⚠️ CONFIDENTIALITY NOTICE⚠️
To protect sensitive information, certain details and visuals have been blurred or omitted.
UX Designer
Project Overview: Mapping Every Interaction
The Titan tablet is used by military operators to control an AI-powered counter-drone system, requiring precise, efficient interactions in high-stakes scenarios.
To help guide design and engineering decisions and reveal friction points within the Titan tablet, I created a comprehensive UX map documenting every interaction on the system. This map serves as a single source of truth, showing how operators navigate the tablet and interact with its features. By visualizing these flows, the team could identify where new features should be added, which existing features were confusing, and how to streamline the operator experience.
THE PROBLEM
Insufficient documentation of Titan operator interactions
Before this project, there was no unified reference documenting how operators navigate the tablet or interact with its features, leaving design and engineering teams without a clear picture of the overall user experience. In addition, designers and engineers had not recently reviewed the tablet’s buttons and interactions in detail, meaning potential points of confusion were going unnoticed. This created challenges when adding new features, removing outdated ones, or aligning on design decisions.
The basic elements of the key were standard, but creating consistent systems for unique interactions in the tablet became the first challenge.
The tablet’s interactions are highly complex, with branching decisions and nuanced operator choices. I worked closely with my team to define clear symbols and conventions that could represent these intricate flows without losing clarity. The process required balancing accuracy with readability to make the map useful for both design and engineering audiences.
This is an example of a common interaction on the tablet: adding and editing IP and URL addresses. The flow often required multiple steps such as going back, making edits, and accessing related settings. This represents just one of several repeatable systems I defined and documented throughout the UX map.
The UX map is essentially a large, detailed user flow built screen by screen. I spent several days documenting every tablet interaction by hand and worked closely with engineers to clarify unclear steps, ensuring my understanding accurately reflected how operators use the system. Then, using my recordings and notes, I built out the UX map page by page, asking for feedback after each section.
Here’s an example of how a single interaction translated into the UX map. In this case, I focused on the buttons within the highlighted green box. Mapping this interaction revealed that the watchlist and friendly list contained similarly labeled buttons, creating potential confusion for operators.
As I mapped out each page of the tablet, I frequently encountered confusing or unclear interactions. Rather than just documenting these issues, I made recommendations to improve them so the map could also serve as a guide for future design decisions.
A critical issue was the on/off button statuses, which were difficult to interpret. In a high-stakes environment, unclear states are not just inconvenient, they're dangerous.
Original Version
It is unclear whether the alert sound is currently turned off or is able to be turned off.
Edit Suggestion
The green toggle clearly indicates that the alert sound is currently on through color and label.
Sharing the map to align the team
After completing the UX map for all screens, I presented it along with my UI edit recommendations to stakeholders across design, engineering, and other teams. The map served as a shared reference point, giving everyone a clear picture of how the tablet currently functions and where improvements were needed.
Impact: A shared map for Titan's future updates
The UX map has become a go-to reference for both designers and engineers, ensuring decisions are grounded in a full understanding of the operator experience. Stakeholders now consult the map when evaluating new features, streamlining outdated flows, or clarifying complex interactions. By surfacing hidden issues and aligning teams around one shared view, the project continues to guide improvements to the Titan tablet.