THE DNA OF MOTOROLA DESIGN

For decades, Motorola has embraced the two paramount principles of design and usability as a defining approach to bring to market more effective products and solutions for first responders. For all emergency first responders - firefighters, law enforcement officers, emergency medical technicians - communication is their lifeline. The technology and processes they use keep them safe, enable better decisions and ensure better outcomes under extreme conditions.

Motorola has a rich heritage of working closely with police, fire and other public safety departments to design and deliver effective mission-critical communications solutions. Over the years, the company has developed and executed an integrated, multi-disciplinary design process. The result? Purpose-built technology that is both reliable and easy to use even under the most stressful conditions.



THE ART AND SCIENCE OF EMERGENCY RESPONSE

A Motorola customer described the role of a first responder in this way: "hours of boredom punctuated by moments of terror."

To help the front-line professionals who put their lives on the line every day, Motorola has pioneered a new field of study that focuses on human performance in periods of extreme stress, volatility and uncertainty. It's called High Velocity Human Factors (HVHF).

HVHF examines human behavior, cognition and performance under circumstances such as extreme danger, time pressure and the emotional excitement frequently encountered by a first responder in the line of duty. HVHF research has revealed that under high stress, humans process information very differently than when they are under little or no stress. For example, first responders often exhibit "attentional tunneling," in which they tune in to an emotionally significant, high-stakes situation while tuning out most everything else.

They also often experience "auditory exclusion," in which the world around them goes virtually silent. In dangerous situations that may threaten life and limb, first responders often experience surges in heart rate and hormonal levels. That can result in "regressive behavior," in which rational and reflective behavior takes a back seat to impulsive actions and reactions.

Motorola's goal in using HVHF is to drive the design of innovative technology that accounts for human limitations when under extreme stress. Technology that is so intuitive, so smart, it becomes second nature to operate as a result of its simplicity - even under the most stressful and demanding circumstances. Motorola's human factors experts understand the subtleties of the cognitive load placed on a user under stress, and we are developing guidelines and designs to ease the complexity of the product designs. Motorola understands that simplicity is the key to ease of use.

DESIGN AS GUIDING PRINCIPLE
Motorola's distinguishing factor is that it design as a key differentiator. First responders need to concentrate on the situation at hand, not on the technology. Its highly skilled designers create intuitive user interfaces, optimizing crucial functionality such as volume, push-to-talk and channel controls. Motorola applies concepts from a variety of disciplines - ergonomics, cognitive and clinical psychology, anthropology, experimental design and analysis and more - to ensure that the mission critical solutions produced keep first responders safe as they work to protect their communities.

Motorola's designers consult with police, fire, homeland security and other public safety officers on a regular basis. But hearing about a situation second-hand is never as good as experiencing it. That's why Motorola places much emphasis that its designers and human factors specialists regularly put themselves on the frontline with its customers. More than anyone, Motorola understands that it's in the stress and heat of the moment that it can best learn how to improve our technology.

Motorola has integrated human response factors into the design of its public safety communications equipment for more than 25 years. Some valuable lessons learnt include: Emergency buttons located at the base of the antenna can allow immediate access under duress; control knobs differentiated for tactile feel can provide access without looking down at the radio; and form factors that feel right to the first responders are the result of extensive involvement and dialogue with end users.

Motorola also ensures that the buttons controlling the most critical functions are highly accessible for public safety users. “Volume, push-to-talk and channel controls are the three most important features of a radio. In a Motorola radio, those three controls will never be demoted to a user tree,” says Mark Palmer, design integration manager of Human Factors Design Research and User Interface Design at Motorola. “That means that under high stress situations, individuals don’t even have to think about how to access them. In essence, we give people information in a way in which they can process it.”



THE INS AND OUTS OF THE DESIGN PRROCESS

The Motorola teams include generative research experts who possess the skills to dig deeper under the surface, employing a variety of clinical psychology techniques - such as collaging and cognitive modeling. These insights helps the company understand its end users' underlying motivations, perceptions and emotions and lead not only to better equipment design and performance, but also to a new generation of product concepts.

That's where Motorola's human factors experts step in. They conduct usability testing throughout the product development cycle to ensure that its products are easy to use. They work hand in hand with first responders to evaluate the interface and optimize the ergonomics prior to release of the product.

To create innovative product designs that facilitate 'second nature' operation, Motorola's Design Integration teams perform usability testing at every stage of the design process. In its testing labs, first responders help Motorola staff evaluate interface ease-of-use beginning at the earliest alpha and beta prototype stages. They also conduct strenuous physical testing of all products, including drop tests, vibration tests, static electricity tests and more, to ensure they withstand and perform in challenging field conditions.

Design Integration (DI) is a group of industrial designers and psychologists supporting Motorola’s Government & Public Safety business in creating two-way radio communications technologies and devices that are intuitive and easy to use for mission-critical environments.

The DI team focuses on the three core areas of design research, industrial design and human factors. Motorola's user-centered design process delivers purpose-built technology solutions that integrate the rigors of social science with the art of design. The multi-disciplinary and cross-cultural team takes design a step further by integrating ergonomics, cognitive and clinical psychology, as well as physical and cultural anthropology. The DI team has design centers and studios located in Penang (Malaysia), Plantation (Florida, US) and Singapore.



Mission-critical technology must excel not just in a controlled laboratory environment, but also in the field. often under unpredictable conditions. Laboratory testing is augmented by extensive evaluative field research, enabling both Motorola's world-class designers and human factor experts to observe the use of its technology under real-world conditions. These field tests help ensure that the company's mission-critical equipment adapts to the way first-responders work, not the reverse. And that it helps makes first responders safer, more productive and able to maximize community service and protection.

