KG
Enhance UX for Forensic Search
Client:
Johnson Controls Inc.
Fishers, IN
Duration:
Oct'24 - Present
My role (so far):
UX Audit,
Competitive Analysis,
Stakeholder Interview​
Team of 4:
(1 UX Researcher,
2 UX Designers,
1 Product Designer)
(me)
Design Challenge
​The ExacqVision VMS (Video Management System) needs improved intuitiveness and user friendliness for the Forensic Search.
About the product
Exacq is a Video Management System, a product owned by Johnson Controls, providing 1M+ users with video surveillance solutions. It provides advanced search capabilities to speed up investigations.
Well, imagine the ease of finding your stolen purse in a busy mall with just a few clicks on the VMS system, eliminating the need of manual review of hours of video footage!
This is Forensic Search: a process of locating specific objects or events through use of various search options and advanced filters.​ Exacq has a great way of doing this. While highly effective, the feature presents a significant challenge: it is cluttered, unorganised and lacks user-friendliness and intuitiveness leading to considerable user frustration and a limited awareness of the feature.
My journey so far: A bird's eye-view 👀
Became ExacqVision VMS expert
Explored advancements in Forensic Search
(Desk Research)
Synthesized the findings
(Persona,
User Journey Map)
Identified what competitors offer
(Competitor Analysis, Ethnographic Studies)
Talked to the marketing experts
(2 semi-structured interviews)
Tackling Challenge #1:
Re-design the workflow of Forensic Search
(current)
Gaps identified while becoming the Exacq expert
Exacq was developed years ago by skilled developers. While it has a rich feature set, its dense interface presents a significant design challenge.
Gap #2
The filter section is unorganised and has redundant options making it difficult to quickly refine search. ​
Gap #1
The navigation bar design has improper hierarchy and unintuitive icon layout.
Gap #3
Difficulty differentiating between enabled and disabled buttons.
(Exacq VMS Search page)
Gap #4
The timeline view only allows manual scrubbing through identified instances.
What did the competition reveal?
We learnt about our competitors to understand the competitive landscape of Forensic Search, including the advancement in technology and application of AI while also identifying potential opportunities for Exacq.
Insight #1
The Analytics feature, currently fragmented across multiple pages, should be designed to have a dedicated page and flow to improve the navigation.
Insight #2
Exacq can benefit from key features to refine search results like sorting by timeline, grouping results by time duration, and filtering by confidence intervals.
(Avigilon, Genetec, Milestone, Bosch, Verkada, Hikvision, Hanhwa, NX Witness, Openeye Scientific, Axis, Alarm.com, Lenel, Honeywell)
What did I learn about the users?
Two informative semi-structured interviews with the Managers at Intelligent Marketing Inc (IMI), marekting agency for Johnson Controls, with 20+ years of experience revealed valuable insights about user frustration and expectations about the Forensic Search of Exacq.
"More than 75% users of Exacq are from a non-technical background and are novice users making it difficult for them to understand the system due to lack of intuitiveness."
"Many users are unaware of the analytics feature due to its hidden and unintuitive nature."
From searching for cameras to identifying the target, a user feels that performing a Forensic Search is cumbersome and unintuitive.
To address these gaps
How might we improve Forensic Search for Exacq users for an intuitive and elevated user experience?
to be continued: ideation in process :)