Public Health / Higher Education client

TxCope

overview

I was brought onto TxCOPE as the Lead UX Designer. I joined this project after it had organically grown and evolved over several years. This platform was created by the community for the community with the goal of improving opioid overdose response and prevention efforts and support organizations with data and tools for their outreach activities.

design/tool stack

  • The challenges

    Data fragmentation and interoperability, trust and stakeholder alignment, privacy and compliance concerns.

  • The product

    A platform designed to improve opioid overdose response and prevention efforts among community-based organizations throughout Texas

  • The goal

    Connecting historically disconnected community-based organizations to create a more comprehensive and collaborative understanding of the opioid epidemic.

at a glance

  • Public Health / Higher Education

  • October 2023 - December 2024

  • UX Design Consultant

  • -Research and diagramming
    -Wireframing / user experience
    -Ensuring accessibility and legal compliance
    -Documentation / handoff
    -Supporting agile ceremonies.

platform features

  • Interactive data dashboards and near real-time reporting tailored for Outreach Organizations

  • Supply management and tracking solutions for Outreach Organizations

  • Public-facing website and mobile app for reporting overdose incidents

  • Data Ingestion

  • ML/AI Data Science Pilot

  • Cloud Foundations Technical Platform

Research & Discovery

Scoping the work started with research and discovery, which helped us get a clear understanding of the project. From there, we defined the goal, scope boundaries, budget, and timeline, giving us a solid foundation to move forward. Once we had that in place, we shifted into organizing information to create a clear and structured experience to set us up for success in the design phase.

  • Community Participation

    Shaping platform features based on insights from outreach professionals and community members.

  • Academic Research

    Adopting a proactive approach by leveraging extensive expertise and historical data.

  • technology

    Utilizing cutting-edge cloud-based tools to gather, analyze, and visualize real-time data.

Stakeholder interviews

  • Developed a structured script for stakeholder interviews to ensure focused and insightful discussions.

  • Crafted questions tailored to uncover key business goals, user needs, and potential challenges.

  • Balanced open-ended and specific questions to encourage meaningful feedback.

  • Aligned the script with project objectives to gather actionable insights.

Establishing user hierarchy

Establishing a clear platform structure and hierarchy provided a strong foundation for designing an intuitive and cohesive user experience.

context map

A context map provided a comprehensive view of the product’s ecosystem. This helped us...

  • Clarify relationships, dependencies, opportunities, and risks

  • Guided prioritization

  • Offered valuable insights for strategic decision-making

User journey maps

Creating user journey maps allowed us to deeply understand the user’s needs and goals, identify key touchpoints, and provide valuable insights that shaped the platform's navigation and flow.

Key takeaways from the research

  • Accessibility

    Ensure the platform is intuitive, easy to use, and available to all

  • Safety

    Prioritizing user privacy, data security, and harm reduction principles to protect both those reporting overdoses and those experiencing them.

  • Sensitivity

    Designing with empathy to reduce stigma, using non-judgmental language, inclusive visuals, and thoughtful interactions that respect the lived experiences of affected communities.

content strategy and card sort

Using card sorting to analyze the insights gathered during the client workshop allowed us to effectively organize key features into their appropriate categories. This process played a crucial role in defining the optimal structure for the Information Architecture.

information architecture

I designed the information architecture using insights and diagrams gathered during our client workshops, ensuring it was grounded in comprehensive research and aligned with the project goals.

Wireframes

At the start of a project, I prefer to put pen to paper to kick off the wireframing process. This approach allows me to quickly generate multiple ideas and explore various pathways for the product.

Desktop wireframes

  • Home Page

  • Incident Report

  • My org Data dashboard - state level

  • My org data dashboard - county level

  • Organization Management - Our Supplies

  • Reports

  • Supplies

hi-fi desktop prototype

txcope’s impact

1039

23

5

Incidents Reported to date

Outreach Organizations Onboarded

data sources ingested into the application

This platform is making a life-saving impact across communities. In May 2024, a mass overdose event in Austin resulted in 51 confirmed overdoses and 8 suspected fatalities. Using the Overdose Reporting platform, prevention organizations received real-time alerts along the incident map and the projected path between different cities. The platform enabled rapid resource deployment, including Naloxone and essential supplies, to address the crisis. The Overdose Reporting Platform played a pivotal role in coordinating a community response that saved numerous lives.

“The people who have worked on TxCOPE literally saved lives this week. Together, we saved lives.”

- The Director of the Addiction Research Institute, University of Texas at Austin

“This program is going to be so vital to giving us the data we need to show that there is an actual problem in our community that needs to be addressed.”

- El Paso Outreach Worker

“As a true testament to ‘not about us...without us’, TxCOPE offers every opioid epidemic an opportunity to be a part of a solid outreach response.”

- San Antonio Outreach Worker

“Finally a platform we can use to better understand the needs of our communities and assists with accurate data collection on overdoses for the first time ever! Huge win for Texas outreach workers!”

- San Antonio Outreach Worker

The future for txcope

The future of TxCOPE is incredibly exciting. The goal is to expand beyond Texas and evolve into COPE, making the platform available nationwide—and eventually, internationally. This expansion gives our team the opportunity to take everything we've learned from building TxCOPE and reimagine it on a larger scale.

reflections

Reflecting on TxCOPE, a few things really stood out. The collaborative approach helped us align with community needs, while data-driven design gave real-time insights that proved crucial. Focusing on user-centered design made the platform intuitive and effective.

I learned that compliance was more complex than expected, and prioritizing features based on budget and time was key to managing scope.

Moving forward in my career, I’ll focus on flexibility and scalability as and continue relying on user feedback to guide future designs.

let’s connect!

Get in touch with me at tjvannart@gmail.com, or simply submit a message through the form.

Next

Financial Platform Client Project