The ideal process for designing mission-critical products must include social sciences, cognitive psychology and anthropology, as purpose-built solutions for public-safety end users demand a thorough understanding of behaviors and needs. It is not enough to interview a handful of users to ask what they want, or map product design around industry trends. The essence of good design is usability, which requires the study of users' behavior to accurately assess product performance.

Design teams can get this deeper understanding only by observing day-to-day behavior. This is accomplished most effectively by logging hundreds of hours riding alongside emergency responders to see first-hand how they use technology, and even participating in first-responder training exercises. Experiencing the extremes of firefighters' jobs has brought new insights to product design.

Ongoing dialogue with end users reveals a need for more functionality coupled with new and advanced capabilities, such as the delivery of video and data. This was further affirmed by the joint Motorola/APCO survey conducted in 2008, when public-safety users expressed a strong demand for technologies that streamline incident response times — such as GPS and smart traffic routing systems — or deliver incident-related video to mobile units.

Design for use extends beyond public safety to other vertical sectors such as transportation and oil and gas. For airport and train operations, efficient and failsafe communications are crucial to ensuring passenger safety and security. Reliable seamless connectivity on the ground is essential to enable effective disaster response plans during drills as well as in the event of unexpected natural disasters. Good and intuitive design is important to enable competent control, fast response and instant real-time access to critical information.

In the oil and gas sector, there is a need to carefully manage and monitor operations to prevent hazards such as oil spills and fires. It is of critical importance that devices used in the petrochemical environment can withstand extreme temperature, dust, noise, rain and toxic exposure. In potentially hazardous environments with explosive oil and dust clouds, users need intrinsically-safe devices that come with uncompromising mix of safety features, smart ergonomics and fail-safe robust operations. The DI team therefore aims to address these requirements by creating the ultimate user experience for the product.

Why is it essential for designers to make this effort? To gain the insights that will make products safer and easier to use during emergencies without losing critical features. Every minute counts when saving lives, and that fact must be paramount to our industry's design criteria.

Public-safety solutions must be built for the rigors of the job. Mission-critical design elements must be coupled with an engineering approach that delivers true interoperability and scalability. As even more advanced capabilities emerge from the lab, vendors must continue to provide platforms that allow for expansion without additional investment in equipment.

In addition to mission-critical solutions, the DI team has also created award-winning walkie-talkies – the practical yet stylish TLKR series. The team has taken its iconic design principles and introduced them into this market, providing license-free walkie talkies for consumers who lead active and adventurous lifestyles.

Motorola’s work in this area has resulted in one other key benefit for its customers: a reduction in user training costs. For instance, when Motorola set out to design Mission Critical radios for the European market, Motorola talked with a key customer to identify what the biggest potential obstacle was regarding the migration to the radios. Immediately, the customer responded: “Training.” With most new communications systems, this customer had to dedicate as many as two days to train his force on new equipment. With 35,000 on the force, that meant as many as 70,000 days of lost productivity. In contrast, the Mission Critical radios designed by Motorola tested very high on the usability scale, reducing the need for extensive training.


Click on the thumbnails to view the design tools and process in detail.

THE ACCOLADES AND ACCLAIM

Outstanding design is its own reward, but Motorola has added to its stellar product lineage a long list of prestigious design achievements. In the past 10 years, some of the awards Motorola has garnered include the 2008 Red Dot Award and IDEA "Bronze" award for the TLKR Radio; the 2007 "IDEA" Bronze award for the TLKR HC 1200 Ring Scanner; the 2007 CES Best of Innovations Showcase Honoree for the SD7505 Bluetooth Mobile Phone Link; the 2006 CES Best of Innovations Showcase Honoree for the SD4551 Digital Voip Phone System; the 2005 CES Best of Innovations Showcase Honoree for the SD4500 Cordless Phone Family, MD700 Cordless Phone Family and MD4100 Cordless Phone Family; the 2004 IF Award (International Design Award Forum) for the MTH 650/800 TETRA radio; the 2003 Industrial Design Excellence Award “Bronze” award for the Talkabout T4300 & “Design of the Decade IDEA” award; the 2002 Consumer Electronics Show (CES) Innovation Awards (Talkabout Radio model T4300, T5400, T5800 & T7200); the 2000 Business Week/Industrial Design Society of America “Gold” award for “Design of the Decade” for the SLK Talkabout Radio; the 2000 Selected products (i1000 & Talkabout SLK), which were accepted November of 2000 into the permanent collection of the Smithsonian as a result of the Design Triennial National Design Exhibit at the Cooper Hewitt; the 1999 Mobile Computing Magazine – Cell Phone of the Year Award, and the 1999 Business Week/Industrial Designers Society of America “Gold” award for the i1000 Communicator; and the 1998 Business Week/International Industrial Design Excellence Awards (IDEA) – Best in Class “Gold” Award in Consumer Product category for the Talkabout Radio.

THE ULTIMATE END GOAL

For public safety officials, increased research in the area not only means they will be able to do their jobs more effectively; it will also by extension, save more lives.

After all, in the world of the consumer, poor usability simply creates frustration. But in the public safety world, bad design is hazardous and can often be deadly. The goal of the Design team at Motorola is to eliminate this hazard for good.

Ultimately, the goal must be this: leverage innovative design to provide simple solutions to end users and deliver greater efficiencies, while solving the contradiction between size, weight and function without compromise. End users must benefit from purpose-built technologies that are intuitive in their operation — allowing first responders to focus on their mission, not the technology in hand.


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