annie gordon

AT&T Smart City Operations Center

The AT&T Smart Cities Operations Center is a centralized dashboard designed to help municipalities monitor and manage key civic systems in real time—everything from traffic and public safety to environmental conditions and airport operations.

As the Lead Product Designer, I partnered with engineers, civic technology leaders, and urban planners to transform a fragmented IoT data ecosystem into a cohesive, cloud-hosted control platform. The Operations Center brings real-time insights into one intuitive interface, allowing city leaders to better deploy resources, respond to incidents, and improve operational transparency.

This project, piloted in Miami-Dade County, helped accelerate AT&T’s civic innovation footprint by delivering a scalable, data-driven solution to modern city management.

Company

AT&T

Industry

Technology & Innovation

Role

Principal Product Designer

Duration

6 Weeks

Who We Designed For

Job To Be Done

Persona: Deputy Director of Public Safety, City of Miami

Job to Be Done:

“When there’s a traffic jam or citywide alert, I need to see what’s happening across departments fast—so I can respond, coordinate, and inform stakeholders without delays.”

This user works in a high-pressure environment with multiple data sources, legacy platforms, and siloed operations. Their success depends on having accurate, timely insights to keep people safe and services running.

Persona: Deputy Director of Public Safety, City of Miami

Job to Be Done:

“When there’s a traffic jam or citywide alert, I need to see what’s happening across departments fast—so I can respond, coordinate, and inform stakeholders without delays.”

Persona: Deputy Director of Public Safety, City of Miami

Job to Be Done:

“When there’s a traffic jam or citywide alert, I need to see what’s happening across departments fast—so I can respond, coordinate, and inform stakeholders without delays.”

Persona: Deputy Director of Public Safety, City of Miami

Job to Be Done:

“When there’s a traffic jam or citywide alert, I need to see what’s happening across departments fast—so I can respond, coordinate, and inform stakeholders without delays.”

The Challenge

Cities had adopted smart technologies across departments, but lacked a unified system to monitor, analyze, and act on the data.

Common challenges included:

Disparate systems (e.g., lighting, traffic, and water all on separate platforms)
Lack of real-time insight across emergency and service response
Non-actionable dashboards with too much noise or poor UX
Slow decision cycles during critical events like flooding or blackouts
Poor cross-department collaboration due to disconnected tools

“We had the data, but no way to make sense of it fast enough to make a difference.”
— Civic Technology Director

Cities had adopted smart technologies across departments, but lacked a unified system to monitor, analyze, and act on the data.

Common challenges included:

Disparate systems (e.g., lighting, traffic, and water all on separate platforms)
Lack of real-time insight across emergency and service response
Non-actionable dashboards with too much noise or poor UX
Slow decision cycles during critical events like flooding or blackouts
Poor cross-department collaboration due to disconnected tools

“We had the data, but no way to make sense of it fast enough to make a difference.”
— Civic Technology Director

Cities had adopted smart technologies across departments, but lacked a unified system to monitor, analyze, and act on the data.

Common challenges included:

Disparate systems (e.g., lighting, traffic, and water all on separate platforms)
Lack of real-time insight across emergency and service response
Non-actionable dashboards with too much noise or poor UX
Slow decision cycles during critical events like flooding or blackouts
Poor cross-department collaboration due to disconnected tools

“We had the data, but no way to make sense of it fast enough to make a difference.”
— Civic Technology Director

Cities had adopted smart technologies across departments, but lacked a unified system to monitor, analyze, and act on the data.

Common challenges included:

Disparate systems (e.g., lighting, traffic, and water all on separate platforms)
Lack of real-time insight across emergency and service response
Non-actionable dashboards with too much noise or poor UX
Slow decision cycles during critical events like flooding or blackouts
Poor cross-department collaboration due to disconnected tools

“We had the data, but no way to make sense of it fast enough to make a difference.”
— Civic Technology Director

The Solution

We developed the AT&T Smart Cities Operations Center—a vendor-agnostic, API-integrated platform with real-time civic data visualizations.

