Viasat radio mobile interface
Introducing connectivity to Viasat's radio networks via mobile devices opened up a whole new world of communication for soldiers
The what
Viasat manufactures and supports the world's only handheld radio with access to internet in the battlefield—but to get online, soldiers must utilize a clunky and dated physical radio with only a few buttons to do highly complex functions.
…so what?
With younger, more tech savvy people entering the armed forces, the barrier to entry could be significantly lowered by transitioning the radio from a strictly physical radio to a mobile interface available on soldier's ruggedized handheld devices.
Solution
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My role
Lead designer
Contributions
Designed first-ever mobile interface for the radio
Worked closely with UXR through 3 rounds of usability testing
Time to launch
1 month
Digital radio highlights —
Digitized radio interface
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Dedicated, step by step set up flow
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Clear, straightforward status messaging
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The process —
01
Problem
How the heck do I get online?
Our problem was two-pronged: moving to a digital interface opened up a world of possibilities to make improvements to the existing radio capabilities, but we were also moving the 'get connected' flow into the app itself and needed to make it as painless as possible.
02
Research
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The beauty of the development team building a digital interface of the app before consulting with design was that it allowed the design team to perform a thorough heuristic audit of the app's core functionalities. Most of our most major issues fell into the buckets below:
Visibility of system status
Connection status is not visible on the home screen of the app (or anywhere that we could find)
Consistency & standards
Some key buttons function as sliders, others as on/off (alt) switches and others as iPod clickwheels
Match between system & real world
Highly likely that novices would not be able to understand most labels
Original screens that the development team put together and the usability audit the design team performed
03
Research
Throwing spaghetti at the wall (strategically)
Round 1: chunking and foldering as far as the eye can see
One of the main things we worked on was breaking up the many disparate steps needed to connect to network into a few batched steps of similar inputs housed in expandable folders.
Major usability problem 1
The expand and collapse affordance contributed to navigation issues
Major usability problem 2
Participants struggled to orient themselves and establish a sense of "home"
Testing indicators
Round 2: labels, labels, labels
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Major usability problem 1
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Major usability problem 2
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Testing indicators
Round 3: guiding the right users, at the right time
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Major usability problem 1
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Major usability problem 2
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Testing indicators
Outcomes —
Company case study
The project was a clear success story of how human-centered design can improve end-user experiences. The project was crafted into a Viasat case study and intended to be shared as a sales pitch at AUSA.
UXR + design partnership
The case study was shared widely on company channels internally as an example of why it's beneficial to connect with the design team, particularly our research arm.
While you're here…
