Function: Product design lead
Team: Product manager, developers, data scientists, occasional design help
Not all San Francisco homes are earthquake-safe
A large number of San Francisco homes are not structurally prepared for earthquakes, and specifying data is not easily accessible
Target audience
San Francisco residents and those considering living in San Francisco
Key functions
Qualitative user research surfaced a need for:
Browsable earthquake safety map of San Francisco
Address lookup with building and area earthquake safety information, based on San Francisco government data
General earthquake preparedness resources
Help with earthquake safety concerns
Exploring interface options
For accessibility to all devices and user types, a responsive web dashboard could provide an authoritative single-glance report after address lookup. Other options explored:
Understanding user flows
Simple user flows were defined to solve for key user goals
Establishing wireframes
Based on the user flows, three screen modes were identified as necessary:
Address lookup
Results in single-glance dashboard
Modals for supporting information
First visual design pass
A first pass on the responsive sizes to orient design and engineering on elements of build
Iteration and testing
The two-page design did not allow users to immediately browse safety map without entering an address, prompting redesign to a single page
Interest in the Google Maps pattern resurfaced, prompting A/B testing which established the dashboard as the preferred format
Responsive sizes for MVP
Design of responsive sizes allowed development to begin
Next steps
Redefine interface to be transparent to underlying dataset
Iteration on map visualizations
Usability testing and any iteration prior to MVP build
Consider mailing all addresses where buildings are in need of retrofit
Analytics to monitor MVP success
Explore and enhance visual design layer, for impact and engagement