Generative Research
Data Synthesis
Ideation & Brainstorming
Storyboarding
Wireframing
UI Design
Firefighters face numerous challenges during their incident runs, including exposure to hazardous materials, physical strain, and a lack of real-time health monitoring. Currently, there is no comprehensive system in place to track their vital health metrics, and exposure levels during fire incidents.
The project aims simplify the process of reporting and documenting environmental hazards and exposures to support long-term health monitoring.
Our Solution
“Firefighters are highly prone to various cancers, skin, lung, tongue and esophagus, testicular cancer, and things like that."
The core solution involves an app that, offers insights into health and exposure metrics and enabling efficient data sharing with healthcare professionals. The project's key objectives include enhancing firefighter safety, improving vital health metric monitoring, and enabling timely medical interventions.
Extinguish
An exposure tracking app for long term firefighter health
My Role
Methodology
Team
The Problem
4 Members
UX Designer
UX Research
Prototype
My Design Process
Design
Test
Emphasize
Define
Ideate
Observations
User Interviews
Research
Affinity Mapping
Stake holder Mapping
User Persona
Brainstorming
Storyboarding
Information
Architecture
Sketching
Wireframing
Prototyping
Usability Testing
Think aloud
Heuristic Analysis
Observations
Interviews
Secondary Research
Affinity Diagram
Stakeholder Diagram
User Persona
Our key user and design requirements were
What did we learn ?
How Might We Statement
Ideation
Our Design Solution
Some of the ideas that came up
To give more clarity and design direction we came up with a how might we statement
Our team conducted interviews with firefighters, and I personally interviewed two of them. The interviews highlighted a prevalent concern regarding the exposure to gases and environmental hazards during firefighting. Both interviewees emphasized the need for better documentation regarding exposure and health impacts due to exposure to toxic substances. The interviews shed light on the critical importance of addressing these issues in the firefighter community.
One interviewee, diagnosed with skin cancer, attributed it to his profession.
During our secondary research we learned that firefighters are exposed to highly toxic substances in virtually every fire and that some toxins can accumulate in the body after repeated exposures.
"Firefighters are exposed to a variety of carcinogens during their work,....These exposures can lead to an increased risk of developing cancer."
Affinity mapping was a valuable tool for analyzing the data from the user interviews and for developing a problem statement and potential solutions. By using affinity mapping, the team was able to identify the key pain points and needs of their users, and to develop a plan for addressing them.
Our team also chose to create a Stakeholder Mapping diagram project.
On further consideration and research, We realized that other stakeholders and users should be included in our design solution, like family members, personal doctors, the health and wellness department, and the officer in charge along with other squad members.
We chose this diagram because it helps us identify and analyze the various individuals, groups, or organizations that have an interest in or will be affected by the project.
To further refine our understanding of user needs, we created user a persona. This persona served as detailed representations of our target users, helping us maintain a user-centric approach throughout the design process.
The proposed firefighter monitoring app addresses the key requirements identified
It simplifies the process of reporting and tracking exposure incidents by automatically collecting data from wearable sensors.
It eliminates the need for manual entry of exposure data, saving time and reducing effort.
It helps firefighters safeguard their long-term health by providing insights into their health and exposure metrics and facilitating data sharing with healthcare professionals for timely medical guidance and testing recommendations.
It does not add any additional weight burden to firefighters' already heavy gear by using wearable sensors that are lightweight and comfortable.
A firefighter monitoring app integrating wearable sensors to collect real-time physiological data during firefighting. The system aims to provide insights into health and exposure metrics, facilitating data sharing with healthcare professionals for timely medical guidance and testing recommendations, ultimately enhancing firefighter safety and well-being
Design Goal:
A health-tracking wearable with sensors, providing real-time data for post-analysis.
Storyboarding
Low-fidelity Wireframes
High-fidelity Wireframes
Future Scope
If we had more time
Firefighters gets an overview of the runs and gases they were exposed to
Firefighters connects their sensor or wearable
Exposure Tracking
Booking an appointment
Firefighters can view past record and tests
They also get alerts and messages from doctors
They can directly report their injuries or book an appointment or test
App home screen
Expanded User Base: As the initial app addresses the needs of firefighters, the future scope could involve expanding the user base to other professions or industries that face similar environmental hazards. This could include industrial workers, emergency responders, or construction workers.
Data Analytics and Research: The data collected through the app could be a valuable resource for research on the long-term health effects of environmental exposures. Future scope might involve collaborations with researchers and institutions to analyze the data and contribute to scientific understanding.
Training and Education: The app could be a valuable tool for training new firefighters on environmental hazards and safety protocols. Future scope could involve developing educational modules and partnerships with training academies.
Explore other stakeholder’s interface: We would have liked to interview doctors and try to understand what data they might need to better treat the users. Also we would have liked to explore the possibility of the doctors themselves having an interface with access to the users records and what that might have looked like
More research on the protocol of manual entry : We would have liked to better understand the required fields and data that the fire department might need in the manual entry process
Data and privacy : More research on how to safeguard their health data and keep their information secure
Better adhere to the WACG standards : We would have liked to follow the accessibility guidelines more , considering that other people apart from firefighters might use this app
1. Simplifying the process of reporting and tracking exposure incidents.
2. Eliminating the need for manual entry of exposure data to save time and reduce effort.
3. Ensuring the ability to safeguard their long-term health.
4. Avoiding any additional weight burden on their already heavy gear
“How might we simplify the process of reporting and documenting environmental hazards and exposures faced by firefighters to support long-term health monitoring?”
Eric Jones
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Demographics
Age: 34 years old
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Hometown: Indianapolis, US
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Family: Married , 2 Kids
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Occupation: Firefighter
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Education: High School
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Bio
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Eric is a firefighter who spends most of his time performing different tasks when he is not on the run. He likes working out and going to fire incidents.
"It is not a job, but a team work where we all work together and have each other's backs as we spend 1/3rd life in the fire department it is our second home”
Fustrations
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👎 He had a difficult time reporting the injury for the first time.
👎 He feels that the heavy suits limits mobility.
👎 He feels that wearing a mask should be mandatory.
Goals
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👍 He wishes for more fire runs as it is exciting.
👍 He feels very supported through peer group.
👍 He wishes for a mandatory workout routine.
8 interviews
8 observations
192 data points
"It can be very, very nerve-wracking."
"I have skin cancer, and I can contribute it to my line of work.”
We conducted observational research where the majority of the observation was done in fire stations, I also went on non emergency runs with the firefighters to understand their procedures before and after incident runs. We observed that Firefighters do not have a comprehensive system to document their exposure to gases and environmental hazards
Cancer caused 66 percent of the career firefighter line-of-duty deaths from 2002 to 2019
"Firefighters are exposed to a variety of hazards during their work, including heat, smoke, and toxic gases. These hazards can lead to a number of health problems, including cancer, respiratory problems, and heart disease."
Keeping our how might we statement in mind we began to brainstorm our ideas using the crazy 8 method
This allowed us to have a large volume of ideas in a short time with our goal being to push beyond our first ideas, which are often the least innovative, and to generate a wide variety of solutions to our problem space