Visual redesign of
Teen Marijuana Check Up
The Problem
Fair warning: this page is best viewed on a desktop device.
The University of Washington Innovative Program Research Group at the School of Social Work has long been conducting studies of intervention techniques with teens who use marijuana. Throughout this clinical intervention, a feedback report is generated personalized to the teen student as a mediating object. At this time, the report is only used in hard copy form, though a digital version may be developed in the future. In preparation for an upcoming research trial, the researchers on the project sought help in redesigning the Personal Feedback Report (PFR) with a user centered approach.
The Goals
The first step in this project was goal development. As a user-centered designer, including the individuals who use this tool was a priority. In collaboration with researchers and clinicians who have experience implementing the PFR with youth users, the following goals were identified:
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Update data visualizations to incorporate best practices: ​
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Add way-finding and grounding features throughout the document.​
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Have consistent visual image across document.
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Redesign PFR to increase engagement, better communicate core messages, and be more motivating.
Blow are insights into 5 of the 10 pages of the PFR.
Page 1 - Normative Usage Data
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Goals:
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Convey normative data based on participant's responses to questionnaire.
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Normative data is one of the key motivational components of this document, so making sure it is easy to understand for the clinician and participant is essential. ​
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Increase impact of normative information.
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Not only should the normative data be understood, the graphics should ​also make an impression on the user.
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Incorporate relevant best-practices:
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Don't use a pie chart to show population data.​
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Use visual that can reflect small percentages or a population with impact.
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Before
After
Changes, top to bottom:
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Page & section titles
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Population graphs that reflect a consistent style.
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Using 100 small icons to represent 100% of the population, even small numbers can be represented.​
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While just the numbers would make this data easy to digest, adding the population visualization makes an impact.
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Arrows direct the reader around the page, connecting the participant's data directly to the normative numbers.
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Page number and indicator for what page is coming next.
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Goals:
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Represent frequency of school use visually.
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Prompting students to consider the impact of their use on their performance at school.​
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Add method of application (ways participant has used) section to promote discussion with clinician.
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Update visuals in spending section.
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This section needed an update to reflect what teens purchase, and to be agnostic to the interests of the teens in the study.​
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After
Page 2/3 - School & Spending Data (+ Method of Use)
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Before
Changes, top to bottom:
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Page & section titles
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Separated school use from spending to keep to one topic per page.
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Developed visual for school week use.
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Incorporated arrows to connect text to visuals​
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Added original iconography to each section. Iterated as necessary to reach broad but identifiable visuals.
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Incorporated empty space for teen to add the item they would have purchased.
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Page number and indicator for what page is coming next.
Page 6 - Network of Support​
Goals:
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Inspire participants to think of who in their life they turn to for support.
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Allow for more holistic interaction, focusing on one component of support system at a time, instead of the table format.
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Incorporate familiar iconography.
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Changes, top to bottom:
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Page title
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Visual representation of support network replaces stock images.
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Open-source emojis mirror Facebook reactions, an interaction that teens are likely familiar with.
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Page number and indicator for what page is coming next.
Before
After
Page 7 - Participant Goals
Goals:
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Provide rubric for teens to evaluate the impact of their marijuana use on their individual goals and their goals overall.
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Motivate participants to consider the importance of their goals.
Before
Changes, top to bottom:
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Page title
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Icon development for goal imagery.
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Incorporation of Likert scale for each goal to see the trend across all of the goals.
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Page number and indicator for what page is coming next.
After
NEXT STeps
User testing
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The next phase will be to user test the updated version of the PFR with individuals outside of the research group. The insight of clinicians, and hopefully teen participants, will be invaluable in finalizing the changes to the report.
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Development​
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After finalizing the document, I will work with a developer to turn the hard copy into a template that can be merged with questionnaire data to produce individualized reports.
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Lessons Learned
This has been one of my favorite projects. It was my first experience being called upon as an expert to bring my insight to another discipline. I learned:
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The value of applying my skills in diverse contexts. It makes complete sense to consider the user in designing clinical tools.
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That I know my way around Illustrator. And if I run into something I haven't done before, I can figure it out fairly quickly.
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The challenge and reward of working independently. I was the only person working on this project from the design side of things, and at times it was nerve-wracking to present my ideas to the stakeholders. My experience with critique as an artist definitely came in handy.