Tracking Progress & Enhancing Training with VR.
Web app
0> 1
Law Enforcement
8 mins read
Overview
Law enforcement agencies are increasingly adopting VR training to prepare officers for real-world scenarios. However, existing tools fail to provide real-time performance monitoring, detailed analytics, and actionable feedback. This makes it challenging for instructors to effectively evaluate and enhance training outcomes.
Services
UX Researcher & UX Designer
Client name
Gravity Drive
Team
ife, Sriya, Jayati, Padma, Esen, Sridivya
Defining the problem
Virtual reality is transforming how law enforcement officers train for real-world scenarios. But as we learned through research and interviews, these systems often fall short where it matters most: helping trainers and trainees measure and improve performance.
Current VR training systems for law enforcement lack effective tools for performance evaluation, leaving trainers with limited insights and trainees without actionable feedback
Trainer
Limited tools to track key performance metrics of trainees apart from heart rate and stress.
Workflows
Setting up sessions, monitoring progress, and compiling reports was a time-consuming, fragmented process.
Trainee
Left sessions without actionable feedback, unsure of how to improve their performance.
The Solution
A training day in life of a trainer
Meet Tyler, a law enforcement trainer.
Tyler spends their days helping officers sharpen their skills through VR training. They run realistic scenarios, track each officer’s performance, and provide feedback to ensure everyone is prepared for high-pressure situations in the field. Tyler often felt stuck with limited data and vague insights. It is hard to give officers the feedback they need. That’s where Gravity Drive comes in.
The GravityDrive Dashboard introduced a built-in calendar with drag-and-drop functionality, real-time updates, and streamlined navigation. Now, John can effortlessly plan sessions, track progress, and focus on training his team effectively.
The GravityDrive After-Action Report module redefined feedback mechanisms with customizable templates, detailed trainee insights, and scenario-based effectiveness metrics. John can now tailor reports, view performance trends visually, and provide actionable feedback effortlessly, ensuring every session's data is maximized for growth.
GravityDrive's Performance Metrics screen transformed how Tyler tracks and analyzes trainee progress. With real-time updates, behavioral metrics, physiological data, and comparison benchmarks, Tyler now gains deeper insights into trainee strengths and improvement areas. This allows for more personalized feedback, ensuring every trainee reaches their potential.
Design Approach
We started by learning about the gaps in VR training systems and listening to trainers’ needs. Through research, prototyping, and feedback, we shaped a solution that makes training smoother and performance tracking clearer.
Discover
We explored VR training systems, uncovered gaps, and identified trainer and trainee needs to build a user-focused foundation.
Define
We synthesized research, mapped user needs, identified opportunities, and prioritized features to clarify our design focus.
Design
We prototyped solutions, validated them with trainers, and refined designs iteratively to deliver intuitive tools and actionable insights.
Deliver
We refined designs iteratively and documented user flows, interactions, and visuals for an intuitive, actionable solution
DISCOVER
How Did We Uncover What Trainers Really Needed?
To understand the gaps in existing VR training systems, we began with an immersive research process that combined stakeholder discussions, competitive analysis, and a deep dive into academic literature. Each method added valuable insights, shaping the direction of our project.
Stakeholder discussions
Our journey began with a four-hour brainstorming session with the stakeholder. They shared their vision: a system to empower trainers with tools for tracking performance, simplifying workflows, and delivering actionable feedback. While the session was inspiring, it left us with an overwhelming number of ideas but no clear focus.
Competitor Analysis
We began with a competitive analysis to ground our design in the current realities of VR training systems. By understanding the tools trainers already rely on, we could pinpoint what works, what doesn’t, and where there’s room to innovate. This wasn’t just about benchmarking competitors, but it was about identifying gaps that GravityDrive could fill, ensuring our solution addressed real-world challenges faced by trainers every day.
VirTra and Apex Officer excel at creating realistic scenarios but fail to simplify workflows for trainers
Performance metrics are generic and lack actionable insights.
Only a few platforms enable trainers to customize scenarios for specific or local training contexts.
