A unified platform that brings together harm reduction services, community wisdom, and personal support for safer drug use.
1 UX Researcher, 1 UX Designer
Feb 2024 - Mar 2024 (5 weeks)
Figma
Project Goal
People who use drugs often face fragmented information, stigma, and negative experiences when seeking health and social services.
Season consolidates real-time harm reduction resources, peer insights, and emergency support into a single platform to ensure safer drug use and reduce barriers to care.
How might we…
...designed a comprehensive harm reduction platform with empathy and accessibility in mind?
Core Experience
Explore
The home screen provides app users with multiple user-friendly ways to search for the services they want.
Discover
The Directory provides a list of centers that offer myriad services, and upon the discretion of the user can also suggest nearby centers based on the user’s location.
App users can also filter based on the services they want.
Share
App users are encouraged to share their experience at facilities, giving others a look into local harm reduction and treatment centers.
Reviews give app users real-time knowledge on service availability and the most common barriers to access.
Reviewers can share as much or as little as they want. A guided comment section allows reviewers to share how safe, supported, and respected they felt at the facility.
Talk
Need some information? Worried about overdosing? When in need of help, want to call an emergency contact?
Worry not, with Season, you’re never alone.
Impact
We designed an app from 0 to 1 with a design system for harm reduction with a research team from University of Pittsburgh.
scroll down to explore our full research and design journey!
Research
Clarifying the plan with external clients
We met with Dr. Paul J. Joudrey from University of Pittsburgh Medical Center to pinpoint exactly what their concerns are and how we can help. Through our communication, we learned the core user groups:
People who are actively using drugs, as opposed to those in recovery.
This shapes the app’s focus on harm reduction rather than abstinence.
Problem
People who use drugs often face disproportionately high barriers to accessing health and social services.
We conducted research to uncover key barriers individuals face in seeking harm reduction services.
Marginalized & Stigmatized
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Negative Experiences with Traditional Services
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Fragmented, Overwhelming Information
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Design Goal
Build an online library of place-based, real-time knowledge on services for people who use drugs
The research insights led to four core pillars guiding our design approach:
What It Is: Private & Secure, Community-Driven, Accessible & Informative
How It Makes Users Feel: Safe, Supported, Respected
What It Provides: Comprehensive Directory, Peer Reviews & Insights, Emergency Support & Resources
Design Solution
Introducing Season, a community-support APP
Season brings together harm reduction services, community wisdom, and personal support
in a unified platform for those seeking safer drug use.
Ideation
We drafted from sketches, wireframes to high fidelity screens.
We created a user journey to map how users would interact with Season.
Iteration
We conducted design walkthrough and user testing with 4 peer navigators. Through this, we received information on what to iterate.
Clarifying Insurance Coverage for Services
Users can now see what insurance plans are accepted at harm reduction facilities, helping them determine accessibility before visiting.
Users had to call or visit in person to check if their insurance was accepted, adding unnecessary friction.
Incorporating Street Names for Harm Reduction Supplies
Added common street names for harm reduction supplies (e.g., Naloxone → Narcan) to improve accessibility and comprehension. Also included educational snippets to dispel myths about adulterants and contamination risks.
Only listed medical names, making it harder for users unfamiliar with clinical terminology to identify the right services.
Clarifying Peer Support vs. Technical Support
Renamed and redefined “Live Support” as “Peer Support,” with a clear description of what it offers, emphasizing lived experience, harm reduction guidance, and crisis support.
Users confused “Live Support” with technical support, leading to misinterpretation of the feature’s purpose.
Final Design
Explore Services
The home screen provides app users with multiple user-friendly ways to search for the services they want.
Directory
Season’s library of services includes harm reduction services, treatment and medical services, and other essential services.
Discover
The Directory provides a list of centers that offer myriad services, and upon the discretion of the user can also suggest nearby centers based on the user’s location.
App users can also filter based on the services they want.
Location
Service tab provide the information about services availability, service data and service access issue.
Share
App users are encouraged to share their experience at facilities, giving others a look into local harm reduction and treatment centers.
Reviews give app users real-time knowledge on service availability and the most common barriers to access.
Reviewers can share as much or as little as they want. A guided comment section allows reviewers to share how safe, supported, and respected they felt at the facility.
Talk
Need some information? Worried about overdosing? When in need of help, want to call an emergency contact?
Worry not, with Season, you’re never alone.
Emergency SMS
Season’s Talk feature enables users to set up an emergency SMS plan that can be used in case of emergencies.
The very first time, our user is prompted to setup an emergency contact’s information which is saved and in the future, can be activated by a single click.
Design System
Season’s logo, colour and illustrations embody the seasonal theme, with four icons each depicting a different season. These are complemented with hand-drawn illustrations, to foster a warm, supportive, and friendly atmosphere.
Our goal is to cultivate a conversational and friendly environment, making every user feel welcomed, respected and understood.
