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Making forensic search discoverable
Role
User Experience Designer
Team
2 Designers (ME), 2 Researchers, 1 PM
Timeline
Nov 24 - May 25
Contribution
Worked across the process, but a defining moment was helping the team bring focus by prioritizing one issue at a time to avoid chaos.
Product Strategy, UX Audit, Competitor Analysis, Stakeholder/User Interviews, Ideation, Designing Interface Components, Prototyping, Testing
TL;DR
Exacq is an enterprise video management security system for reviewing surveillance footage.
Problem
Churn was rising, and competitors were ahead. The forensic search, the core feature, was underused because its entry point was not discoverable.
Solution
Twofold approach: start small with targeted UX fixes, then evolve the product toward a simpler, more competitive experience, meeting both user expectations and business goals.
Impact
90% Stakeholder Satisfaction Score
Presented the work to the Johnson Controls Executive Team, prompting an immediate push for product updates by Q4 2025.
MENU
UX Audit
Competitive Analysis
Design Exploration
Design Solution
Concept Test
Business Acceptance Test
Stakeholder & User Interviews
CONTEXT
Exacq is a Video Management System (VMS) designed to manage and monitor surveillance cameras.
Design & Business Goal
To reduce churn and stay competitive, the goal is to increase the adoption of Exacq’s existing forensic search feature, without risking disruption for loyal users familiar with the current system.
Design Problem
Users struggle to locate specific instances in recorded footage because the core component of the forensic search, the filter panel, is not discoverable easily.
Forensic Search is the process of reviewing recorded footage to find specific events or objects using advanced filters and search tools.
Imagine you are presented with this interface and asked to find a person wearing a red shirt in the last two hours.
Exacq's old interface
Well, you will figure it out eventually but probably at the cost of losing your precious time mixed with frustrations because you will either scrub through that 2 hours of footage OR try everything on the interface.
Probably unaware of the reality there exist a smart way to do this, on this SAME INTERFACE!
ENTERPRISE CUSTOMERS & USERS
Segmenting users to narrow down the focus
Exacq serves customers across various industries, including Education, Retail, Critical Infrastructure, and many other industries each with unique requirements.
Segmented users to refine design focus:
1. Top industries where most of the users come from.
2. Prioritizing the universal needs of performing forensic search.
End Users
End users could be anyone aged 18+ whether they have prior or no prior experience using Video Management Systems.
RESEARCH
Identified key usability blockers through UX audit, stakeholder/user interviews, and competitor analysis, leading to targeted changes that improve feature discoverability.
These methods helped me understand the usability issues on the interface, competitor's offering, users' pain points, and their mental models.
UX Audit Takeaways
Numerous obstacles prevent the users from achieving their goals.
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Cluttered & disorganized interface
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Unintuitive
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Hard to identify disabled buttons
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Low visibility of key components
Competitor Analysis Takeaways
15+ competitor analysis revealed the need for upgrading the product offering
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Less learning curve
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Simple interface
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Use of AI for assisting users
Stakeholder/User Interviews Takeaways
Users just use manual scrubbing as they are familiar with it.
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Interface doesn't support new users
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Troublesome to explore other features
AHA!
Most users had no idea a tiny checkbox labeled “Show Filters” existed, and that it was the entry point to forensic search.
The feature is technically visible, but it’s not discoverable because of visual hierarchy issues, unclear affordance, vague labeling, and a lack of contextual reinforcement. Plus, users are anchored to an old behavior, manually scrubbing, so they have no reason to seek out or trust an unfamiliar option.
Problem Statement
As a user, I need to find a person wearing a red shirt in recorded footage but I struggle because I have to scrub through a 2 hours long video.
Beyond fixing usability issues,
the design had to modernize the experience carefully, maintaining familiarity for long-time users while making the product more competitive.
Solution
Prioritized high-impact, low-risk updates to the current UI, using each rollout as a stepping stone toward the product’s long-term vision.
Co-led this strategy with PM and engineers. If users adapt well, we scale. If not, we still improve usability without overinvesting. It’s a strategic, low-risk path forward.
