Cop-Aid
Designing a Naloxone training app to support police officers in improving response efficiency during Opioid overdose cases.
San Francisco has an Opioid crisis with mortality data from the CDC showing the highest rates across the country at “80 overdoses per 100,000 people”. Cop-Aid is a conceptual solution to digitizing the Naloxone training guide and helping police officers quickly and accurately administer Naloxone.
Project Timeline
Jan 2023 - Feb 2023 (2 weeks)
Tools
FigJam, Figma
Skills
Concept Testing, Desk Research, Figma Prototyping, Logic Flow Diagramming, Research Synthesis & Insights, Sketching, User Interface (UI) Design, User Experience (UX) Design, Visual Design, Wireframing
Project Type
Group project with Afreen Azad (Graphic Designer) for our Health Design class led by Brian Hoffer at California College of the Arts
I led the transformation of a critical decision-making flow into a guided digital experience
Designing Cop-Aid meant creating a user experience model that served practicality over aesthetics.
Afreen and I were not only challenged to convert the physical into digital, but we also had to ensure that our solution would not hinder the process of correctly administering Narcan, a life-saving medicine used to reverse Opioid drug overdoses.
Contribution and Impact
Successfully mapped key decision-making points and adapted them to a conceptual working prototype. Demonstrated a strong ability to iterate and improve upon initial feedback to develop a solution that better fitted the use case scenario.
Narcan used correctly can save lives
Naloxone, or Narcan, is a medicine that rapidly reverses the effects of an Opioid overdose. Available as an over-the-counter nasal spray, it can restore normal respiratory breathing and prevent death when administered in time.
While Narcan is simple to use, its effectiveness depends on quick, timely action — and the right training. But how do we ensure that individuals, particularly in high-pressure environments, are equipped to use Narcan when it matters most?
But how do we ensure that individuals in high-pressure environments are equipped to use Narcan when it matters most?
Timely administration relies on a sound understanding of the instructions.
A quick look into the Narcan packaging box, reveals an instruction manual with multiple steps to administering Narcan.
We quickly understood that a dense manual requiring thorough reading is a barrier to police officers who are first responders in high-stress overdose cases.
The challenge we identified underscores a larger issue:
the need for streamlined instructions so that life-saving actions can be taken under pressure.
Our research eventually led us to the question,
“How can we redesign the instructions for administering Narcan more accessible and intuitive for police officers?”
Ultimately, our design should benefit everyone, including civilians who might face an emergency overdose situation.
Introducing
Cop-Aid
Cop-Aid is an Naloxone training app that revolutionizes the paper manual, offering an experiential step-by-step guide to administering Naloxone.
Designed for limited mobility and manual dexterity
Observational research revealed that police officers attending to overdosing users have both hands busy at most times. Cop-Aid’s interactions were designed to intentionally overcome this challenge with:
Considering haptic constraints with large swipe motions over buttons presses
The decision-making model with “yes” or “no” questions is powered with swipes from right to left. Most crucial actions in the process require swift swipes to proceed.
Adding bold colors and icons to create a strong contrast between steps
Icons and colors help distinguish between the different stages in the process. Examples include the magnifying glass to identify symptoms, the eye to observe the person’s status, and red for critical actions like CPR.
Including large text to increase visibility of instructions
Large sized text helps with brief glances at instructions to quickly absorb information and retain focus on the emergency at hand.
The Design Journey
Week 1
Developing ideas based on identified needs and challenges
Design analysis of existing instruction manuals
Behavioral observation of overdose cases
Ideating preliminary concepts
Week 2
Designing and prototyping the final concept
Concept testing and developing iterations
Drafting decision-making flows
Designing an interactive prototype
Dissecting the current design of the Naloxone paper manual
The first step to an effective redesign was actively analyzing the design decisions taken to creating the existing paper manual. What we noticed was:
1
STAGE IDENTIFICATION MARKERS
Help to identify the pre-, during, and post-administration stages.
BOLD ACTION DESCRIPTORS
Help to identify key actions required to determine the severity of the overdose.
INSTRUCTIONAL ILLUSTRATIONS
Help to provide better context in using the spray and administering Naloxone correctly.
Understanding police behavior and attitudes in overdose cases
The next step in developing a comprehensive solution was to identify the behavioral patterns of our users. We watched bodycam videos of officers and asked ourselves,
2
From the moment they are dispatched to when they arrive on the scene, understanding their emotional and mental state is essential for optimizing how they engage with and follow instructions.
“What does a police officer’s response look like when attending an overdose case?”
“What challenges do they face in these situations?”
We narrowed down potential goals for our solution by identifying officers’ needs and their corresponding challenges
A Figjam brainstorming session helped us pinpoint needs and their challenges as identified from observational research. We selected one compelling challenge to solve based on competition from existing solutions as well as level of technical feasibility.
We then began exploring ideas that could help improve response time in overdose cases
Our initial sketches focused on condensing information by further dividing the stages into essential actions.
Keeping the bold action descriptors and illustrations from the manual, we experimented with digital concepts that improved instructional navigation and information retention.
Testing the concept to uncover cracks and challenges in the current design
Our first iteration was a quick start guide with each essential stage in the process divided into their own sections: “Identify”, “Give”, and “Evaluate”.
What differentiated the idea was the “Response Checklist” which allowed each step in every stage to be ticked off as they are completed.
3
While the visual design helped track progress and break down the steps into digestible elements…
Our biggest pitfall in this design was overlooking the context in which the app would be used.
Police officers are tasked with balancing immense mental stress while making life-altering decisions.
So, we pivoted — shifting from a process-oriented user flow to a decision-oriented one.
WHAT DOES THIS MEAN?
We didn’t simply want to replicate the instruction manual; our goal was to optimize it by highlighting critical decision-making points that users might otherwise overlook.
4
Drafting logic flows to finalize the end-to-end user experience
Multiple logic flows were mapped out to identify the YES/NO decisions that guide Naloxone administration, based on the recipient's condition. The logic flow outlined the next steps for both scenarios: 'If yes, then what?' and 'If no, then what?
What did I learn?
Although I had known of the Opioid crisis in San Francisco, I found myself many times during this project, grappling with my lack of knowledge about the subject matter. Due to the time constraints that limited me from conducting field research, I found it vital that I did adequate background research and truly grasped the perspectives of police officers with sensitivity and seriousness.
The lack of focus on aesthetics and branding in the visual design made the design approach extra challenging as well. I had to tweak my existing understanding of app design and modify it to follow a logical flow with minimalistic layout choices.
The systemic nature of health challenges such as solving the Opioid crisis involves a more empathetic understanding of the interactions between relevant stakeholders— in this case, police officers and the people who receive support. This project was my introduction to the world of Health Design and I'm very excited to see what kind of health challenges I encounter in the future!
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