In order to understand the opioid users' addiction experience, we conducted semi-structured interviews at a local methadone clinic in Austin, TX after we got IRB approval. The interviews covered questions regarding opioid use history, overdose education, journey map and smartphone use. Nine people who receive medication-assisted treatment for opioid addiction shared their thoughts with us.
* Medication-assisted treatment (MAT) is the use of medications in combination with counseling and behavioral therapies, which is effective in the treatment of opioid use disorders and can help some people to sustain recovery. (from FDA)

From our user research, we find that in different phases opioid users have different education and community support needs. For example, in the illegal opioid use phase, they want overdose prevention education; in the detox phase, they need behavior modification treatments; in the recovery phase, they want to learn relapse prevention. Additionally, opioid users like to seek support from their counselors and NA/AA community as well as help other opioid users.

However, according to our competitive analysis, none of current sobriety apps meet the needs. Some apps even have privacy concerns. Morevoer, opioid users are very likely to invovle in criminal activities after they run out of money, which finally leads to incarceration. All of 9 interviewees were incarcerated at some point in their recent history. But there is no opioid overdose intervention following incarceration.

I designed the low fidelity wireframes of the support feature. It has four components: Health Coach, Mentor, Forum, and Chatbot. In the user research, the participants showed varied interests in choosing the support system. Therefore, we included all of them in the app.

We integrated research insights into the second prototype. It shifted to a progress-centric recovery app with focuses on education, support, and community.
My responsibility in this stage was owning the homepage design, making three designers' interface consistent and making a InVision prototype.

We were very honored to be a finalist in the UXPA 2018 Student Competition and presented our poster at the UXPA 2018 International Conference! Some conference attendees showed great interest in funding this application and made it available to the public. We are so happy that many people like our work. Hope to get C.D.C funding so we can continue our work!