Designing Together: Redefining needs assessments for emergency response teams
Introduction
In the process of designing services within Crisis and Emergency Response at the British Red Cross, the product team’s work has been one of collaboration, adaptation, and continuous innovation. In this blog, we delve into the pivotal role of prototyping in our mission to redefine needs assessments for emergency response teams.
The Playback: From Discovery to Prototyping
Following a comprehensive discovery phase that revealed how volunteers assess needs during a crisis; we learned how how teams triage and prioritise needs, how limited information from partners hinders their preparedness for deployment and how emergency teams would benefit from a checklist of how to carry out needs assessments. Following these learnings, a decision was made to design prompts that would help teams carry out needs assessments.
Prototyping — Phase 1: Exploring Possibilities
The work to design the prompts was marked by experimentation, allowing us to explore different avenues and gather essential feedback from those on the front lines. It was a collaborative effort to ensure that the prototypes resonated with the unique needs and constraints faced by emergency response teams.
Armed with the core findings, our product team worked hand-in-hand with staff and volunteers from the BRC to design the prompts that would help volunteers ask people about their needs. The initial prompts ranged from cards with pictures (with prompts attached) to a simple document all accessible digitally and in physical form.
Collaboration
Central to our design process was the continuous collaboration with emergency response teams. Workshops were conducted to showcase the prototypes, providing an interactive platform for staff and volunteers to vote and provide crucial feedback. This direct engagement ensured that the prototypes were not just solutions on paper but practical tools for the teams to use.
Feedback and Iteration
Participants in the workshops liked the flexibility of digital prompts as they can use them when they do not have access to the emergency response vehicles during deployment. However, they cautioned against potential barriers in device use during interactions with service users. The iterative process during this phase was crucial in refining the prototypes.
Prototyping — Phase 2: Refinement for Precision
In response to the feedback received, we refined our prototypes, honing in on the content of questions. The result was two distinct prompts:
1. Prompt A: A Word document with questions categorised by themes, accessible in both physical and digital formats.
2. Prompt B: A Figma-designed prompt with pictures and questions, accessible via mobile phones. A physical version in booklet format was also created.
Results and Further Refinement
The real litmus test for our prototypes came during testing with emergency response teams and volunteers at deployments and volunteer nights. The teams using the prompts during deployments meant they could give honest feedback about how they would use the prompt. The feedback gathered during this phase was instrumental in shaping the final iterations of the prompts.
The key insights derived from testing included:
1. Prompts as Training Material: Experienced volunteers highlighted that while they might not use the prompts in real-time, they recognised their value as training materials for new volunteers.
2. Maintaining a Person-Centred Approach: Teams emphasised that the prompts should seamlessly integrate into their interactions with service users, serving as aids rather than barriers.
3. Emergency Response Vehicle Integration: Teams suggested having a laminated version of the Word document in response vehicles for quick reference during deployments.
4. Figma Prototype Feedback: The accessibility of the Figma prototype on mobile phones was appreciated, with teams suggesting the addition of a signposting component for improved referrals.
Next Steps
The journey from scoping to solution has been marked by deep engagement, thorough testing, and iterative prototyping. The outcome is a set of prompts poised to enhance the Needs Assessment process, ensuring efficiency without compromising the person-centred approach crucial in emergency response scenarios.
As we embark on the Beta phase, Prompt A, (the Word doc), which we have iterated further for the Beta phase, will be deployed in emergency response vehicles with the teams we tested with during our Alpha phase. The coming weeks will be crucial for gathering insights from the teams. This is a testament to the commitment to actively engage and test with the teams we design for, ensuring that our solutions truly meet the needs of frontline workers and the communities they serve.
