Inventory Management for Law Enforcement Agencies

In law enforcement, an armorer is the person in charge of managing all of the Axon equipment at a police agency: the body worn cameras, TASER CEW’s, batteries, cartridges, and more.

With the looming launch of the next generation TASER weapon, the TASER 7, my team was tasked with creating a completely new system for armorers to keep track of all of their Axon equipment.

Project Overview

Problems:

• Search UI/UX inconsistencies

• Impossible to select multiple devices to make updates

• Navigation & site architecture can’t accommodate future changes

Process

Sketch, sketch, sketch…

Whiteboard, whiteboard, whiteboard…

Explorations

Research

• Survey — sent out monthly to ~1,000 officers

• Group interviews — PM & design trip to a Master Instructor’s School in Orlando, FL

• Group discussions — led by PM & design at Axon Accelerate 2018, a 2-day training event in Scottsdale, AZ for ~300 law enforcement leaders

The Customer’s Perspective: Understanding the Device Lifecycle

Working closely with my PM, I created a simple diagram of the lifecycle of an Axon device, from the moment it is purchased by an agency to the moment it is decommissioned. Customers were shown this diagram at the Master Instructor’s School in Florida, and at the 2018 Axon Accelerate event in Scottsdale, AZ.

Nailing down the lifecycle of the devices alongside our customers allowed us to define the exact language for the status updates that were crucial to tracking an agency’s device inventory.

For example, the concepts of “Relinquished” and “Scrapped” were unfamiliar to the team until we got to work closely with our customers.

Develop User Experience Insights

• Users will embrace additional UI if it affords them additional control over their experience

• Device managers across most agencies dread the RMA workflow (Return Merchandise Authorization)

• Users are resourceful; developed their own systems where our products fell short

Establish Project Priorities

• Design only key workflows for launch: update device status in bulk; RMA

• Seize opportunity to correct UX debt: search UI, device profile UI, CEW logs

• Introduce new UX patterns: Hub-and-spoke model for navigation

Solution

This new model for the site navigation allowed us to accommodate the rapidly growing ecosystem of Axon devices. With errors and high-level inventory figures as the landing page for the CEWs section, armorers would be able to pull unsafe equipment from the field, and anticipate repairs and new orders. The Inventory Management project was also the first opportunity for the design team to implement this navigation model without encountering tech debt.