Literature Review
To design a solution that truly supports law enforcement training, we conducted a comprehensive review of 12 research papers and 6 articles. This research uncovered key gaps and opportunities in the field. Here are the key findings:
User Interviews
We conducted five structured interviews with experienced VR trainers and officers to gain valuable insights into their workflows, challenges, and expectations for VR training systems.
The Reachout Challenge
After weeks of follow-ups and emails, we finally obtained the insights we needed to get law enforcement officers onboard, which felt like solving a case of its own.
What we found
DEFINE
How Did We Define the Core Challenges?
Data Synthesis
We used affinity mapping to organize findings from research, interviews, and competitive analysis and identified recurring themes, opportunities, and challenges that shaped our design direction.
Feature Prioritization
We initially planned three dashboards for trainers, trainees, and administrators but prioritized the trainer dashboard for our MVP. We ensured maximum impact by focusing on key features like real-time feedback, scenario customization, and performance tracking.
PROBLEM STATEMENT
DESIGN
The Question Challenge
With a mountain of unanswered questions, such as “What metrics matter most?” and “What data from sensors can be analyzed?”, I realized our design needed a solid foundation. Research became my compass, guiding me through articles, videos, and the mapping of insights. This process transformed uncertainty into clarity, providing a solid base for our design.
User flow
We designed a user flow tailored to meet the unique needs of trainers, focusing on simplifying workflows, real-time performance tracking, and post-session feedback.
Wireframing and Prototyping
Designing for trainers meant understanding their unique challenges and creating solutions that made their workflows smoother and more effective. Through concept validation and iterative feedback from stakeholders, we refined key features to ensure usability and functionality.
Simplified Scenario Navigation and Selection for Trainers
Setting
A trainer preparing for a de-escalation session navigates an unstructured library without filters or previews, randomly selecting a scenario that mismatches their trainees' needs mid-session.
Feedback
Stakeholders pointed out that trainers need to quickly find and preview scenarios, giving them more context about the Scenario.
What we did
We reorganized the library by adding categories, filters, and quick previews. These changes made it easier for trainers to find the right scenarios, making the process faster and more efficient.
Streamlined Performance Tracking and Insights for Trainers
Setting
A trainer reviewing a trainee’s profile is faced with static data and unclear metrics, making it difficult to track progress or pinpoint skill gaps effectively.
Feedback
Stakeholders emphasized the need for visual trends and actionable insights to make performance data easier to interpret and use.
What we did
We redesigned the trainee profile screen, introducing performance trends, and actionable insights. These additions make it easier for trainers to evaluate progress and effectively guide improvements.
Redesigned Reports for Clearer Insights and Customization
Setting
A trainer generating an after-action report struggles without highlighting key insights or allowing customization, making it hard to present actionable feedback to trainees effectively.
Feedback
Stakeholders stressed the importance of customizable reports with clear visuals and summaries, enabling trainers to focus on the most relevant data for meaningful debriefs.
What we did
We redesigned the After-Action Report screen to include easy-to-read visual data, and a PDF export feature, ensuring trainers could effortlessly create and share meaningful reports during sessions
DELIVER
Given the niche nature of this concept, we began with concept evaluations to validate our approach and gather early feedback. Once the foundational ideas were refined, we conducted usability testing sessions to assess how well the prototype met the trainers’ needs and identify areas for further improvement.
MY TAKEAWAYS
Research and Ready!
When we began, the endless questions felt overwhelming. However, I discovered that research is never truly complete. It’s about knowing when to pause, make decisions, and move forward while staying aligned with the project’s goals.
0 -> 1!
Building a product from scratch wasn’t just about solving problems. It was about finding clarity in chaos. I learned to break down big challenges into smaller, actionable steps and turn ideas into something real and impactful
Collaboration Click!
This project also taught me the power of collaboration. Whether it was brainstorming with the team or aligning with stakeholders, every conversation added value and helped shape the final product into something that worked for everyone.
ツWe won "Best in Show" award at the graduate capstone event!🏆
Selected work
[2022 -2025]
