UX & UI ﹡
Empowering digital safety with an interactive translation hub
Scribe
Client
Child Rescue Coalition (CRC) is a non-profit organization with the mission to rescuing children against sexual exploitation. With the help of technology, they help identifying, apprehending, and prosecuting individuals involved in child sexual exploitation.
By empowering law enforcement with these tools, CRC has contributed substantially to the ongoing efforts to safeguard children and bring offenders to justice on a global scale.
Timeline
July 2022 (2 weeks)
✦ OVERVIEW
Problem
CRC and law enforcement agencies can’t translate suspicious text messages on-demand; thus, they can’t identify suspects for prosecution.
Outcome
Interactive translation hub that is easily implementable in existing toolsets used by law enforcement agencies powered by machine learning technology.
The solution became a top 5 finalist among 30+ participating teams.
✦ MY ROLE
UX & UI Designer
This project consisted on creating a tool that would aid law enforcement agencies in translating suspicious activity in text messages received in their database retrieved from group chats, web forums, web pages, etc.
Since CRC works with agencies across the globe, not many agents are able to identify high-risk activity that happens in other countries outside of their own. Language barrier becomes a difficult obstacle to prosecute predators online.
We wanted to design a tool that was easy to implement in their current platforms and without a high learning curve that could interfere with their daily workflows. Because the amount of information received per second is quite substantial, we pondered the best solution to tackle the high demand for translating messages on demand. Machine learning technology is the most robust solution, yet not the most easily implementable one.
This collaborative project was made for a TechSprint hosted by CRC and GeoComply. The team comprised two designers, one front-end developer, and one back-end developer. My role was focused on the UX and UI, user testing, and QA.
✦ UNDERSTANDING THE PROBLEM
What do we need to accomplish?
Tackling this challenge through machine learning technology came with many limitations. One of them was being able to figure out how to deliver a functional prototype within the span of two weeks.
✦ THE SOLUTION
How did we solve the issue?
Working day and night on this project made us realize that although it would take more time to present a solution to CRC, we wanted to make sure that all of our findings could provide a solution to our user needs. Although it wasn’t the speediest solution, it was the best one when it came to providing fast, innovative, and well-rounded translating capabilities for different languages across the world.
My design approach
My approach consisted of understanding the current pains for CRC and law enforcement agents during the translation process. Since time proved to be a key pain point, I needed to make sure that the design was compliant with the light speed at which the messages needed to be translated.
The focus was creating a dashboard that could provide all the necessary tools for users to access translation on-demand. After hours of brainstorming and iterating, I decided the dashboard needed to prioritize interactivity and innovation through technology. Some of the most essential features are the following:
Easy findability for important information such as date, recipient, original language detected, translation, and level of risk.
Level of risk: Using machine learning technology allowed for much innovation. By identifying the original language of the message, we created lists of potential risk words that could imply any hidden meaning or risk behavior. These words are automatically highlighted during the translation process. The more risky words in a message, the higher the level of risk.
Heat map: It provides a visual geographical representation of what languages are used the most by suspects and flags high-risk countries with suspicious activity, thus simplifying the prosecution process of predators.
Easy shareability among colleagues: If an agent in the USA identifies a potential predator in a different country, how can prosecution happen? By adding a feature that allows the agent to share the information with another agent in a different country, the risk of letting a predator escape prosecution significantly diminishes.
Takeaways ➶
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Working for CRC and law enforcement agents meant designing blindfolded. Given the sensitivity of the information we had to work with, many things were censored for us. This meant that we had to work around many limitations when it came to understanding our user needs.
While we wanted to provide a fully functional prototype, we also wanted something visually captivating. Given the time to work on this project, UX was our main focus throughout the process. Although UI was not our main focus, we still delivered a product that aligns with our quality standards as industry professionals. -
For law enforcement agents, going through a vast amount of information daily can be excruciatingly tiring. Our product focused on maintaining a simple design and approach that would be intuitive while adding interactivity to users' workflows.