Prescription Misuse, Abuse & Addiction
Background
AvoidOpioidSD.com* was originally built quickly as a micro-site in response to the national opioid epidemic. Since 2018, the site grew exponentially and evolved from focusing specifically on prescription misuse and abuse to addressing and reducing stigma, providing information for pharmacies and providers (including an interactive emergency department toolkit), featuring addiction counseling and social services for people and families affected by both prescription and illicit use, and providing a number of preventative services and actionable strategies to help keep South Dakotans informed and safe.
Keeping up with content additions, streamlining navigation, and overhauling original content was an ongoing challenge I enjoyed. I played a key role in the development and content strategy for the site and continued to author and edit content as services were updated and additional sections added.
*Please Note: this website was updated by SD DSS in 2023. The iteration I refer to here as a case study no longer exists, although remnants of my contributions can be found throughout.
Challenges
The sitewas funded through federal grants provided to the South Dakota Departments of Health and Social Services.
Each agency had separate budgets and specific priority projects, so being clear about actionable goals was critical.
Decision-makers were often unfamiliar with website content best practices and the design thinking process.
iFrames. The key data section was powered by Tableau. The client needed to be able to update data in real time, so even though this solution isn’t particularly mobile-friendly, the content is most often viewed on desktop, and it alleviated the need for agency or developers to be on-call to make updates (also keeps the backend of the site safer).
More iFrames. The searchable database was not under our purview, and was not user-friendly.
My Contributions
Developed the initial site– everything from navigation to content through all aspects of design thinking, branding, ideation, and prototyping.
Continued to enhance with updates to the information architecture, functionality, content strategy, UX writing, visual communication, and UI practices.
Routinely worked with the creative team to concept and write corresponding campaign elements to drive traffic to the website.
Worked with web team designers and developers to provide high-fidelity prototypes for new content and content updates.
Supervised developers and liaised with clients to provide rationale for updates.
New to the site in 2022
Some health-critical content went live on December 8, 2022.
We began promoting the site to vulnerable audiences on social media platforms on December 13.
Targeted broadcast radio was added to the mix on December 19.
Despite being promoted in a retail messaging "high tide" environment, our posts broke through the clutter and in a little over 2 weeks drove website traffic to the new pages to the highest levels since the site launched– generating nearly 4,000 page views, 1,300 link clicks on Facebook/Instagram and over 3,000 swipe-ups on Snapchat to new pages that included content related to:
Counterfeit Drugs
Opioid Misuse
Prevention
Added in 2023:
We added a Media Library that converted the wonky-placeholder-emergency Order Free Print Materials page to a functioning shopping cart.
Media buying best practices were outlined to help coalitions, educators, and the public understand how to leverage PSA status and negotiate with local media.
Brand standards (don’t mess with the logo) and national resources (reinforcing the fact that our messages align with guidance from respected, science-based sources).
Digital media how-to-share guidelines were added.
New print materials and digital (semi-customizable) downloads became available to users.