Short-term solution
Quick usability fixes
✅
Enhanced discoverability
✅
Low dev lift
✅
Long-term solution
Guided experience
✅
Scalable & simplified flows
✅
Gradual rollout
✅
DESIGNING FOR THE SHORT-TERM: FIX EXISTING ISSUES WITHIN THE WORKFLOW
Solution 1: Short-term
Refine the existing workflow's user experience through problem-specific design solutions.
Issue
Looking back to the problem: The "Show Filters" checkbox is not at all discoverable, making the users completely unaware of it.
The filters box is not discoverable due to poor visibility.
For a quick yet impactful update, a solution really stood out!
To eliminate a user's struggle,
How might we make the filter panel visible to users, requiring no extra effort from them?
Filters can help a user narrow down their search and can only be used when a camera has analytics capabilities.
Solution
Automatically expanding the filter panel when a user selects cameras with analytics capabilities.
Improves discoverability by surfacing relevant options contextually, guiding users without overwhelming them or disrupting their flow, and making it easier for them to break out of inefficient habits like manual scrubbing, without forcing a new behavior.
Automatic expansion of filter panel.
Refining the filter panel further
Poor visual hierarchy & visual cues with low visibility
Enabled buttons look disabled
No prioritization of buttons as per the usage
Repositioning the reset action
Repositioning the delete action
Improved visual hierarchy
Prioritizing buttons based on the frequency of use
Why couldn’t the filters be made dynamic without requiring users to click the 'Apply Filters' button?
A dynamic, real-time filtering approach is ideal for usability, but engineering constraints and constant processing lead to system instability.
Solution 2: Long-term
The product's future vision includes a guided user flow to help users achieve their goals.
To support the product's vision of a simplified interface, designing a guided user flow is essential, especially to assist new users.
Reducing cognitive load, enhancing discoverability, and improving usability for both new and experienced users. It ensures quicker adoption, reduces the learning curve, and aligns with business goals for long-term scalability.
Explored 5+ workflows to identify the optimal solution that delivers the simplest and most intuitive experience for users.
During the early stages, I explored structure and interaction through rough sketches and low-fidelity wireframes, not just to lay out components, but to challenge the decisions behind them.
Solution
A guided flow that dynamically expands as the user progresses, with all search inputs aligned to the left, ensuring a clean and intuitive experience.
This solution was optimal because it aligns with the natural psychology of users: they first start by identifying what they want to search for, the object, which is their primary focus. Then, they refine their search by selecting the time range and, if needed, the cameras. This logical progression mirrors how users typically approach searches, making the process intuitive, efficient, and reducing cognitive load for a smoother experience.
1: Initial screen prompting the user to select the object first
Starting with the object of interest
2: Entering the prompt in the search bar
Users can directly enter the search prompt in the search bar and adjust the filters based on preferences.
Example: search for a person wearing red shirt
3: Entering the search range
Example: in the last 2 hours.
4: Automatic Camera Selection
Based on the object and time range, cameras can be selected automatically and users can choose to modify the camera selection.
5: Displaying the search results
Here's the search result of finding a person wearing red shirt in the last 2 hours.
Without having to scrub through the footage manually!
TESTING
Concept & Business Acceptance Testing
90% Stakeholder Satisfaction Score
Conducted concept testing with stakeholders due to constraints in testing directly with end users, as the business aimed to manage expectations around unreleased features limited by technical feasibility.
a moment captured from the executive meeting ✌️
With the Solution 1 updates scheduled for release by FY25-Q4, the following success metrics will be used to evaluate impact:
Success means users develop the habit of using the filter panel to efficiently find specific instances in recorded footage, instead of manually scrubbing through hours of video.
Success will be measured using the following metrics:
Feature adoption over time
Engagement with the filter panel
Time on task
(reduction in manual scrubbing)
Task completion rate (finding the right instance)
Learnings & Takeaways
The system was deeply intertwined, and even small changes risked frustrating users. But familiarity with the system doesn’t mean the users weren't struggling.
Navigating the intersection of user, business, and engineering needs challenged me to think holistically, ensuring every solution met diverse demands seamlessly.
While we strive for innovation, supporting older interfaces is essential for user retention.
My work doesn't end here, check out more
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