SWARM DRONES

THE CHALLENGE

Booz Allen approached Topcoder with a unique opportunity— to pair a virtual crowdsourcing design competition with a physical hackathon they were hosting for the US Navy. While the physical hackathon focused on on-drone enhancements and APIs, Booz Allen wanted to help the US Navy explore the art of the possible by visualizing interactive swarm drone dashboards for three unique user types – Commander, Marine, and Swarm Engineer. The dashboard design concepts, including the incorporation of SMEs (Subject Matter Experts) feedback, had to be delivered in under three days time to fit the rigorous schedule of the live hackathon event.

THE SOLUTION

Topcoder successfully delivered stunning intuitive dashboard design concepts through a 72-hour Rapid User Experience (RUX) design challenge. Unique perspectives and design-led UX innovations helped Booz Allen deliver a smashing success that allowed the US Navy to evaluate over 20 unique design concepts for all three specialized users of the would-be application interface.

A Topcoder RUX was ideal for this scenario because:

• A RUX competition is complete in only 72 hours, delivering results while meeting the strict deadlines

• Booz Allen wanted to garner a wide variety of design options. The competition yielded 23 unique design concepts and over 100 unique screen submissions in total.

• Booz Allen wanted to focus on core dashboard features while also leaving room for the creative genius of the crowdsourcing community.

“The thing I’m most proud of with this design is the ability to pull out the solution in a very short term… and it works for the client.”

iamtong, Winning Topcoder member