrella of social health. However, this requires effective policies and regulation, responsible politics, and an inspiring vision. Emerging ideas like 'Autonomous Urbanism' & 'Embodied Virtuality' could support this future if overseen responsibly.
Consumers are constantly seeking ‘affordable convenience’. With the trend towards increased physical movement of people and goods, new opportunities are emerging that allow the ‘virtual’ transportation as well. Currently, vehicle ownership or access, especially among low income groups are threatening public transit services but also benefiting them more than an affluent person, for car-use such as uber, medicare, job search etc. Car users often prefer riding alone because they desire solitude but its usually joined to compulsiveness towards social proximity and contact.
One of the biggest economic challenge is to accommodate growth and lack of speed and agility can cripple organizations. Therefore, nimble yet cognizant approach needs to be adopted. Similarly, the transport sector cannot afford a fragmented approach and requires a paradigm for the city as a physical and virtual platform for co-creation and collaboration.
“The challenge for new technology is to find ways to foster a sense of community”(SidewalkLabs). The creators and adopters of new technologies almost never anticipate the far reaching cultural impact of it due to short sighted approaches that infact undercuts the potential social and economic benefits. “It is important to understand that investment decisions made will shape unique patterns of demand” (Sum4All).
Since 1990, LA has been trying to restructure the city into a high density, mixed-use housing and commercial development region. Studies show that population growth is far outstripping the growth in transit , thus limiting access to economic and social opportunities. Transit Oriented Development can address these issues effectively. Five key findings may better inform future Mobility related developments.
Standard urban economics say that as distance from CBD increases - land-value decreases but travel cost increase; but access also increases land value.
Improving road connectivity has been shown to increase productivity by reducing travel time but also may induce migration and sprawl and increase job demand.
Increasing transit ridership may make transit healthy but the region demotivated and stressed as the common aspiration for people is freedom, pride and convenience - eg: car
Landuse patterns are proportionate to transit culture. Weak zoning areas also contribute to lack of economic development.
Rider acquisition increases if the transportation system is easy to use. It all begins with the experience of choosing an option - Transit will appeal more to new and occasional riders when it holistically addresses the user experience from the moment a person is thinking about how to make the trip to the moment he or she arrives. Studies have found that consumers tend to value capabilities over usability of technology and later find that these packages cause “feature fatigue”. It is imperative to improve the overall transit experience rather than just performance factors.
The challenges of meeting the mobility needs and expectations of a diverse region are becoming increasingly complex. New Mobility services could lead to more inequity due to inaccessibility factors like infrastructure, language, or develop bias due to lack of data sharing.
The current interplay of the 6 themes is not conducive to the desired future state. Therefore, how might we design an ecosystem that can accommodate the tensions between the 6 themes?
“Cities in the future should be interconnected hubs designed according to biomorphic principles” - Sidewalk Labs
Defining a clear vision, goals and key pillars are crucial, as they inform ideation and design development. The chosen site for this mobility hub is the Bowtie Project Wasteland at Glendale, CA.
The proposed Mobility Hub is scaled to function as a central hub for Glendale - East Los Angeles Region. The catchment area for this hub is within 2mi radius connecting areas like East-Hollywood, Brand, Griffith Park & Observatory, Silverlake, Cypress Park, Downtown LA, Dodger Stadium.
Major Blvds and Arterials converge to one point of access to the Hub site. These pathways support multi-modal flow. Automobile infrastructure is well established in the area.
This map depicts the origin/ destination points of key transit corridors surrounding the Hub. The transit options currently accessible to the Hub are Bus, Micro-transit, Para-transit. Most of the transit access point in this area are accessible by the residents.
The catchment area is bike friendly since its predominantly a residential zone with many leisure green scapes.
The Hub catchment area is labelled largely as a residential zone with some patches of industrial offices and light industrial setups.
The pedestrian shed map displays the level of pedestrian accessibility for the Hub site. In accordance with FTA policy, one-half mile radius is considered as the maximum reach. Limitations such as natural landscape, man-made pathways etc are taken into consideration to map the catchment area.
The Macro System explores the design of transportation networks and the built area. It sets context, strategy and scale for other aspects like vehicles, stations, access interfaces, etc.
The Meso System explores the design of built structures, spaces and overall ambiance. I've highlighted few key programs and functions of the hub. This sets the framework of the overall hub experience.
The Micro System explores all primary access technologies such as transportation nodes, personal interface etc., that are part of hub experience.
The development workflow presents a snapshot of my process: from ideation to final concept. In the development stage, I focused mainly on the urban planning side of the concept as I gained interest in the field and wanted to learn.
Learning the basic theoretical framework, and practical guidelines for designing mobility hubs helped me refine my concept.
Iteratively explored various routes and transportation networks keeping the 'minimal disruption' principle in mind.
Visited various mobility hubs, transit stations, points of interests, and tourist places to observe and gather references.
Drew the plan of the mobility hub as well as the cross-section of key programmes so that its scaled correctly.
Modelled and rendered the hub to showcase the final concept.
Created quick storyboards to explain various experiences and features of the hub.
This is a Master's Design Thesis that investigates the impact of systemic characteristics on user experience and task requirements. It reflects my interest in learning about and designing user experiences that involve factors beyond the micro context (i.e the conventional notion of solving problems at the interface level) and that takes into consideration - the complex systemic factors. It also reflects my enthusiasm for tackling unexplored and ambiguous problems, and navigating through them to find a thoughtful and human-centered resolution.
