Tech for Safer Streets

Leading the design of a scalable patrol coordination system for community safety

THE PROJECT

At-A-Glance

Philly Truce is a grassroots organization in Philadelphia that reduces gun violence through peaceful conflict resolution, with justice-impacted volunteers partnering with police on peace patrols in high-violence neighborhoods. While a mobile app enabled reporting and communication, admins lacked a dashboard to schedule routes and manage patroller profiles and reports.

Philly Truce is a grassroots organization in Philadelphia that reduces gun violence through peaceful conflict resolution, with justice-impacted volunteers partnering with police on peace patrols in high-violence neighborhoods. While a mobile app enabled reporting and communication, admins lacked a dashboard to schedule routes and manage patroller profiles and reports.

Philly Truce is a grassroots organization in Philadelphia that reduces gun violence through peaceful conflict resolution, with justice-impacted volunteers partnering with police on peace patrols in high-violence neighborhoods. While a mobile app enabled reporting and communication, admins lacked a dashboard to schedule routes and manage patroller profiles and reports.

I led the Phase 4 and 5 desktop design teams to build this dashboard from the ground up, designing route and patroller management as well as shift scheduling connected to the mobile app.

I led the Phase 4 and 5 desktop design teams to build this dashboard from the ground up, designing route and patroller management as well as shift scheduling connected to the mobile app.

I led the Phase 4 and 5 desktop design teams to build this dashboard from the ground up, designing route and patroller management as well as shift scheduling connected to the mobile app.

My Role

Design Lead

Led the design efforts across design system, product research, user flows, rapid prototyping, usability testing

Team

Phase 4

Co-Lead: Michelle Sudhakar

UX Designers: Sharmeena Lalloo, Hope Yu, Youngin Cho, Domonic Bradley, Janae Ross

Phase 5

Co-Lead: Sharmeena Lalloo

UX Designers: Bronson Lee, Hope Yu, Hazuki Yamanaka, Kamilah K.

Other Collaborating Teams

Strategy, research, and development teams

Timeline

Phase 4

Oct 2024 - Mar 2025

Phase 5

Apr 2025 - Jul 2025

The Solution

Schedule

  • Plan and publish patrol shifts in just a few clicks

  • Track sign-ups in real time with a clear visual status bar

  • Switch between daily and weekly views for flexible planning

Routes

  • Instantly scan routes in a clean, sortable list

  • Add new routes quickly with an intuitive form flow

  • Color-coded tags for fast neighborhood recognition

Patrollers

  • Easily view roles, contacts, and availability in one place

  • Streamlined form to add or update patroller info

STRATEGY

Project Scope & Pivots

We built the desktop dashboard from 0 -> 1, starting by aligning on goals across strategy, design, and development teams.

At the start of Phase 4, the strategy team outlined a clear MVP scope. Midway, the project pivoted—shifting the dashboard’s function to a “job board” model where admins only create routes, and Peace Patrollers claim them via mobile. I quickly redirected the team, minimizing disruption. By Phase 5, we delivered most of the planned features.

Project Scope

Completed

  • Create / edit routes with start & end points

  • Route priority settings

  • Shift calendar

  • Info on: basic and emergency contact; availability

  • Roles: Super Admin, Dispatcher, Supervisor Officer

  • Performance reviews

Pivoted

  • Unassigned shifts claimable via mobile app

  • Assign officers to routes/shifts

  • Availability tracking

  • Time-off requests & reminders

  • Active / closed cases

User Persona

Based on research and input from the strategy team, the first users of the desktop dashboard will be Philly Truce founders, Steve and Mazzie. They rely on pen-and-paper and phone calls, with basic familiarity in tools like Google Maps, Google Calendar, and Gmail. As future users will likely share similar technical literacy, the dashboard must be simple, intuitive, and modeled after familiar Google-style interactions.

Based on research and input from the strategy team, the first users of the desktop dashboard will be Philly Truce founders, Steve and Mazzie. They rely on pen-and-paper and phone calls, with basic familiarity in tools like Google Maps, Google Calendar, and Gmail. As future users will likely share similar technical literacy, the dashboard must be simple, intuitive, and modeled after familiar Google-style interactions.

Based on research and input from the strategy team, the first users of the desktop dashboard will be Philly Truce founders, Steve and Mazzie. They rely on pen-and-paper and phone calls, with basic familiarity in tools like Google Maps, Google Calendar, and Gmail. As future users will likely share similar technical literacy, the dashboard must be simple, intuitive, and modeled after familiar Google-style interactions.

Stevie

Philly Truce Admin

Behavior

  • Records incidents using pen, paper, or phone notes while out on patrol

  • Relies on texting and calls to check peace patroller availability

  • Plans routes manually with pen and paper

  • Primarily uses Google products like Gmail and Google Calendar; otherwise, he’s out in the field walking routes

Pain Points

  • No centralized tool for route or incident management

  • Manual methods are time-consuming and prone to errors

  • Difficult to scale or coordinate multiple responses efficiently

Core Needs

  • A simple desktop system to create, assign, and manage patrol routes

  • Visual tools to track routes, coverage gaps, and priority areas

  • Streamlined workflows to support fast, coordinated incident responses and conflict de-escalation

RESEARCH

Competitor Analysis

To design a dashboard that functions like a job board, we drew inspiration from a variety of existing tools:

Task/time management:

Google Calendar, ClickUp, Monday.com, Notion

Shift management:

Paylocity, Agendrix

Route dispatching:

Routific, OnFleet

As a team, each of us researched two products and noted both must-have features and nice-to-haves for our dashboard.

Must Have

Nice-to-Have

Must Have

Must Have

Nice-to-Have

Nice-to-Have

Nice-to-Have

.

