UX Lead for a communication services product for incarcerated individuals
Our client was a mission-driven startup working to provide educational resources to those who are incarcerated. They first launched with a tablet product that offered educational resources and entertainment, but they branched out to offer communication services as well. Correctional facilities required that they have a portal for correctional officers and other social workers to monitor users’ behavior. Our goal was to design this portal, and to do so in a way that aligned with our client’s mission of increasing rehabilitation and reducing recidivism.
Design comps were created by the team visual designer with input from me as the project lead.
Snapshot
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Visited 3 facilities in Illinois, California, and Maine
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Conducted user research under incredibly unique circumstances
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Conducted empathy mapping
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Mapped out the users’ and clients’ ecosystems
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Established a set of guiding design principles
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Conducted a UX & Visual System Analysis of existing tools
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Created interaction models for future state tools
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Compiled research findings in a jobs-to-be-done format
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Designed an information architecture for a portal with multiple different users
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Led multiple design sprints
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Conducted usability tests with users from corrections facilities
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Delivered a pattern library and style guide
My Role
As the UX Lead my responsibilities included
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Oversaw a design team of 2 designers.
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Managed relationships with our client which included product owners, designers, developers, and business partners
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Planned user research and travel for 3 on-site research sessions which included roughly 23 interviews with officers and civilian staff
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Worked with my design team to provide constructive and timely feedback to ensure quality of all design deliverables before sharing with the client
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Managed timelines, hours budgets, stand-ups, retros, and all client communication.
What was the 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 that help incarcerated individuals and their families.
Our client added communication services to their offerings in order to fill the void in the market of mission-driven communication software in correctional facilities. They purchased an existing communication provider that was already in facilities across the county, but the software for monitoring these communications was outdated and in some ways, it went against our client’s mission of rehabilitation.
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.
Kickoff Workshop
We kicked off the project with a number of activities that I facilitated. Since we were working with two teams from two different companies who had just completed a merger, we mapped out their existing ecosystem.
Design Principles
In order to align everyone around common objectives, we collaboratively created a set of design principles. To do this, we collected inputs from the team then crafted these principles, and shared out for feedback until all stakeholders were in alignment.
Another major part of this kickoff was the empathy mapping exercise. The tools we designed would be for users under immense stress. Personally, I’ve never facilitated an empathy mapping session that was this eye-opening.
Analysis of existing tools
A part of our challenge was to bring two existing tools with very different design languages and features together. To do this, we started with a feature audit and ux and visual design system analysis. This helped us decide on which features to include in the future state tool and which to deprecate. The UX and visual system analysis helped us familiarize ourselves with the two tools and highlight to the client the state of their existing inconsistent design system.
In person research & research findings
The most exciting part of this project was the in-person research we conducted across 3 states. We visited correctional facilities in Illinois, California, and Maine, and we spoke with roughly 23 officers and civilian staff. This was the most unique user research I’ve ever completed, and as project lead, I felt responsible for not only uncovering user insights but keeping my colleagues comfortable in a high-stress environment.
Fresno, CA, Augusta, ME, and Kane County, IL, correctional facilities.
Since we were visitors at these correctional facilities, we were allowed to bring only a pen and a notebook. We had to take notes by hand, without laptops or recording devices. The culture of these facilities also prevented us from having open and honest conversations in some settings. During our visit to Maine, we had to conduct a half-day focus group with corrections officers and detectives from across the state instead of doing one-on-one interviews. This required a ton of last minute creativity, and while almost all participants began the process with skepticism, we were able to communicate the value of what we were doing, and by the end of almost every interview, we had uncovered some powerful insights.
Once we returned from the in-person visits, we synthesized our findings and presented a research findings deck with user archetypes formatted in the jobs-to-be-done framework.
Interaction Modeling
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.
Wireframes
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. I worked very closely with our client to identify those sections given our limited hours and timeline.
Usability Testing
At the end of each design sprint, we conducted remote usability testing with correctional facilities across the country. Feedback from those sessions were incorporated into each subsequent design phase.
What was the result?
Before this project started, our client was grappling with how to merge two completely different products into one, seamless experience. We were able to provide a direction, both strategically and tactically for them to provide a suite of offerings to their correctional clients.
On top of a more consistent experience, we improved the accessibility of their tools, which are used primarily by individuals in a wide range of ages and experience with technology.
We were also able to make our client’s mission of improving the lives of incarcerated individuals and their families more real by prioritizing specific features, deprecating unethical software, and helping correctional staff to see incarcerated individuals in a more human light.
What would I do differently?
This project was challenging from certain ethical lenses, but I think my team and I handled the challenge well. At the end of the project, I reached out to the client for feedback, and one of the only critical things they had to say was that we overcorrected the design at times based on their feedback which caused more back and forth than was necessary. If I could do this again, I would take a stronger stance on certain design decisions and remind myself that my first instinct is usually the best.