The 2018 wildfire season was the deadliest and most destructive wildfire season ever recorded in California, with a total burnt area 7,664 km2, the largest according to the California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection.
In 2019, there were a series of floods that affected over 13 states creating a record as the most deadliest monsoon in the last 25 years killing nearly 2000 people.
Disasters happen 3 times more often today, than in the 1970s and 80s
Failures in Disaster Management are largely attributed to ineffective disaster management model & leadership.
Disaster Management is traditionally viewed from an 'objective' standpoint.
Disaster Management consists of two parts: pre-disaster preparedness and post-disaster management. According to National Standards it is further classified into four distinct yet interconnected phases: prevention/mitigation, preparedness, response and recovery (Thévenaz and Resodihardjo, 2010).
My focus is the human experience of disaster management; and its impact on objectives.
Central to Disaster Management are the human and social factors such as
What causes a sense of overwhelm in emergency managers and their teams, and how does it impact response mobilization at the onset of disasters?
Findings documented from various research methods were synthesized using Affinity Mapping. During this process, several themes ranging from individual behavior(left) to systemic behavior(right) emerged .
Disasters are considered external to any system; and there is a need to save people from increasing risk.
Institutional model will prevent unnecessary internal conflicts and maladaptive behaviour.
Since the insights clearly indicated a human centric problem, I employed the stakeholder mapping method to frame the problem with precision. This method helped me identify non-existent and weak relationships that are in fact crucial for effective disaster management. Moreover, the problem clearly aligned with the insights. Then, I identified two opportunities for design intervention.
Interorganizational / multi-level interactions and relationship dynamics are unsupportive for operational capabilities. How might we resolve that?
Ineffective public preparedness due to increasing dependency on and vulnerability because of a fragile disaster management system. How might we resolve that?
Initial validation with key stakeholders confirmed my problem framing & insights. Additionally, I learned that opportunity 1 i.e inter-organizational relationship and interaction, is more desired and feasible.
Experts say that opportunity 2 has been pursued many times by FEMA; but is proving to be highly complicated and impossible.
Community emergent groups donot have a dedicated seat on the table yet.
The public are part of the regional disaster management system, however early warning messaging as been an unsolvable problem.
How might we enhance collaboration and collective preparedness for improved disaster management?
Inorder to enhance collaboration and collective preparedness, the approach to disaster preparedness phase needed a fundamental shift in perspective.
Disasters are considered external to any system; and there is a need to save people from increasing risk.
Institutional model will prevent unnecessary internal conflicts and maladaptive behaviour.
Disasters are proportionate to communities' dependence on formal disaster management systems. A culture of collaborative preparedness and collective readiness must be cultivated proactively.
The persona who might pioneer this value shift can be generally described as - someone who is trained to plan for and manage - communication and coordination between multiple organizations.
It is imperative that a solution enhances their current capability and enables them induce a cultural shift in their disaster management system.
To achieve the value shift from the bottom-up, it is important to consider the various opportunities for building relationships and fostering collaboration, when designing the concept. Additionally, I also took into consideration future trends and strategic plans, so as to align with them.
Build a culture of preparedness
Ready the Nation for catastrophic disasters
Reduce the complexity of FEMA
Mainstream Disaster Risk Reduction
Incorporate social inclusion as cross-cutting principle.
Participate in realizing global goals as per SDGs, Paris Agreement on Climate Change
Based on research and strategy, I have delineated 3 explicit success criteria and 1 implicit success criteria that is directly aimed at the desired value shift.
EXPLICIT CRITERIA:
1. Awareness & Visibility
2. Familiarity
3. Agency
IMPLICIT CRITERIA:
1. Shared Responsibility
The main component of the Call to Action Program is the Dashboard Application. Hence, it became the focus of my design development stage. However, the concept as a whole consists of all the three components; and demands further equal improvements in design.
The call to action program is most effective in the context represented below.
The outcome of this thesis is a MVP of the dashboard application; presented below. The goal was to create a desirable concept with key features, functions and a value proposition.
A single platform for all stakeholders (federal officials to community volunteers) to develop a shared picture of their established disaster management system.
Being able to view stakeholders involved in disaster management is crucial. Its fundamental to building familiarity, trust and partnership. The dashboard makes this task easy using a modular layout combined with a cascading architecture.
Ability to make objective focused connections can help stakeholders understand and leverage strengths in collaborations. Additionally, the configuration function inherently refines the system by reducing unnecessary nodes.
Create opportunities to strengthen your disaster management and leverage the power of collaboration and collective action.
Manage collaborative efforts easily and track which clusters are most effective and valuable in your disaster management. Serve effectively together!
Many will come online ONLY when a disaster strikes... They'd be like I want relevant information right now... straight away
I can see this being very useful for my operations planning chief
The concept helps you prioritize connections; the right connections
If your tool can offer value at the local level... you can use it at any level
We are working more and more to empower smaller organizations, so I like where this is going, and I think this tool might help us achieve that...
The more you do this, the more you have you know you know what phone calls to make and what connections to make and, hopefully, you can impart that to other people... I think this is a powerful tool..
Some participants do not show up traditionally.. even they are part of a platform
How will you deal with competition.. and people who just don't want to collaborate?
You got an interesting concept... however it could use more refinement on network parameters
I can see how this acts as a planning tool, it allows communities to plan, but then they would have to work within...
What is your strategy for adoption?
Looking at this from a strategic standpoint, ESF people can be saying listen in order for us to effectively do our job when we're in a situation we are going to need the following organizations so and so...
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