Designing a trauma informed website for HIV resources

This project refactored HIVaz.org for my client Arizona’s Department of Human Services. Users were finding it difficult to access HIV care and resources because the website was bloated and unfocused with every imaginable HIV resource for every kind of persona.

Product

  • HIVaz.org is a website dedicated to connecting people to HIV resources and care.

Website Problems

  • People weren’t connecting to care or taking advantage of government and community programs.

Personas

  • People searching for HIV care → Fear of the social stigma, inaccessibility of resources, and crushing anxiety prevents these users from taking full advantage of the website.

Outcomes

  • 80% reduction in bounce rate.

My Role

  • Design Research

Timeframe

  • 3 months

Interviews with 30 HIV counselors, 10 people who were affected by HIV, and a few prototypes.

Core User Needs

  • Identity and Safety → A supportive community and guidance from experienced people were the most effective ways to overcome negative behaviors.

  • Minimizing Anxiety → HIV is still a highly stigmatized disease. A person’s reaction to learning or fearing that they may be HIV+ can range from extreme self-isolation, extreme denial, or unwillingness to seek medical attention due to medical mistrust.

  • Lower Barriers → The process of getting into care or finding the correct care is multi-stepped especially if you don’t have access to medical insurance. Many of the counselors that I interviewed worked with disadvantaged populations who didn’t have access to insurance.

Translating User Needs Into Design Hypotheses

  • Identity and Safety → Sending safety signals like using images of people who represent the target population will make the website more trustworthy by connecting to the user’s identity.

  • Minimizing Anxiety → The tone of the website will be crucial to minimize anxiety because the kind of information that is communicated can easily trigger anxiety for users.

  • Lower Barriers → Lowering the number of options will lower barrier by greatly reducing the cognitive load that we are demanding of the users.

Lots of user testing and ideating concepts drove me to a feasible solution that would work for our high risk users.

Ecosystem Analysis

  • Almost all healthcare directories suffer from the same problems as my client’s existing website — too much information all at once, inaccessible language, and directionless user flows.

    • A standout resources was mytranshealthcare.com (now offline) that provided a shortlist of vetted healthcare providers, and had an excellent tone that spoke to their target audience.

Going From Design Hypotheses to Concrete Direction.

  • Identity and Safety → Because this website services people affected by HIV, not just the LGBTQ+ community, we opted for a neutral but stylized visuals. (Straight identifying people are actually the highest percentage of new infections).

  • Minimizing Anxiety → From the user research, I learned that a tone of a close friend or trusted counselor was most effective in persuading people to seek care. The tone of the website mirrored that soft but authoritative tone.

  • Lower Barriers → The options presented to the user for getting them into care was trimmed down to programs run by the Dept. of Health and Human Services, which could quickly connect people to care.

Quick Concept Validation

Several rounds of user testing were done on paper and lo-fi prototypes to probe potential options for updating HIVaz.org.

  • Questionnaire to tailor services to users → This concept tested well, but the initial designs were too bloated. My clients and I ended up trimming this so that there was only 1 question: “do you know your HIV status?”. This then lead to a page with specific resources based on the users status.

  • An in depth info page for care providers → While this information was very useful for people experienced with navigating care, maintaining the database of information would have been unfeasible and it missed the mark for our more high risk users.

  • Automatically generated to-do list for users → This concept was also popular with people experience with navigating care, but again, it missed the mark with our more high risk users. This concept was translated into the content for the website pages, with more immediate direct action surfaced to the top.

  • A script for talking to care providers on the phone → Teenagers and young adults were part of the higher risk population, imagine being 16 and trying to get HIV care because you think you might have contracted it. The script was meant to make it easy to start the conversation. This idea was benched due to a lack of resources with developing the scripts. Instead, the content of the website pages set expectations and connected users to programs that would get them to counselors who could navigate the human problems.

Research delivered!

Next Steps

  • Research was handed over and presented to the agency that would build the website.