Project Overview
Tango Tango served thousands of users nationwide with its B2B SaaS and hardware solutions. However, its outdated platform presented an opportunity to create a modern, in-house product that would streamline operating expenses while delivering a significantly enhanced, user-friendly experience. This redesign aimed to maintain familiarity while improving critical communication for first responders.
Customer Background
Tango Tango’s diverse user base included first responders and front-line workers such as firefighters, EMTs, police officers, schools, and other emergency personnel, spanning ages 25 to 65. Chiefs and senior-level staff, who play a significant role in adopting new technologies, were key decision-makers. These agencies sought solutions that addressed critical safety needs and enhanced functionality while remaining cost-effective.
Pain Points
Lack of radio signals posed safety risks.
The outdated app left key features unused.
The existing solution was not user-friendly.
Design Process
The goal was to modernize Tango Tango’s app while preserving familiarity to minimize the learning curve for critical communication tasks. The design emphasized simplicity, reliability, and intuitive use, ensuring customers could take immediate action when needed. The design focused on creating a seamless user experience by mirroring the interaction patterns of everyday contacts and messaging apps. This approach fostered familiarity and comfort.
Challenges
Push-to-Talk Button Integration:
Integrating a push-to-talk button consistently across the app posed significant challenges. It needed to remain easily accessible without being obtrusive or compromising functionality, especially for users on smaller screens. Balancing usability with critical functionality required iterative design and close collaboration with the development team.Call Screen Design:
The call screen needed to display a large amount of critical information within a single view. This included:A live map
The current speaker
Call participants
Permissions-based details for additional features
To address these requirements, I implemented a modular/dashboard approach. This design allowed information to be dynamically added or removed based on user permissions or future feature additions. This solution ensured flexibility, scalability, and clarity, even under high-pressure scenarios.
User Feedback
Customer feedback was integral to the design process. Users participated as testers during the build phase, providing insights via Zoom calls and email. This iterative feedback loop with engineers ensured the app met user expectations and addressed real-world challenges.
“The Tango Tango app has greatly improved the communications capabilities of our company. For push to talk and messaging in a secure and private workgroup, it’s the best we’ve used.” – Customer
“This looks like a Google product.” – Board Member
Takeaways
Designing Tango Tango’s new platform was both challenging and rewarding. The collaboration with engineering and C-suite leadership fostered healthy debate and innovation, resulting in a product that serves as a life-saving tool for first responders. The experience underscored the value of teamwork, user feedback, and thoughtful design in creating solutions that truly make a difference.
