I was a core designer at BreakAway Games for Code Orange, a computer 3D real-time strategy serious game to train hospital staff to deal with mass casualty incidents. I gave the project a strong new design structure and overall creative direction that reflected both the core strategic elements and the “feel” of disaster medicine at the hospital level.I did extensive research on the topic, consulted with many experts (such as Israeli trauma specialist Dr Asher Hirshberg); brought in subject matter experts (SMEs) to work closely with myself; attended numerous courses, symposiums, meetings, disaster drills; spent many hours observing at the famous MedStar shock/trauma facility in Washington DC, and toured many hospital critical care facilities. I also became an unofficial expert in the Hospital Emergency Incident Command System (HEICS), and did extensive client relations work.
I designed a tabletop prototype that covered the response of an entire hospital to a terrorist bomb scenario. I brought the development team (overseen by our subject-matter experts) through this prototype, so they could understand how the situation worked. I wrote the design documentation for the computer game, including spreadsheet-based data fields and mock-ups of the core user-interface.
I provided design leadership, guiding the development team in taking on the complex medical subject matter; boiling complicated materials down to a workable design, especially at the clinical level.
Code Orange was a project of Washington Hospital Center's ER1 initiative.
