Table 1 Methodological approach to technology development

Careful identification of users and their needs

The UCD field places strong emphasis on explicitly identifying primary, secondary, and sometimes tertiary users in order to ensure that new products effectively meet their needs

Qualitative Interviews, Community Advisory Boards, networking (primary: Harm Reduction Organization champions; secondary: Harm Reduction Organization employees and volunteers; tertiary: people who use drugs)

Prototyping and rapid iteration

“Low-fidelity” version of a product that contains key functions of interest in order to test a concept, facilitate rapid evaluation and feedback, or answer a specific question (e.g., deciding between two design alternatives). Later, fully functional “high-fidelity” prototypes may be created that are more similar to the final product and typically offer real interactive content

“Low-fidelity”: design sprints, mockups & beta version of sandbox, usability interviews; iterative feedback from community advisory board members

“High-fidelity”: pilot version across harm reduction organizations in four counties

Design simplification (of existing intervention parameters and procedures to promote uptake)

Simplification is an overarching principle with specific applications to multiple design activities, such as the processes of scoping product functions and features (i.e., avoid unnecessary options) or determining the ways products present information to users

The goal of simplification can either be achieved by (a) keeping primary tasks unchanged, but incorporating new supportive infrastructure or external memory devices to supplement human perceptual abilities (e.g., dashboard instruments that communicate the state of the object in question [such as an automobile]), or (b) reducing the complexity of a task itself (e.g., introducing Velcro to replace shoelaces, or digital watches to replace analog)

Goal A: achieved by tech expert techniques through usability, layout, ease of use, etc. but the primary tasks are unchanged: report an overdose (then having the dashboard with data trends, pulling, hot spots, etc.)

Consideration of system constraints to ensure the end product fits the needs of the targeted end user

Within the context of design, environmental constraints represent properties of an intended destination setting that limit the ways a product will be designed or used. Product design depends largely on this type of constraint, which may include limitations on or requirements for a product's form, function, budget, operating conditions, or time to completion, among others

Process mapping and field observations of harm reduction organization work flow within the context of mobile van outreach and street outreach for homeless encampments