Matthew Holloway

A UX / UI assessment of the emergency response tool WISER

What is WISER?

WISER stands for the Wireless Information System for Emergency Responders. It is a system designed to assist emergency responders in hazardous material incidents. It provides a wide range of information on hazardous substances, including substance identification support, physical characteristics, human health information, and containment and suppression advice.

Why?

Part of the mission of NLM (National Library of Medicine) is to ensure that information makes its way into the hands of people who need it. NLM maintains toxicology and environmental health resources. In reviewing potential users that could use this information but may not have been using it to its fullest extent, emergency responders to chemical, radiological, and biological incidents were identified. While websites such as PubChem are excellent resources, they are not accessible on the scene. The solution was to provide decision support for these users that would fit in on a handheld device or portable computer.

Goal

The goal of this assessment is provide the WISER stakeholders a plan of how the application can be improved for the user. The current design lacks the modern capabilities available in current tech devices. Through user interviews and feedback from stakeholders, WISER was redesigned from the inside out with an all new information architecture and user interface. New features were introduced to improve the user experience such as the Voice ID analysis tool that pulls keywords from the database to parse together knowledge elements to provide relevant, specific information for use in the field without the need to manually search.

Current Version