SWEET
SWEET
Social Worker Resources & Support
Helping social workers be more effective by tapping into local & national peer networks.
ROLE
User Research
User Experience
Interface Design
Prototyping
DURATION
2 months
Challenge
Social workers across the United States struggle with large workloads, a highly regulated bureaucratic job, that often results in them working alone to address critical problems for their clients. This can lead to physical and mental exhaustion, burnout and even mental health problems. Additionally, their job requires them to stay current with relevant laws and maintain state licensing that needs to be periodically renewed.
Background
In 2011, a University of Connecticut panel on challenges faced by social workers observed “The range of responsibilities for social workers continues to grow exponentially, but the number of employees doesn’t grow. Each social worker has to be both a micro and a macro person.” According to a NASW survey of 10,000 licensed social workers found that “44% of the respondents reported facing personal safety issues in their primary employment setting and 30% felt that their employers did not adequately address safety issues (Whitaker, T., et.al 2006).
Use Cases
Phone A Friend
The social worker is headed to meet a client with whom she’s had difficulty working with. The thought of potential conflict that could arise leads to stress. In the past she’s dealt with this by reaching another social worker informally to talk through the upcoming client interaction.
Best Practices
Whilst preparing for a client interaction, the social worker comes up with a several potential options for the client. As encounters new issues, he looks to others in his own office and to other social workers in his state, looking for best practices in handling such issues.
Resources
At the end of an emotionally draining workday, the social worker seeks some resources for de-stressing, rest and relaxation. She wishes there was a central repository of resources and methods.
Market Research
Currently applications for social workers fall into one of two categories - managing client interactions (eg. Caretivity) or a study resource (eg. Social Worker Theory) . Other apps such as How We Feel or Daylio while not specifically targeted at social workers, help users with regulating emotions using techniques such as journaling. Euki, a reproductive health app helps users connect with health resources through skilled counselors.
Analyzing Research
In order to examine and develop a design for a system in transition, specifically with a forward-looking perspective, (a perspective that takes time and human (and agential) activity into account as a central aspect of the designing) I have created both an empathy and a customer journey map. Researching and designing for a system in transition is an attempt to “understand a holistic view of the system, viewing the aspects of the system as in a perpetual state of evolution and development.”
Prototype
As social workers are on the go with most of their day spent with clients outside the office, I felt a mobile app incorporating texting and calling features would best address the requirements. I hand sketched some preliminary ideas for what a potential mobile application might look like for one or two specific use cases.
After a quick check in with potential users, the hand sketches were developed into a more detailed prototype concept. The three key use cases identified earlier were developed into medium fidelity prototypes on Figma.
Design for Delight
Next Steps
As I designed the SWEET platform, it became clear to me that user interactions on the application needed to be swift, clean and straightforward. Social workers don't need yet another thing getting in their way!
I interviewed and observed social workers in different sectors (and states) and this informed my decision plan for an on-call support function. Ultimately, my intention was for this to be a seamless peer-to-peer social networking platform that will evolve to suit the needs of local networks.
My hope is that the demo video and a clickable prototype that I created on Figma will allow for further iterative user interface designs.
