Role: UX Lead with 1 UX Designer, 1 UI Designer, and a Drupal Developer
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Problem: There are roughly 2.3 million people incarcerated in the United States today, but limited resources prevent correctional facilities from providing programming, rehabilitative content, and accessible communication resources. My team was tasked with completely redesigning this web-based portal to support correctional facility staff and to provide a more full picture of the incarcerated users.

Outcome: Merged two distinct products into a seamless, unified experience, Provided strategic and tactical guidance to create a cohesive suite of tools that are now being used by roughly 9,000 corrections staff across the country, Improved accessibility of tools to accommodate users of varying ages and technical skills.
Kickoff Workshop & Synthesis
To kick off the project, I facilitated empathy mapping and ecosystem mapping exercises to help the team align on their unique users and the processes and technology involved in managing correctional facilities. After the workshop, I synthesized key insights, identifying recurring themes, stakeholder priorities, and shared values.
These findings informed a set of actionable design principles that guided decision-making throughout the design process.
Field Research
I led in-person research at correctional facilities in Illinois, California, and Maine, where we engaged with 23 officers and civilian staff under unique and high-stress conditions.
Despite limitations like restricted equipment and cultural barriers to open communication, we adapted creatively—facilitating a focus group in Maine and ultimately uncovering powerful insights that were synthesized into a findings deck with user archetypes in the jobs-to-be-done framework.
JTBD Framework
After conducting user research, I translated the insights into user archetypes, which helped to define distinct user needs, behaviors, and goals. I then applied the Jobs-to-Be-Done framework to ensure our designs addressed the core tasks users were trying to accomplish within the correctional environment.
This approach allowed us to focus on delivering solutions that truly supported users’ workflows and helped prioritize features aligned with their most pressing needs.
Interaction Concepting
To kick-off the design phase of this project, we mapped out a variety of interaction models based on learning from an earlier interaction concepting session.
To bring all of our client’s capabilities into one unified tool, we established 7 core areas including an inmate profile, education, scheduling, investigation, forms and grievances, system administration, and the overall Edovo dashboard.
Wires & Designs
Our design phase was broken into three, two week design sprints, and because of the scope of this project, my team was tasked with designing a select number of key pages to be used as templates across the rest of the tool. We focused on scheduling, investigation, and forms and grievances since those were the most complex areas of the tool. The designs below show how we incorporated multiple complex tasks with very different user types into a single suite of tools for users with varying degrees of tech literacy in very stressful environments.
Usability Testing & Design System
We conducted usability testing with corrections staff to gather feedback on our designs, ensuring they addressed real-world needs and workflows within facilities.
Using these insights, we built a comprehensive HTML and CSS design system to deliver consistent, accessible, and scalable components tailored to the unique requirements of the correctional environment.
