DESIGN+Health
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A place-based, community-sourced, local library of knowledge for people who use drugs.
DURATION
February - March 2024
CLIENT
UPMC Health
ORGANIZATION
Carnegie Mellon University
ROLES
UX design
Mobile UI
Prototyping
Design research
TEAM
Sandra Chang
Nikita Valluri
TOOLS
Figma
background
Our client, a primary care physician and addiction medicine researcher at UPMC and Yale School of Medicine, tasked us with designing a "Yelp for people who use drugs."
In this exploratory project conducted through Carnegie Mellon University School of Design, my team developed the concept, wireframes, and high-fidelity prototypes for a new mobile app concept, Season - a local library of knowledge for people who use drugs.
Objective
Create a mobile app that formalizes knowledge-gathering and sharing among the community of people who use drugs, and that promotes harm reduction by meeting people where they are.
Season provides a directory of all the facilities in the region that offer harm reduction, treatment, and other essential services. App users can search for specific needs (e.g., syringes) or browse the different services nearby, including housing support, counseling, and education.
The directory provides all the information a user would need to decide whether the facility is right for them and ensure a successful visit, including:
The backbone of Season, the review section allows app users to share their experience visiting a facility, including their overall rating, ability to access the services they were looking for, and a free-text section to share how safe, supported, and respected they felt during their visit.
The Talk feature allows app users to seek immediate, one-on-one support for any reason. Depending on their needs, an individual can connect with a peer navigator at a local org, call the Never Use Alone hotline to be on the phone with someone while they use opioids, or send an emergency SMS to a trusted contact.
We worked closely with our client, who had conducted extensive research prior to the project, to understand end-users' needs and co-design a solution.
We crafted wireframes to showcase essential features and functionalities for user feedback.
We conducted generative and evaluative research through user interviews with two peer navigators who had experience with drug addiction, using the following research methods:
The user interviews provided invaluable insights into how potential app users interact with harm reduction services. They shed light on the challenges faced by individuals living with substance use disorders and the existing landscape of harm reduction. Additionally, the feature walk-through with peer navigators unearthed key insights that informed our app design.
For instance, we learned that the vast majority of people in the community use street names rather than medical terminology when referring to harm reduction terms (e.g., Naloxone → Narcan).
Incorporate user voices.
Engaging directly with individuals with lived experience with substance use disorder proved to be invaluable. The peer navigators provided practical, genuine perspectives that shaped the design of the app, enabling Season to resonate authentically with end-users and establish itself as a trusted and credible concept.
Dealing with ambiguity.
Despite the limited preparation time, we tackled the project head-on, navigating through the initial ambiguity. Extensive desk research enabled us to grasp the nuances of substance use and harm reduction, giving us a shared language with which to have meaningful conversations with user testers. Continuous collaboration with our client, combined with insightful user testing, enabled us to develop an app that aims to support people who use drugs, fostering community and agency through the sharing of knowledge.
