NEAT-O

My design team and I evaluated the goals and features of an in-development app called NEAT-O. It was designed to assist people suffering from opioid use disorder (OUD) and help guide them through the the recovery process. Our main goals in this process were to provide feedback on the user experience flow of the proposed and suggest features and implementations.

CLIENT

ROLE

Anker/Rinehart Lab, University of Minnesota

UX Researcher & Designer

METHODS

Competitive Audit, Secondary Research, Stakeholder Interview, Experience Mapping, Storyboard, Prototyping

NEAT-O is a cutting-edge digital Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT) program designed specifically for individuals coping with opioid use disorder (OUD) and concurrent anxiety or mood disorders, collectively known as internalizing disorders (INTDs). Developed from a robust CBT framework, NEAT-O has been tailored to address the intricate challenges of comorbid substance use disorders (SUDs) and anxiety and major depression. This mobile application serves as a comprehensive support tool throughout patients’ recovery journeys—from initial account setup and onboarding to daily management of their conditions.

Context

All patient experience touch points for NEAT-O will help adults suffering from opioid use disorder (OUD) that are seeking treatment, by helping them feel supported, empowered, and hopeful that they will be able to achieve abstinence. We will do this by focusing on affirming healthy habit formation and providing supportive resources to educate and guide users to sobriety.

Strategy Statement

  • Humanitarian: NEAT-O’s primary goal is to help people suffering from OUD, driven by mission rather than profit.

  • Accessibility: NEAT-O is intended to provide greater convenience and accessibility for people suffering from OUD.

  • Support: Recovery is a continuous journey taken one day at a time, and NEAT-O serves as a companion within a larger support system to help manage OUD.

  • Education: NEAT-O aims to provide resources and tools to be able to find what they need without having to meet with their therapist and gain the ability to identify their own signs and triggers.

Guiding Principles

Our first point of research was a stakeholder meeting with the stakeholders of NEAT-O, to establish the goals and functionality of the app. After this, the design team conducted research based on individual questions, suggested readings from the stakeholders, and a competitive analysis of similar programs and applications. After reconvening, we synthesized the data and brainstormed how the proposed features could best be implemented.

Deep Dive Research

Experience Journey Map

Designed by Jonah Wang

One of the major considerations for the design team when approaching how to best create suggestions for NEAT-O was to understand the model and goals. One of the key points of focus was the understanding that recovering from addiction is a journey and not a destination. Within this insight, how could we as the design team envision the full journey a patient has while using NEAT-O?

The answer, we decided, was to embody this line of thought and visualize their use of the app as a non-linear experience. Although the starting points and end goals might be consistent, users would have paths to revisit information and modules as needed, and even the ending point was not truly the end of their recovery journey. NEAT-O would still be available to patients who felt that they still needed support.

Patient Journey

Now, with all of our findings and research mapped out: the design team began our initial prototypes on how to implement the modules and some functions in an intuitive way.

Starting with low-fidelity prototypes, we plotted out the general flow and some essential screens required to communicate the goals of NEAT-O. The major screens and features that we were responsible for prototyping included: the main/starting screen for patients, a progress tracking view to help patients keep track of the steps they have taken on their journey, one implementation of the modules proposed, and implementation of notifications that would be present within NEAT-O.

Prototypes

Lo-Fi Prototypes & Wireframes

In our design team of 3 UX designers and researchers, we divided up the work to accomplish these deliverables within the time constraints provided for the scope of this project. My primary responsibility was mapping out the Experience Journey and creating the corresponding graphic (above) and my teammates requested taking on prototyping the other functions requested by the stakeholders.

One of our designers came to the conclusion that wireframing a notification menu would not be the most efficient way of communicating this feature and elected to present this function in a storyboard (right).

However, for the other screens my teammates drafted lower fidelity wireframes equipped with interactive flows that would be presented to the stakeholders to communicate our vision for NEAT-O (below).

Notifications Storyboard by Erick Rome (UX Designer & Researcher)

Annotated Wireframes by Connor Steffens

Annotated Wireframes by Erick Rome

Next Steps

Due to the constraints of this project, the design team unfortunately only had the opportunity to correspond with Anker/Rinehart Lab once at the beginning.

Additionally, as this is an app currently in-development, some aspects of the scope, features, and overall model were not fully fleshed out at the time of our meeting. Due to the complex and highly academic nature of the project, now that the team has been better equipped with the required research and understanding of the product I feel that a second meeting and discussion with the stakeholders could be highly beneficial to confirming that the vision the design team and the stakeholders have is consistent.

Additionally there were other considerations that arose while conducting our research and competitive analysis that we would appreciate having further insight on for future work on this product.

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Additional Considerations

  • The extent and plans for community based aspects of NEAT-O

  • Language and Tone

    • Anker/Rineheart had discussed a gamification angle to NEAT-O in their brief, this could be a difficult balance between providing an enjoyable experience and retaining the professional qualities of the program

  • Data Tracking

    • Stakeholders were adamantly against implementing any AI functionality due to privacy concerns, but also expressed a desire for customized content, the question then was where would this customized content be pulled from?