Designing Calm in the Chaos
Created intuitive mobile experiences to support users during public health emergencies—prioritizing clarity, speed, and trust when it mattered most.
Working with the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA), my goal was to design digital tools that offered immediate, trustworthy guidance to both professionals and the public facing high-stress situations—from natural disasters to the opioid crisis. These solutions required an intimate understanding of the end-user's environment, whether that meant designing for zero connectivity in a disaster zone or creating a safe, private space for a parent to learn to speak to their child. This single-page case study showcases five concise projects that share a common thread: transforming complex, critical information into accessible, action-oriented mobile experiences to help people in crisis.
The Challenge
How do you design digital tools that work in the most challenging environments—where connectivity is unreliable, stress is high, and the stakes are life-or-death?
My Role
As UX Lead, I designed and tested five mobile applications for SAMHSA, each addressing critical public health challenges through user-centered design, field testing, and accessibility-first principles.
Five Projects, One Mission: Help People in Crisis
Each of these projects required deep empathy, rigorous user research, and innovative solutions to unique technical and human challenges. From disaster zones with no internet to sensitive conversations between parents and children, these apps demonstrate how thoughtful design can make a real difference when it matters most.
Speed and Reliability in Crisis
SAMHSA Behavioral Health Disaster Response App
The Challenge
Disaster relief workers and first responders operate in environments where mobile internet and reliable service are non-existent. These users needed immediate access to critical mental health and substance abuse resources, service locators, and clinical support, regardless of their connection status.
The Solution
We designed an experience centered on robust offline functionality. Users could proactively preload device-specific resources tied to a particular disaster event, including local treatment facility maps and contact information. This architecture guaranteed that responders had the life-saving information they needed the moment they needed it, eliminating connectivity as a barrier to service delivery.
Field-Tested Data Collection and Trust
SAMHSA DTAC CCP Mobile Data Entry System
The Challenge
FEMA disaster mental health responders needed to collect detailed, complex survey data from affected individuals using the Crisis Counseling Program (CCP) form. Similar to the disaster response app, connectivity was a major issue, requiring local data storage. A critical insight from beta testing in the field revealed that responders often waited until after their conversation to complete the form, rather than filling it out in front of the individual, to build rapport and trust.
The Solution
The application was built with a store-and-sync mechanism, allowing long, complex forms to be completed offline and securely submitted to the DTAC database once a stable connection was restored. More importantly, we redesigned complex form sections to be non-linear and easy to navigate, accommodating the post-interaction workflow and minimizing cognitive load, ensuring the design supported the responder's priority of human connection and trust.
Proactive Prevention and Engagement
Know Bullying
The Challenge
Bullying prevention is most effective when parents engage in consistent, open dialogue with their children, but initiating these conversations can be difficult or feel unnatural.
The Solution
Know Bullying was designed to serve as a supportive coaching tool for parents. Users could input the ages of their children, and the app would deliver proactive, age-appropriate conversation starters via notifications. This design nudged parents toward crucial discussions about their child's day, feelings, and potential exposure to bullying, making prevention an integrated, natural part of daily life rather than a reactive intervention.
Professional Enablement and Adoption
MATx
The Challenge
Expanding access to Medication-Assisted Treatment (MAT) for opioid use disorder requires more doctors to obtain the necessary waiver. The process involves clinical education and training, which must be delivered efficiently to busy physicians.
The Solution
The MATx app streamlined the training and provided essential clinical resources. Through in-depth interviews and usability testing conducted with physicians at medical conferences, we optimized the learning paths and resource accessibility. The resulting experience was highly praised by early users for its clarity and utility, successfully lowering the barrier for doctors to gain their waiver and, in turn, increasing the number of professionals able to combat the opioid crisis.
Critical Training and Interactive Learning
Suicide Safe
The Challenge
First responders, clinicians, and emergency personnel need to be proficient in the SAFE-T (Suicide Assessment Five-step Evaluation and Triage) method, a critical skill for managing patients with suicidal ideation. Delivering this sensitive, life-saving training needed to be engaging and accessible under pressure.
The Solution
We designed an application that blended reference material with highly interactive, guided case studies. These features presented transcripted patient-provider conversations, allowing the user to actively click and identify the distinct steps of the SAFE-T method as they unfolded in a real-world dialogue. This approach transformed static clinical guidelines into a practical, scenario-based learning experience, ensuring users could confidently apply the methodology when confronting a crisis.
Key Takeaway and Future Impact
Ultimately, these five SAMHSA projects underscore a single critical design philosophy: in times of chaos, design must provide calm. By focusing relentlessly on user context—whether that meant enabling offline functionality for disaster relief, designing for privacy and trust in data collection, or transforming complex clinical guidelines into interactive, approachable learning—we delivered tools that empower users to act effectively when stress is highest.
This portfolio demonstrates a commitment to designing solutions that are fundamentally reliable, intuitive, and ultimately contribute to public health resilience in critical moments.
Core Design Principles Across All Projects
Offline-First Architecture
Designed for environments with unreliable connectivity, ensuring critical information is always accessible.
User-Centered Research
Field testing and interviews with real users informed every design decision, from workflow to interaction patterns.
Trust and Privacy
Designed interactions that prioritize human connection and respect sensitive contexts.
Interactive Learning
Transformed complex clinical guidelines into engaging, scenario-based experiences.
Proactive Support
Created tools that nudge users toward positive actions rather than waiting for crisis moments.
Accessibility First
Every interface was designed to be clear, simple, and usable under high-stress conditions.
Case Studies
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National Institute on Drug Abuse Modernization
A comprehensive redesign and Drupal 8 migration, transformed The National Institute on Drug Abuse site.
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Designing Calm in the Chaos
Created intuitive mobile experiences to support users during public health emergencies.
Read Case Study →
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