Key features included:

Unified Dashboard: Connects departments including public safety, lighting, transportation, environmental monitoring, and airport ops
Live Alerts & AI Triggers: Notifies leaders of anomalies or critical updates across sectors
Role-Based Dashboards: Custom views for fire chiefs, transit managers, water utilities, etc.
Geospatial Layers: Map overlays visualize incidents and resource locations
Predictive Logic: Supports trend analysis and infrastructure planning
High-definition display: Designed for both desktop and control room usage

I designed modular, scalable UI components that allowed for flexible data visualization and consistent interaction across departments. The result was a seamless user experience for both technical and non-technical users.

We developed the AT&T Smart Cities Operations Center—a vendor-agnostic, API-integrated platform with real-time civic data visualizations.

Key features included:

Unified Dashboard: Connects departments including public safety, lighting, transportation, environmental monitoring, and airport ops
Live Alerts & AI Triggers: Notifies leaders of anomalies or critical updates across sectors
Role-Based Dashboards: Custom views for fire chiefs, transit managers, water utilities, etc.
Geospatial Layers: Map overlays visualize incidents and resource locations
Predictive Logic: Supports trend analysis and infrastructure planning
High-definition display: Designed for both desktop and control room usage

We developed the AT&T Smart Cities Operations Center—a vendor-agnostic, API-integrated platform with real-time civic data visualizations.

Key features included:

Unified Dashboard: Connects departments including public safety, lighting, transportation, environmental monitoring, and airport ops
Live Alerts & AI Triggers: Notifies leaders of anomalies or critical updates across sectors
Role-Based Dashboards: Custom views for fire chiefs, transit managers, water utilities, etc.
Geospatial Layers: Map overlays visualize incidents and resource locations
Predictive Logic: Supports trend analysis and infrastructure planning
High-definition display: Designed for both desktop and control room usage

We developed the AT&T Smart Cities Operations Center—a vendor-agnostic, API-integrated platform with real-time civic data visualizations.

Key features included:

Unified Dashboard: Connects departments including public safety, lighting, transportation, environmental monitoring, and airport ops
Live Alerts & AI Triggers: Notifies leaders of anomalies or critical updates across sectors
Role-Based Dashboards: Custom views for fire chiefs, transit managers, water utilities, etc.
Geospatial Layers: Map overlays visualize incidents and resource locations
Predictive Logic: Supports trend analysis and infrastructure planning
High-definition display: Designed for both desktop and control room usage

UX Enhancements

Before	After
5+ siloed tools per department	One central platform with modular data cards
Confusing or static reports	Real-time, live data with alerts
No easy view of cross-departmental events	Unified map with incident layers
Manual updates for public safety events	Automated feeds with trigger logic
Little to no accessibility for non-tech users	Role-based dashboards with intuitive UI

Business Impact

Results

Reduced emergency response times by centralizing alerts and real-time conditions
Improved communication between public safety, transit, and utilities
Minimized service downtime through faster deployment of resources
Simplified system management for civic IT and field operations
Laid the groundwork for future smart city rollouts in other metro areas

“This is the first time we’ve had a clear view of how our city operates—on one screen.” — Miami-Dade Public Safety Officer

My Role

Product Design Lead

UX Strategy · Civic Innovation

Worked closely with civic leaders to identify data gaps and department needs
Led dashboard wireframing, interaction design, and component libraries in Figma
Designed scalable modules to support expanding data inputs
Facilitated working sessions with engineers and external IoT providers
Created prototypes for usability testing with internal and public-sector stakeholders

Tools: Figma · Miro · Slack · Whiteboarding Workshops

Reflection

Designing for city infrastructure meant building for longevity, clarity, and crisis. The project challenged us to think about cross-functional UX from both a data and human standpoint.

If continuing today, I would explore:

Embedded tooltips and explainers for public and technical audiences
Scenario-based simulation tools for city planners
Integration of public-facing dashboards to promote transparency