Shaping the future of public safety
I created the design system for Intterra’s IntelHub, an operational platform that allows public safety agencies to manage and publish incident information. The work involved establishing the design system, defining the visual language, and designing the core experiences from concept through launch.
Timeline
February 2026 - July 2026
Role
Principal Designer
THE PROBLEM
No visual design system established
When CAL FIRE funded a modernization of IntelHub’s incident-management platform, I joined as the sole designer, with six months to build a visual language from scratch.
DISCOVERY
I ran 10+ interviews. Three complaints shaped everything after.
I personally interviewed dispatch operators, firefighters, police chiefs, and retirees. Different roles, the same three complaints — each one turned into a requirement before I touched a screen.
BUILDING THE DESIGN SYSTEM
Brand Colors
Components
One layout, engineered to hold up at every width
CORE FEATURES
Taming density on a live map
The map carried many layers of data (incidents, personnel, weather, infrastructure) that could easily bury officials in noise. I iterated on a filterable layer-and-legend system until it let users choose what’s visible, instead of forcing them to read all of it at once.
Designing an incident merge feature
When multiple stations, or agencies from other districts, respond to the same fire, each one logs its own incident report. I designed a merge protocol so a user can combine those into one shared record, giving every responding agency the same real-time picture across the platform.
Logging an incident, without the dread
The most common complaint I heard, across every role: logging an incident feels like a chore. I broke entry into four steps with a visible progress bar: incident information, media, review, publish, instead of one long form. Chunking the work this way lowers the cognitive load of any single screen, and closing on a clear “published” moment gives the person a small sense of completion rather than just checking a box. Officials can go back and edit a published incident at any time.
Final Thoughts
In six months, IntelHub shipped one design system I made 100% accessible using Stark, speeding development by 90%, plus three core features: layered map filtering, a merge protocol for agencies sharing one incident, and a four-step entry flow that replaced a single long form.
SPEED OF DEVELOPMENT
+90%
Increase in development speed with a new and annotated design system.
FULL-SCALE DESIGNS DELIVERED IN
6 Months
Begin the project in March and the app launched in August of the same year.
ACCESSIBILITY COMPLIANCE
100%
Every component and screen audited to WCAG 2.1 AA using Stark.
Lessons learned
I solved the system’s visual and structural problems first, then circled back to incident entry, the loudest complaint from research. Next time, I’d tackle that in parallel from day one, and pressure-test the merge flow with two agencies working it at once before launch.
Shaping the future of public safety
I created the design system for Intterra’s IntelHub, an operational platform that allows public safety agencies to manage and publish incident information. The work involved establishing the design system, defining the visual language, and designing the core experiences from concept through launch.
Timeline
February 2026 - July 2026
Role
Principal Designer
THE PROBLEM
No visual design system established
When CAL FIRE funded a modernization of IntelHub’s incident-management platform, I joined as the sole designer, with six months to build a visual language from scratch.
DISCOVERY
I ran 10+ interviews. Three complaints shaped everything after.
I personally interviewed dispatch operators, firefighters, police chiefs, and retirees. Different roles, the same three complaints — each one turned into a requirement before I touched a screen.
BUILDING THE DESIGN SYSTEM
Brand Colors
Components
One layout, engineered to hold up at every width
CORE FEATURES
Taming density on a live map
The map carried many layers of data (incidents, personnel, weather, infrastructure) that could easily bury officials in noise. I iterated on a filterable layer-and-legend system until it let users choose what’s visible, instead of forcing them to read all of it at once.
Designing an incident merge feature
When multiple stations, or agencies from other districts, respond to the same fire, each one logs its own incident report. I designed a merge protocol so a user can combine those into one shared record, giving every responding agency the same real-time picture across the platform.
Logging an incident, without the dread
The most common complaint I heard, across every role: logging an incident feels like a chore. I broke entry into four steps with a visible progress bar: incident information, media, review, publish, instead of one long form. Chunking the work this way lowers the cognitive load of any single screen, and closing on a clear “published” moment gives the person a small sense of completion rather than just checking a box. Officials can go back and edit a published incident at any time.
Final Thoughts
In six months, IntelHub shipped one design system I made 100% accessible using Stark, speeding development by 90%, plus three core features: layered map filtering, a merge protocol for agencies sharing one incident, and a four-step entry flow that replaced a single long form.
SPEED OF DEVELOPMENT
+90%
Increase in development speed with a new and annotated design system.
FULL-SCALE DESIGNS DELIVERED IN
6 Months
Begin the project in March and the app launched in August of the same year.
ACCESSIBILITY COMPLIANCE
100%
Every component and screen audited to WCAG 2.1 AA using Stark.
Lessons learned
I solved the system’s visual and structural problems first, then circled back to incident entry, the loudest complaint from research. Next time, I’d tackle that in parallel from day one, and pressure-test the merge flow with two agencies working it at once before launch.
Shaping the future of public safety
I created the design system for Intterra’s IntelHub, an operational platform that allows public safety agencies to manage and publish incident information. The work involved establishing the design system, defining the visual language, and designing the core experiences from concept through launch.
Timeline
February 2026 - July 2026
Role
Principal Designer
THE PROBLEM
No visual design system established
When CAL FIRE funded a modernization of IntelHub’s incident-management platform, I joined as the sole designer, with six months to build a visual language from scratch.
DISCOVERY
I ran 10+ interviews. Three complaints shaped everything after.
I personally interviewed dispatch operators, firefighters, police chiefs, and retirees. Different roles, the same three complaints — each one turned into a requirement before I touched a screen.
BUILDING THE DESIGN SYSTEM
Brand Colors
Components
One layout, engineered to hold up at every width
CORE FEATURES
Taming density on a live map
The map carried many layers of data (incidents, personnel, weather, infrastructure) that could easily bury officials in noise. I iterated on a filterable layer-and-legend system until it let users choose what’s visible, instead of forcing them to read all of it at once.
Designing an incident merge feature
When multiple stations, or agencies from other districts, respond to the same fire, each one logs its own incident report. I designed a merge protocol so a user can combine those into one shared record, giving every responding agency the same real-time picture across the platform.
Logging an incident, without the dread
The most common complaint I heard, across every role: logging an incident feels like a chore. I broke entry into four steps with a visible progress bar: incident information, media, review, publish, instead of one long form. Chunking the work this way lowers the cognitive load of any single screen, and closing on a clear “published” moment gives the person a small sense of completion rather than just checking a box. Officials can go back and edit a published incident at any time.
Final Thoughts
In six months, IntelHub shipped one design system I made 100% accessible using Stark, speeding development by 90%, plus three core features: layered map filtering, a merge protocol for agencies sharing one incident, and a four-step entry flow that replaced a single long form.
SPEED OF DEVELOPMENT
+90%
Increase in development speed with a new and annotated design system.
FULL-SCALE DESIGNS DELIVERED IN
6 Months
Begin the project in March and the app launched in August of the same year.
ACCESSIBILITY COMPLIANCE
100%
Every component and screen audited to WCAG 2.1 AA using Stark.
Lessons learned
I solved the system’s visual and structural problems first, then circled back to incident entry, the loudest complaint from research. Next time, I’d tackle that in parallel from day one, and pressure-test the merge flow with two agencies working it at once before launch.