TableTop Commander (TTC)
The Challenge:
A major pain point to present day military wargaming efforts is the ability for various geographically scattered military personnel to assemble, conduct Command & Control (C2), and plan mission logistics seamlessly and discretely by eliminating the physical constraints of travel time, energy, and costs.
The Solution:
TableTop Commander is a virtual and mixed reality (VR/XR) digital solution designed to give military leadership and soldiers the ability to wargame in a virtual space by utilizing 5G as a backbone for international command and control.
Where I Came In:
The virtual environment was in a very low-fidelity state, still riddled with bugs at the point of my onboarding. The features that had been built had not been assigned logic, nor granted any meaningful design theory.
A diagram depicting the utilization of 5G towers in support of various military technologies, allowing for a more interconnected C2 ecosystem.
The Design Strategy
As the Lead UXer on this project, my main products were the various User Flows and Wireframes for the application structure and experience. Much of the Discovery phase had been accomplished before I was onboarded (personas, use case identification, etc.), so my main focus was defining and producing the interaction design and strategy.
Key features I designed were the Megatron interactions & user flows, Course of Action (COA) Planning tools, and virtual room design. This required a background in information architecture, ergonomics research and implementation, usability in VR/XR, iconography, colour theory, accessible design, and so forth.
The permissions logic for user administration and control
The final iteration of the mission planning user flow for building Courses of Actions (COAs)
Original description and mission planning concept
Mission Planning UI within the VR environment
Tooltip designs to make mission planning buttons more accessible (virtual wrist-tablet feature)
Pilot testing with internal stakeholders in DC office and out in Ft. Cavazos, TX.
Usability testing the COA building/planning feature with a warfighter.
The Usability Testing
Another one of my key responsibilities was pilot testing and facilitating usability testing for TableTop Commander’s various features. This included scheduling informal testing with stakeholders for feedback, formal testing sessions with users with varying levels of VR experience, and using the usability test feedback for iterating the development and design of the experience.
Where is it now?
The further development for TTC was put on ice due to a contract financial complication that ultimately ended its funding. The KELSIE project (see here) managed to adopt TTC as a key feature of its own experience due to its desirability, where we were able to expand further on its capability.