The challenge: How might we make a difference in the opioid epidemic?
The goal: Determine the desirability of an opioid toolkit, understand how people want to interact with it, and provide resources that can help save lives.
The approach: Using human-centered design, led a small team from concept through implementation.
Conversation with business owner to discuss the scope, idea, and gather contextual information.
Conducted research including reviewing survey results, reading available information on a variety of health websites, and speaking with medical experts.
Armed with an outline of content for resources, I brought a designer into the mix to create resource card prototypes and build an actual toolkit.
Once the first prototype was complete, we created a test card with questions and scenarios to ask consumers. We were testing certain assumptions we had (i.e., everyone knows what Narcan is), if the toolkit's functionality worked, and if the information provided on the resource cards was helpful.
Partnering with a recruitment agency, we brought in a dozen people from the Massachusetts area - some had experience with opioid addiction and some did not.
We hosted a Design Thinking Meetup to gather more insights and ideas that could be baked into our iterations of the toolkit.
Following our first round of testing, we worked together to incorporate feedback (such as, "The resource cards are great but if I'm reaching for this Narcan kit, I just need to know how to administer it. I'd like the information somewhere I can access anytime.") and build a new prototype to test. This process repeated a few times until we believed we created a desirable product.
The next step was to present the findings and final prototype to senior leadership. There was a lot of excitement after that and we partnered with Sales & Marketing to determine the right accounts to pilot this toolkit.
Now that we had the physical product, we needed to design a website with the resources because we learned in testing that having a deck of cards with the toolkit was not the right place for information.
I engaged the digital team to partner with a developer who would build a sub-site on the organization's overarching website.
We launched a pilot with five accounts by conducting a brief training and sharing the toolkits and website, allowing each group to disseminate the information the best way they saw fit.
Upon my leaving the organization, the pilots were in their 3rd month and the idea was to expand access to the toolkit to more member groups and potentially individual consumers in the future.
November 2019 Update: I heard from a former colleague that this toolkit has saved a life!
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