Overview 

The Upload Diagram project is a new feature set to launch for a new traffic collision reporting software called Quick Crash. This would allow police officers to quickly upload their diagrams and sketches during the report writing process to allow for faster processing. This project feature was specifically designed for use by Boston Police Department.

Timeline

April-June 2022

Role

Associate Product Designer

Context

Quick Crash is a relatively new product that was acquired by Mark43 in 2021. It is a traffic collision software reporting system used by police departments across the US. It is available on both desktop and mobile versions. This project and feature launch was designed specifically for Boston PD so that officers can easily upload their sketch diagrams into the report writing system to streamline the report writing system. 

Competitive Analysis

To better understand the product and what works currently in the traffic diagramming space, I looked into similar traffic incident diagramming softwares. The ones that are currently used by Boston PD and the main ones I found are AccidentSketch and Smartdraw which both have similar templates for producing traffic incident diagrams. However, AccidentSketch is a bit outdated and took some time to actually create a decent sketch. Smartdraw is a newer software that had many different options but was described as overwhelming beacuse of that very reason. 

Our product would be connected to Esri Maps which as long as officers plug in the location, the layout of the streets and accident scene would be provided for them so all they have to do is recreate the cars/object in our diagramming tool. However, the most efficient and fastest way for officers to create a sketch is pen and paper. To cater to that, the goal is to easily incorporate an upload feature where officers can just upload their pen and paper sketches to the report writing process. 

Ideation

After understanding the context, who we were designing for, and the user flow, I created some initial sketches and wireframes to kick off the ideation process. 

Upload Diagram Sketches

Feedback + Iterations

I worked very closely with my PM and Engineering for this project especially since it is a newer project and we were all very new to the team. I was proactively communicating through team groomings, 1-1 feedback calls, design feedback sessions, and qualitative interviews with our stakeholders at Boston and Milpitas PD. 

Main Insights + Challenges:

01: Police officers in this use case really only need to upload custom sketch diagrams rather than factual diagrams. Sketch diagrams are illustrations to represent the investigating officer's opinion on how the collision occured. Factual Diagrams are drawing of the factual details of the collision scene and usually only included if there is a serious injury or fatality. It is also usually created with a separate software program. 

02: Iterating and descoping designs was a major part of this design process. Due to limited engineering capacity, I had to be scrappy and pull existing components and design behaviors from our RMS design system to make building out this feature as efficient and fast as possible. This also required regular feedback sessions with the PM and designated Quick Crash engineers.

Final Solution

After incorporating the feedback received, I created the final Quick Crash designs for both desktop and mobile!

Upload Diagram Mobile Screens

Next Steps

While designing for this feature, many ideas and thoughts popped in my head for future additions for our diagramming tool and Quick Crash in general!

01: As our engineering talent grows, work on creating and building out the Quick Crash design system and language

02: Work on fleshing out a complete holistic diagramming tool feature and experience for officers to easily recreate their sketches on Quick Crash

Reflection

I learned to be scrappy and flexible as this was a new project with a new team with so many possibilities! My PM was out of office for the first two weeks that I was on the project which forced me to be resourceful and get a head start on some of the designs by myself. I learned to adapt to engineering concerns, stakeholder needs, and feedback from my PM, design team, and design manager. Given the circumstances, I finished the designs in a timely manner and had a quick turnaround time for design iterations to ensure that the feature would be launched in time for Boston PD to use. Communication truly is key and I am excited to apply what I've learned from my time on this project and at Mark43 to future opportunities in design.