Joseph Shortino

Leading content strategy and design for a platform trusted in emergencies

We equipped public safety agencies with real-time data and centralized tools to enhance situational awareness and inform decision-making in complex, time-critical incidents.

Building life-saving software for and with first responders

Our challenge

Emergency response agencies had to switch between disconnected tools to track and manage personnel, assets, and critical information during incidents where every second counts.
Array of hundreds of unique components or layouts worked on with this project
Sentence case, everywhere, all at once

My role as content lead

I led a team of 3 content writers, delivering more than 110 on-time UI features and user guides for the new platform and companion apps.

After leading content delivery and a content operations transformation across the studio, I was promoted to lead—now responsible for rolling out our changes to largest and fastest-moving platform.

We integrated content writers directly into the product development process—partnering alongside designers.

Beyond content strategy, delivery, and operations, I co-led a pilot and migration to evaluate Figma for our wider adoption at our client and consultancy.

In tandem with our product design lead, I interviewed public safety experts, including fire chiefs and police captains, to align terminology with FEMA standards and field language.

Voice of the customer (VOC) research helped us scale all content for all user types, regardless of agency size, type, or local geography.

Each feedback round validated product copy and support for clarity in high-stress, time-critical situations contexts.

Each feature underwent a thorough accessibility review to meet federal regulations and brand standards. Internal testing and third-party audits validated that every release complied with Section 508 and (then emerging) WCAG 2.2 AA standards—covering everything from focus order and reading level to alt text and ARIA markup.

Our solution

We built a centralized platform with an interactive operations map to replace the disconnected tools agencies relied on during emergencies. The map gave command staff a live view of incidents, personnel, vehicles, and devices—all in one interface. Designed for accessibility and shaped by expert input, the platform worked across web and mobile and integrated with tools like push-to-talk.
A light mode and dark mode screenshot of the incident response platform map
Built for the job. Any shift, any scene.
a welcome message for the incident response app prompting the selection of an icon
Two screenshots of the incident response app with checked-in incidents and other responders on a map
Content in sync on all fronts

Results and outcomes

 My team and I delivered: 

  • 110 on-time product UI features with paired user guides
  • A responsive web platform and native companion apps for iOS and Android
  • Cohesive, high-quality, and expert-validated content across all user touchpoints

We moved from siloed tooling and handoffs to a unified, upstream workflow. I assigned writers to both product UI and their respective user guides, closing the gap between what users saw and what they read. 

Smoother handoffs and aligned terminology across surfaces in a single source of truth reduced time wasted migrating changes.

We replicated the success of my content design ops transformation by aligning writers, tooling, and stakeholder feedback into an integrated UX workflow.

After standardizing our UX sprint rhythms and review checkpoints, we created a more predictable, efficient path to signoff—cutting follow-up stakeholder reviews by more than 50%.

Our UX teams delivered final designs and support assets with a sustainable buffer built in. The last feature for launch was delivered a full month ahead of schedule, enabling:

  • 2 additional sprints for development polish and QA
  • Time reclaimed for internal professional development, master wire maintenance, and cross-platform shadowing
  • A smoother, more confident launch and support handoff

We successfully migrated our platform operations from Adobe XD to Figma. Beyond the real-time collaborative benefits the tool provides, our pilot led to reusable templates to ramp up more teams and clients:

  • Internal designer, writer, and client onboarding documentation and activities
  • Custom-built status and approval-tracking components (before Figma filled the gap with Dev Mode features)
  • Template to capture feedback and critiques live and asynchronously using FigJam boards
Collaborative FigJam board with a feature being peer reviewed in real time.
A swooping arch of many pages of paper user guides
A tablet screenshot with a responder directory.
Tablet displays of inter-agency relationship management features.

Want to discuss the details? Let's walk through my work and process together.

Say hello@josephshortino.com
Two abstract process maps. One has two consecutive processes that diverge near a deadline. The other is a single highly-collaborative process with multiple team members with an earlier delivery.

Reimagining design operations across enterprise UX teams

Evolved the UX writer role into an embedded design partner by bringing content upstream and reimagining how we collaborate.

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Catalyzed innovation and collaboration with strategic design support for a sustainable digital twin product.
A desktop screenshot of the help center for enterprise telecom customers

🔒 Developing a new content style for in-app support content

Drove feature adoption, self-service support, and order completion with in-application product and support content​.