Many tools include advanced interactions like drag-and-drop, inline editing, dynamic cards, and modals—but these can quickly overwhelm and distract from what’s truly essential. To stay focused, I anchored our design decisions in the core “How Might We” statement.

Many tools include advanced interactions like drag-and-drop, inline editing, dynamic cards, and modals—but these can quickly overwhelm and distract from what’s truly essential. To stay focused, I anchored our design decisions in the core “How Might We” statement.

How might we design a dashboard anyone can use—minimal tech background required?

.

With this in mind—and after aligning with the development and strategy teams on technical and budget constraints—we defined the following core interaction principles:

Simple navigation

Clear side navigation and breadcrumbs help users stay oriented and move through the dashboard

Consistent Right-Side Modal

A slide-in panel displays details on the right, reinforcing a predictable interaction pattern

Clean Layout

Familiar calendar-style schedule cards and clear button labels support quick scanning and action

DESIGN

Design System

The mobile team already had a solid design system foundation. In Phase 4, I created an initial desktop system to keep styles consistent and reduce rework. In Phase 5, I partnered with Bronson (designer of the mobile design system) to evolve this into a comprehensive, cross-platform design system.

The mobile team already had a solid design system foundation. In Phase 4, I created an initial desktop system to keep styles consistent and reduce rework. In Phase 5, I partnered with Bronson (designer of the mobile design system) to evolve this into a comprehensive, cross-platform design system.

.

Core Pages Design

I split the team to focus on three key pages: Schedule, Routes, and Patrollers. Following the user flow I mapped with the co-lead, we ran three design sprints per phase. The simpler Route and Patroller pages were finalized in two sprints and sent for testing, while we continued iterating on the more complex Schedule page designs.

I split the team to focus on three key pages: Schedule, Routes, and Patrollers. Following the user flow I mapped with the co-lead, we ran three design sprints per phase. The simpler Route and Patroller pages were finalized in two sprints and sent for testing, while we continued iterating on the more complex Schedule page designs.

Design Evolutions

Schedule

Schedule

Schedule

Routes

Routes

Routes

Patrollers

Patrollers

Patrollers

USABILITY TESTING

Method And Goals

I partnered with the research team to design and conduct moderated user testing sessions. Each test aimed to gather first impressions and uncover usability issues on key pages through structured interviews and hands-on tasks. I outlined clear goals and guiding questions, which the research team used to conduct consistent sessions.

Feedback Optimization

To speed up the feedback loop, I requested video recordings and transcripts of each session. I personally reviewed all interviews and, with AI assistance, extracted and organized key insights with time stamps for reference—delivering them to the design team within two days, rather than waiting a full week for the typical turnaround.

To speed up the feedback loop, I requested video recordings and transcripts of each session. I personally reviewed all interviews and, with AI assistance, extracted and organized key insights with time stamps for reference—delivering them to the design team within two days, rather than waiting a full week for the typical turnaround.

To speed up the feedback loop, I requested video recordings and transcripts of each session. I personally reviewed all interviews and, with AI assistance, extracted and organized key insights with time stamps for reference—delivering them to the design team within two days, rather than waiting a full week for the typical turnaround.

Traditional Affinity Mapping = 7 Day Turnaround

Traditional Affinity Mapping = 7 Day Turnaround

Transcript + Human + AI = 2 Day Turnaround

Transcript + Human + AI = 2 Day Turnaround

Test Results

Route

What's Working

  • Clear CTA buttons

  • Clean, minimalist design

Needs Improvement

  • Inline note expansion is unclear

  • Route enabler is confusing

  • Route differences are not obvious

Patroller

What's Working

  • Easy-to-add patroller info

  • Clean, minimalist design

Needs Improvement

  • None

Scheduling

What's Working

  • Simple shift publishing flow

  • Clear layout

  • Daily and weekly view's toggle use

Needs Improvement

  • Popup clarity — edit confirmations need clearer language.

  • Confusing calendar view vs list view

User Quotes

"The Add Route button is easy to find and use."

"The notes preview is misleading; I didn't realize I had to click to see the full note."

"Something I would use — anyone could use it, self-explanatory."

"I thought this was just one route with multiple stops; it's not clear that these are separate routes."

"Very organized system… no dislikes."

DESIGN ITERATION

Lean & User-Informed

For the MVP, we set the Schedule page as the Home page—where admins spend most of their time. Various key interactions were also simplified and redesigned based on usability feedback and developer input.

WHAT I LEARNED

Empathize, Organize, and Document

Over 10 months, I worked with a large cross-functional team through various pivots and iterations. I learned that keeping our files, Figma, and sprint decks organized allowed smooth handoffs and quick onboarding across phases.

While “design by committee” is often seen as a challenge, it worked here because we had clear roles, decision-making processes, open communication, and a shared vision. Grounded in research and mutual trust, we empowered each other to lead with autonomy. It was humbling to help steer the team and stay aligned with the principles we built together.

Over 10 months, I worked with a large cross-functional team through various pivots and iterations. I learned that keeping our files, Figma, and sprint decks organized allowed smooth handoffs and quick onboarding across phases.


While “design by committee” is often seen as a challenge, it worked here because we had clear roles, decision-making processes, open communication, and a shared vision. Grounded in research and mutual trust, we empowered each other to lead with autonomy. It was humbling to help steer the team and stay aligned with the principles we built together.

Over 10 months, I worked with a large cross-functional team through various pivots and iterations. I learned that keeping our files, Figma, and sprint decks organized allowed smooth handoffs and quick onboarding across phases.

While “design by committee” is often seen as a challenge, it worked here because we had clear roles, decision-making processes, open communication, and a shared vision. Grounded in research and mutual trust, we empowered each other to lead with autonomy. It was humbling to help steer the team and stay aligned with the principles we built together.

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Training AI Through Teamwork

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