Firewise USA®
Moving from a manual paper process to a dynamic web app
In 2016, the Firewise USA® program for wildfire prevention decided that conducting their application process entirely on paper was outdated and cumbersome. My team at Elevated Third designed and built the new web app experience. Since launch, there has been an increase in program participation, meaning that more communities are engaged in wildfire prevention activities across the United States, the program's primary goal.
My role:
Lead and solo designer — discovery, user research, user stories, information architecture, design
Collaborated with Development Director to manage and maintain functional requirements
Coordinated QA activities
⏱️
Decrease in customer support calls & time spent managing data
+12%
increase in new community sites in good standing with the program
+34%
increase in renewal applications from existing communities
Smart community creation
Community members must register their community site via an application process before becoming Firewise certified. Previously a high-touch process, I simplified this into four steps that can be completed entirely online. Key data is captured at each step: community location, the number of dwellings and residents to calculate the level of investment required, and contact info for the community managers (notoriously difficult to track and communicate with as they are often 65+ with low digital tech skills living in rural areas).
Location mapping
Location data is important for many aspects of the program. Admins track locations nationwide, Liaisons need to know what communities are certified in their state, and members can connect with other communities in their region to coordinate their fire prevention efforts. I designed the tool to search by location, display nearby sites, request to join an existing site, or create a new one.
Easy community management
I designed a dashboard that serves as an easy access point to allow users to manage all things Firewise. Users can quickly view the program standing, application status, and investment data for each community that they are associated with. The detailed view of the community displays weather and fire danger levels to help increase awareness of fire conditions and has dedicated space for documentation and contact details.
Manage sites at scale
From a single site reference for members to 12+ for state liaisons, the user dashboard adapts to handle it all. For users managing a high volume of community sites, the display changes to a condensed view to fit more onto the screen at one time.
Easy status monitoring
Users can quickly monitor the status of their community and application and track total community investment right from the dashboard. At high volume, the status tags are easy to scan and help users understand any appropriate next actions.
Get certified online
The original program application process was done via paper. As the program grew, the paper applications became unsustainable for the small Firewise team to manage. Firewise staff had to manually digitize application data, making the status of communities and their data difficult to track and maintain at a large scale.
I mapped out and streamlined the existing process for each user role. Members can now enter and save data over time, while state users and admins have real time insight into app data and a digitized approval process with automated emails.
Thanks for making it this far.
Want to check out some more of my stuff? Dig into how I reinforced customer-first values with the Union Bank & Trust site redesign 🏦 See how I built a learning delivery platform for the Human Capital Institute 🧠 Check out my exploration of machine learning through Predictive UX 🤖 or, learn more about me 👱🏻♀️🐈