Cities in the US operate on shoe-string budgets. This project, from discovery to delivery required lean efficient work and decision making. This included restricting the team to three people: A database and AWS specialist, a front-end specialist, and I wore UX/UI and product & project management hats.

This application applies to heavily stigmatized topics: substance use related services and behavioral health supports. Trauma-informed research planning and trauma-informed wording was essential as to not stigmatize or re-traumatize potential users.
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The research plan centered around information architecture to create an ergonomic browsing tool. Users will need to quickly navigate a massive database of roughly 700 organizations across Eastern Massachusetts. Working from a database with 46 category tags, I performed open card sorts with key stakeholders. From those results I developed a hierarchical data structure which I validated through 20+ tree tests with wider stakeholders (public health professionals in the Mystic Valley region). Making necessary adjustments, I mapped the data tags to front-end categories for a developer hand-off.

For many reasons, we neither collect nor track user data. Therefore we are unable to show users the services closest to them. The UX solution is to allow users to filter results by "city."

The application is in the process of a general release.
Satisfy the requirements of state grant funding.
Open conversation of further partnerships with treatment facilities, community-based organizations, and public health groups who are also looking to expand their digital-based services and visibility.