Redefining Safeguard
Guardian Analytics has designed the new standard for the Canadian security industry and public sectors: a seamless and integrative data input system that produces industry compliant Integrated Threat Risk Assessments (ITRA) which is an all-inclusive security analytics and communication software.
Nov 2018- July 2018
Overview
Many organizations today are operating with inefficient and labour intensive process, methods, and systems that are outdated and do not meet the requirements of their governing bodies. Currently, there is an immediate need for a general and effective platform to disrupt and standardize this important requirement across the security industry. The client wants us to help to create the new standard for the security industry. Organizations on all levels of government, from federal to municipal, as well as private corporations, entities such as banks and airports all need Integrated Threat Risk Assessments (ITRA) completed.
My Role
As the lead designer on this large scale software design project, I am collaborating with product managers, designers, developers, to key stakeholders from clients side on day to day basis. The collaboration process has being very open and effective. The scope of project has been changed twice while we were designing it, so we had a very dynamic design team to adapt the change, manage and collaborate with new added designers and keep the design files, presentations organized was one part of my duty.
Design Process
Goals
There are ten main tools in this product, and the functions of each part are relatively independent but also related to each other. From a functional point of view, for example, we could imagine ITRA Tool（Integrated Threat Risk Assessments） is the customized version of Microsoft Access software, which is a database management system to help users to input, manage, analyze data points related to the military sites. Floor plan creation tool is like Autocad software, which can facilitate users to draw, edit, and manage floor plans.
Three main goals:
Challenges & Insights
Matrixs
Manuscripts
1 - Dive Into The New World
This is a military project, we received a large number of original manuscripts, audio recordings, and requirement documents. Among them, there are a lot of professional terms, original data, and algorithms. It is hard for people who are new to this field to understand the terms upfront and try to oversee the outcomes.
Don't Be Afraid of Jargon
To start the project we struggled a lot because of the jargon, terms and formulas. In the workshop session,we spent 3-4 hours on a daily basis with stakeholders to try to understand and digest the meaning and intention. We used whiteboarding and wireframing practice to decipher their industry language then translate them into design language (IA, UX flows, patterns). The key lesson here is don’t be scared of jargon, you will get familiar with it after repeating it over a few days, the learning curve will be short, use design knowledge as a framework, to host the new content inside, focus on the goal.
2 - Manage The Real Data Input
The second goal of this project is to input the real data samples into the software in order to stimulate the usage of each tool. We didn’t receive the data samples until the middle of the project, so dummy data was applied into the early stage wireframes. We assumed the real data would be similar to that which we input. In order to make the design pattern more standardized, we set the symbols in a nested way and assumed there won't be too much change. As a result, it required a lot of manual work to input the data into the wireframes after we received them. The way symbols were set up totally hindered our productivity.
Data Sets
Symbol Setup As Flexible As You Can
For large scale project like this, the best practice I found is to use mid-fidelity wireframes for confirming user flow and UI pattern exploration, set symbols as flexibly as you can in this stage until real data sample received and confirmed branding elements (like theme colors), then use one section to test and set up the symbols in high-fidelity wireframes. If it works with the product and other team members then scale-out, don’t try to set all symbols and rules at the beginning or even in the middle of the project like this.
Hi-Fidelity Wireframe With Dummy Data
Hi-Fidelity Wireframe With Real Data
Symbol Setup Mistakes
Dynamic Design Team
Daily Individual Sketch Files
Manage Sketch Files
3- Embrace The Change
We had a really dynamic design team due to the change of the scope and team member’s allocation and managing the team and sync design files became a real challenge. Also, we underestimated the workload at the beginning, we didn’t pay much attention to the design tools selection and workflow until the design files became fragmented and scattered from individual designers. I became the one to manage and sync on a daily basis which created a heavy workload and mental stress.
Version Control As Early As You Can
With large projects like this, team collaboration is essential to the success. However, not all the environment has been set up for smooth collaborations before the start. For example, we thought the traditional workflow would work well, each designer would take care of one part of the project, then we could merge back files on a daily basis, with the development of the project, I found the master file just grew dramatically and inconsistent components appeared everywhere, the manual merge and distribute approach didn’t go far. So finally we involved Abstract into the process, I was able to manage the master file and design system more easily and efficiently. If a similar scale of project happens again, I would evaluate the team recourse and collaboration process, project scope then set the workflow and select toolkit at the beginning.
Featured Tool - SIR
SIR (Significant Incident Report) Tool helps users to document the incident which happened on a related military site, with Four Steps to Guide user document incident details, reference assets, additional information and review submit. UI pattern changes depends on users input and selections.
Featured Tool - ITRA
Integrated Threat Risk Assessments (ITRA) Tool is essential part of the software, which helps the user evaluate and analyze the security aspects of military sites, manage the analytics results, select and track recommendations. It includes Asset Analytics, Threat Analytics, Safeguard listings, Residual Risk and Recommendations five steps.
Dark Mode
After I developed the main brand color theme, I worked on the dark mode palate. The learning for dark mode is do not use 100% black, and Use different levels of black and shadows to reflect the sense of hierarchy, make sure there is enough contrast and pass the AODA standard.
