Interaction Design
Social App Supporting the Mental Health of Emergency Dispatchers.
Problem
Promoting and supporting mental and physical health for the stressful life of 911 Dispatchers.
Dispatchers work in an overwhelming environment with equally overwhelming requirements, resulting in poor work/life balance and mental health. Dispatchers often have very little downtime on their shifts outside of breaks. Due to the distressing nature of their work, dispatchers develop mental health issues. The job itself is also very isolating, since dispatchers have to be tethered to their desks while on call and often don’t interact with one another.
Roles
UX Design & Research
UI Design
Prototyping in Figma
Timeline
9 Weeks
Team
3 Designers
2 Mentors
How do we mitigate stress in a high-stress workplace environment?
Solution
A way to connect and have fun with others. Play for stress management.
A social game app where dispatchers can connect to one another through game experiences, learn about mental health services, and support each other through sharing their stories.
Games
Collaborative yet competitive game experiences.
Simple games that can be engaging for short and long periods of time, to fill time in between calls.
Bingo: 911 and seasonal themed
ArsonUS: competitive imposter team game
Canvas: collaborative competitive drawing game
Dispatcher Stories
Space to highlight and uplift dispatcher experiences.
Builds better sense of job identity and unity.
Forums and Tips
Dispatchers lack training for stress management.
Helpful tips provide easy and practical tips from professionals for stress and work/life balance.
Forums are a positive space to ask other dispatchers for help with stress and job tips.
Research
Starting with secondary research, I came across a case study about 911 dispatcher stress levels and factors that had an alarming statistic:
50% of dispatchers suffer from moderate stress, 13.3% experience high stress, and 69.8% have not taken any courses related to stress management.
Learning this, we set out to create a way for dispatchers to destress in the workplace and strengthen their connections to one another.
Understanding the Problem
Visiting the Dispatch Unit’s Work Space
Emergency dispatchers feel neglected by higher ups, disconnected from coworkers, and isolated from family and friends from poor work-life balance.
The San Mateo County 911 dispatch unit invited us for a tour of their facilities to better understand their environment and what we’re working to solve. They recently moved out of their previous facility, which was a basement with no windows. Even with this upgrade and improvements they’ve made, they still feel that dispatchers’ mental health could be better taken into account within the workspace.
Compared to what we had found from our secondary research, they’ve made improvements according to those recommendations. They even have a therapist, large screens that display pets, massage chairs, a gym, and windows. They were previously in a basement with no windows and poor ventilation. There are some new areas for recreation and relaxation, but they go sparsely used for a variety of reasons.
During our tour of the facilities, we were able to interview dispatchers with different levels of experience and a mental health professional on the dispatcher work experience and environment. From our experience with the dispatchers, we developed a How Might We Q that guided us through building our app:
The Main Insight
Escaping and disassociating from the stresses of work is the most popular type of stress management for dispatchers.
To better understand dispatchers, we created different empathy maps for different levels of job experience.
What do Dispatchers want?
After discussing with our mentors, Dr. Nicole Westercamp and Alicia Holcombe, as well as other dispatchers, they informed us that...
Dispatchers want something collaborative that they can do inside their pods.
Based on this we created several concepts, but chose to do something within their pods and easy to play. Our original proposal was a desktop multiplayer game app that would integrate with other desktop systems, like being able to detect when a call was coming in. It would connect dispatchers who are physically isolated from one another by connecting them digitally.
App that can be played in pods and with fellow dispatchers.
Multiple collaborative games related to dispatch, but with lighter themes and humor. Variety of competitive nature and game types.
Promotes a less somber work environment, allows dispatchers to socialize with each other easily during the workday, and provides entertainment in the downtime between calls.
After getting feedback from our mentors on our initial concept, we realized we needed to rethink the for a platform and game feature overhaul. The key feedback we received highlighted the already cluttered nature of dispatcher desktops, given their multiple screens and abundant information. Adding to this complexity was deemed impractical, considering their existing computer systems. Based on this we decided to switch to a mobile app.
Final Concept
CalmConnect
A gaming app that dispatchers can use within their pods during their breaks and downtime that has multiple collaborative games, news, and community advice related to 911 dispatch that aims to promote a less somber work environment and entertainment for dispatchers.
Figma Prototype
Lessons Learned
What I'd do differently next time