overview
Drug overdoses and addictions are a huge problem in the Seattle area. In this project, we wanted to understand the opioid epidemic specifically from the perspective of patients prescribed opioids from their medical provider. Since the opioid epidemic affects such a diverse population of people, we decided to scope our design process to smaller group to ensure our solution would be helpful to our users. We wanted to create something to prevent future addictions while raising awareness about this issue.
my role
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conducted user research interviews
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created wireframes
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constructed final solution screens in Figma
context
This project was implemented as a part of the University of Washington's Design for America student organization and was then presented to a design company called Artefact.
tools & skills
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Figma
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Research, Research Analysis, Wireframing, Prototyping, Visual Design
the design process
01. the problem
The opioid epidemic is a rising issue in our society today and although many people believe this is due to the rising rate of mental health illnesses, there is also another factor playing a role. This is the increase in patients being prescribed opioids for pain by doctors and then becoming addicted to them. Many people do not realize how common this issue is in the medical field and how significant the effects can be on society.
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100,000 unintentional overdoses in the United States every day
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130+ deaths in the United States per day
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275 dead in King County due to misuse of opioids in 2018
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Opioid addiction is a gateway to the use of heroin with as
many as 23% of prescription drug users becoming heroin abusers. -
Overdose deaths involving opioids have increased by 80% in recent years.
02. research
There were two levels of user research conducted-- primary and secondary.
Secondary research involves the summary, collation and/or synthesis of existing research. The secondary research on this project consisted of online sources to better understand the process by which patients are prescribed opioids and laws governing these prescriptions. One of the major struggles of this project was scoping down the target user audience and using secondary research findings we were able to scope down the project specifically to helping patients prescribed opioids manage their pain.
Primary research is used to fill in gaps that were not able to be understood from secondary research. The main method of primary research on this project was user interviews to better understand where and how patients struggle to manage their pain.
user interviews
Purpose: build empathy, uncover deeper issues, and target concrete problems to solve
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Do you believe something could be invented to help reduce the likelihood of opioid addiction? If so, any ideas you’ve thought of?
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"Early intervention, early access to resources in schools."
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Do you believe focusing on raising awareness and increasing education around the seriousness of opioid addiction would result in reducing the likelihood of getting addicted?
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"I believe if people had a broader understanding of what addiction looks like on a biological level it would reduce stigma and possibly help others to avoid addiction. "
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What information do you think people need to know when they are being prescribed opioids for pain?
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"That it isn't a long term solution, alternative measures for pain management (acupuncture, massage, heat, ice, cannabis)"
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important quotes
key research insights
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There were many different factors that were affecting this problem and we decided to narrow our scope to target people prescribed opioids in the King County area.
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Not many existing solutions and not much awareness around the Seattle area for opioid addiction from prescriptions.
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Having an awareness about the risk of addiction could also play a huge rule in prevention.
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Stigma surrounding opioids & opioid addicts: “It’s a disease, not a moral failing”
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Patients are not provided with adequate resources to monitor their opioid prescription: “I had been given no warnings, no counseling, no plan ... just lots and lots of prescriptions.”
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Not a long term solution.
03. framing the solution
design principles
community
users should be able to connect with one another to learn, receive advice, build awareness, and find support.
daily accessibility
users should be able to feel comfortable accessing platform everyday to monitor their medication. (simple, calming interface)
educational
users should be able to learn about alternative medicine or pain management techniques and signs of addiction.
design challenge
How might we educate individuals within King County about taking prescription opioid drugs to reduce unintentional addiction to opioids?
04. ideation
user personas
traits
challenges
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Patients prescribed opioids
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Goal to prevent addiction from medication
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Average financial background
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Not educated on prescription opioids
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Complicated daily schedule
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Not much education on opioids
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Difficulty managing pain
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Concerned about taking prescription opioids.
low-fidelity wireframing
I did a quick drawing of the plan my team was envisioning to help visualize our ideas and make necessary corrections. The photos below show how each screen on the platform would look, with the intended features. The photos also show how the user would navigate through the screens on the platform.
proposed solution
Taking the research into consideration, the solution was to create a website that would provide education to people affected by opioid epidemic to raise awareness, build a community of people facing similar experiences, and also create a way for patients to track their opioid use to make sure they are not on the path for becoming addicted.
Users will...
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Become more educated about opioids & opioid abuse
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Lower the stigma surrounding opioid addiction
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Feel at ease about taking opioids
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Gain access to helpful resources
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Engage & learn from others
05. iteration
In this step, I took the low fidelity wireframes and interaction brainstorm and iterated them into medium fidelity wireframes.
My prior experience helped understand that having too many screens to navigate through can be quite confusing for my users so I designed an interface that not only hides the menu icons to preserve the real estate, but also appropriately stacks related interactions pertaining to each category on one respective screen.
visual design
After my team and I collectively agreed on the wire frames and site map, we began researching different design elements and color schemes. We used various online resources to find the ideal font, color scheme, and layouts to make our website the most accessible and user friendly.
We settled on a bright orange, black and white color scheme with orange as the primary color and black and white as the secondary colors. Orange promotes a sense of vibrancy, happiness, and healing which were all factors we wanted to encourage for our users. We settled with a simple font called Muli and used different weights to make our site easier to navigate and understand.
We again split up the different pages and used these core design elements to prototype each page. Afterwards, we brought all the pages together, made some edits, and presented our solution.
06. final solution
home page
This page will display CTAs to the main functions of the solution designed to introduce the user to the platform and help them understand the different ways they can use it.
pain management
This page will show the user a list of different alternative, natural medicines for pain relief if they feel uncomfortable using more opioids that have proven to be effective. These can also be used if the user is experiencing adverse side-effects.
pill tracker
This personalized pill tracker designed to help patients monitor their daily opioid intake to find patterns or potential risks of addiction earlier. Users will enter specific information about their medication and dosage for more accurate advice.
patient stories
This page has videos of others on the platform sharing their story. The videos that appear on the user's page will be from individuals of similar demographics so their backgrounds are more relatable and personalized for the user to learn from.
FAQ page
Designed to be go-to and easy to read, the FAQ page educates users about prescription opioid use to alert them about the significance of tracking their dosage to prevent addiction.
reflection
One of the major challenges faced on this project was scoping down our problem and how might we statement to a population large enough that we would really be able to help. The opioid epidemic affects a wide-range of people and would need multiple forms of solutions to truly have an impact. We focused on the epidemic from the perspective of patients prescribed opioids because there are not many existing resources for this population. I learned the importance of designing specifically for the user and empathizing with their needs. It can be easy to fall back and create solutions that make sense from my perspective, but it is important to remain conscious that every design decision is being made with the user in mind.
Some next steps on this project would be to conduct user testing on our platform to understand how to improve the tracking feature or to include any new features. One idea I have that could be implemented would be including a pain scale to help users understand how the level of pain has been changing and if they are becoming too dependent on it. I would also like to try to provide a way for doctors or other medical professionals to share advice on pain management on the platform.
