SHIFT 17 — A Short
Decision Simulation for
Technical Operations

Original Work | Simulation Design & Development

Project Summary

Designed and built an original decision simulation in which a trained technician must choose whether to act on an abnormal equipment reading under end-of-shift pressure. The experience is fully playable and was built without an authoring tool.

The Challenge

Technical and safety training usually assumes the problem is knowledge. But experienced people can know a procedure completely and still not follow it when the situation makes another choice feel reasonable. I wanted to build an experience that put a competent person inside exactly that moment — where nothing is missing except the doing.

My Role

Sole designer and developer. I wrote the learning experience storyboard, designed the operator interface, and built the simulation in custom HTML, CSS, and JavaScript.

The Solution

A single shift, a single reading, and one decision. A pressure indication drifts below range on a pump that has produced false alarms twice that week. Control believes it's the transmitter. The supervisor said yesterday that the team interrupts operations too often. The other pump is already down, and shift ends in thirteen minutes.

Both paths are followed to their consequence, and both converge on a reflection sequence that separates what was actually known from what was assumed.

What Made This Work Distinct

No points, no badges, no score. Neither choice is flagged as correct, and the interface never signals which one the learner should take. The path that defers the decision produces no immediate consequence at all, because that is what deferring usually produces.

The operator interface follows high-performance HMI conventions — grey process graphics with color reserved for the abnormal condition — so the environment reads as a real workstation rather than a course screen.

Key Contributions

Learning experience storyboard, scenario design, interface design, front-end development, technical research, and accessibility implementation.

Value

Demonstrates that a short, low-cost project can carry a complete learning experience: eight to twelve minutes, one screen, no authoring platform, no development team. The approach transfers directly to regulated and technical environments where procedures are well known and compliance still fails.

Eight to twelve minutes. Both paths lead somewhere