3W Studios

Key Facts

• Project Branding
• Vision Creation
• Ongoing consulting for UI design and specifications

Florida Department of Law Enforcement
User-interface expertise

The Florida Department of Law Enforcement was tasked by the legislature with implementing a series of technical solutions to their criminal information systems. These solutions came together in a project now known as FALCON ICHS.

Our engagement with FDLE began with a fast-paced branding exercise prior to the unveiling of the concept at the annual criminal justice conference. In conjunction with Kidd Group, 3W Studios assisted in the creation of the project name and logo, collateral material, a conference display and an introductory video. As part of this branding work, we created a public website that showcased the FALCON concept.

As so often happens with complex projects, the focus had been on technology and hardware. Little attention was given to how the end user would interact with this system. 3W Studios was called upon to articulate a vision of the goal state of the system from an end user's perspective. This vision proved so successful that it serves as the basis for the current user-interface design.

Subsequently, 3W Studios provided staff augmentation to the FALCON Project Management Office. This work began in October of 2005, and involved designing user interface screens based on functional specifications and use-case diagrams, as well as consultation with SMEs (subject matter experts). This effort culminated in the completion of the Build 2A functional specifications. This series of documents was the basis for the bidding process and served as the roadmap for the construction of the systems. The winning vendor, Unisys, then built the necessary database and programming elements to support the interface design and the detailed set of functional requirements.

The successful launch of the system in May 2009 concluded an effort that spanned 5 years. Additional work done during that time includes a visual overhaul of the Criminal History request system, and an in-house bug tracking system used during the development of the functional specifications.