Designing a UX that helps CSA investigators solve cases faster

For us at Griffeye, the user experience (UX) is a critical factor we take into account during every part of the product development process, and whenever we design and update features on the Analyze platform. To dive more deeply into this topic, we had a chat with our UX designers Fredrik Östlund, Frans Kullgren, and Niklas Severinsson. They explain why UX is so important, how they manage to stay in touch with user needs, and reveal what kind of design updates Griffeye Analyze users can look forward to in the latest release.

Why UX is so critical for CSA investigators

Providing meaningful and relevant experiences for our users is a high priority for us at Griffeye. In fact, it’s so important, we have a growing UX team that is exclusively dedicated to continuously improving the Analyze platform. Fredrik Östlund, who has been with Griffeye for nine months and has a background in interaction technology and design explains:

“By creating a good user experience, we can facilitate for end-users and allow them to focus on the important work they do, without getting distracted by clutter and other impressions within the platform”.

Having a good user experience is key for every company, but even more so at Griffeye. For our users, who are investigators in child sexual abuse (CSA) cases, it allows them to work faster, minimize frustration, stay focused longer, and—as a result—solve more cases and help more children.

“When you hear stories about how cases were solved using the Analyze platform, and gain an understanding for how it was done and what steps were taken, you truly realize the importance of maintaining a good user experience and how great the outcome can be,” adds Frans Kullgren, our newest team member who has a background in cognitive science.

Our users are faced with an enormous amount of information, and by making things more readable and easier to grasp on the Analyze platform, the general impression becomes a lot better.

Fredrik Östlund – UX Designer, Griffeye

Working closely with our end users

In order to create a truly optimal UX, insights from real users are needed. Our UX team meets with Griffeye’s law enforcement liaisons on a weekly basis to ensure a steady inflow of feedback. These law enforcement liaisons are either current or former police officers with several years of experience working with CSA cases. They maintain close interactions with Griffeye end users through trainings and events, and regularly gather feedback which they pass on to the UX team. Niklas Severinsson, the most senior UX designer on our team, who has been with Griffeye for 2.5 years with a background in programming, tells us:

“The relationship with the law enforcement liaisons is extremely important to us. From them, we can get an understanding about issues end users may have in their daily work, and insights into how certain features are being used.”

When working on specific projects and processes within the Griffeye Analyze platform, the team also puts together user groups with end users in order to better understand their workflows. “With user groups, we can validate that things are working correctly since we are designing and collaborating with our users from start to finish,” says Niklas. Maintaining a close collaboration with end users is crucial for designing a better user experience.

“We can never fully understand what our end-users experience in their daily work or the stress they go through, so we are very thankful for their commitment and motivation to help us get better and improve the platform,” adds Fredrik.

Design updates from our UX team

Release 21.1 is introducing a brand new look and feel to the Griffeye Analyze platform. The interface has been modernized and is now clearer and simpler to navigate. Clutter and unnecessary icons have been removed for better readability and less distraction, making it easier for users to focus. “The new icons are visibly softer, and therefore become less of a distraction on the platform,” says Frans. “This is especially important since we don’t want busy icons to take any attention away from the actual work being done in Analyze.”

Responding to a request from users, we have also made it possible in this release to select different modes: light or dark. This feature, combined with the more straightforward look of the platform, are examples of new UX design attributes that can help reduce eye strain and make navigating the platform less overwhelming for the brain.

“Fonts, background colors and spaces have been updated to make it easier to focus on the right thing at the right time” says Niklas. “Many small changes like these might not be detected by the users, but they can make a big impact on their overall experience of the platform.”

Although the platform has gotten a major facelift, it is far from finished as it will always be a work in progress. Looking into the future, we will continue working closely with our end users to further improve the workflows on the Griffeye Analyze platform and better guide them while they’re using the products, helping them focus on the right things.