simplifying powerful data
A powerful, interactive map that combines layers of SDOH data with Duke’s community initiatives
OUR CASE STUDIES
Duke Health
Custom SDOH platform helps Duke strengthen its community partnerships
Healthcare, Public Sector, UX/UI, Web
overview
As a private research university and healthcare provider, Duke is also a corporate partner and neighbor, which guides its commitment to building partnerships that offer mutual benefit and the greatest positive impact to communities.
Through its extended partnerships, Duke is committed to five focus areas – housing, health, education, employment, and community – with priorities in each of the focus areas related to root causes of inequity and social drivers of health.
industries
- Digital health
- Social Drivers of Health
- Education
services
- Alignment workshop report
- Landscape analysis
- Solution architecture
- UX research & design
- Data modeling / API architecture
- Functional prototype
- Custom software development
The challenge
Duke needed an integrated platform that could serve as a central hub for the university’s partner programs. Duke’s partner data was siloed in different locations and formats across the institution, which prevented Duke University and Duke Health from being able to harness that data to deliver value to Duke’s stakeholders. The ideal solution would collect, centralize, and store partner data, while also providing users with functionality in:
Mapping
Interactive dashboard enables users to explore initiatives and social drivers of health data.
Matching
Matching functionality brings together organizations and individuals through events, groups, causes, volunteer opportunities, & fundraisers.
Grant management
Grant management portal helps grant managers and grant seekers manage & apply for grants.
Back-end management and analytics
Up-to-date source of truth enables users to analyze and learn about the Duke Partnership Community.
The outcome
Digital Scientists partnered with Duke to launch a user experience that would bring together integrations, workflow administration, and custom data mapping tools in a single ecosystem – called the Partnership Platform. This platform serves varying persona needs and activities in a single experience that connects Duke to the community, and using various impact metrics, connects the community to Duke. In collaboration with students, researchers, faculty, and community members, we were able to create a platform rich with engaging data visualization, storytelling, opportunities, events, and initiatives for a range of user personas.
What we delivered:
- Powerful SDOH visualization tool for research and impact
- Map of all initiatives and community partners
- Full integration with a volunteer management solution
- Functionality that links users to grant opportunities
- Library of resources, events, assets, videos, stories and community data
- Light CRM and admin workflows
- Complex permissions across many different personas and use cases
This interactive map enables users to search for Duke’s community initiatives and the intersection of those initiatives with nationally recognized SDOH data. The mapping tool gives stakeholders greater visibility into Duke’s collaborative efforts with its community partners and provides dataset layering so users can assess impact and need in specific geographic regions.
Duke’s five focus areas
Duke’s Partnership Platform focuses on five key areas of focus – housing, health, education, employment, and community. All SDOH data is tagged and filterable through these five focus areas.
National and local datasets
Through our research, we identified over 400 local and national datasets spanning the five focus areas. We drew from over 30 sources, ranging from national organizations, including the U.S. Census Bureau, HUD, and the Bureau of Labor Statistics, to sources that are specific to North Carolina, such as Durham Neighborhood Compass, North Carolina’s School Report Cards, and the North Carolina Institute of Medicine.
administrative power
Business administration CRM
We carefully planned and implemented the complex data models in a way that allowed for a clean user interface on the front-end with simple administrative workflows on the back-end.
- Dashboard
- Tasks
- Management
- Analytics
- Adminstration
- Directory
user customization
Customized, data-driven dashboards and analytic tools
Dashboards are unique to user types and individual profiles. Leadership can access data for Duke-sponsored initiatives, courses, volunteering, grants, and sponsorships. This complex data is presented in a simple and engaging format.
Individuals can seek insights into their community engagement according to their initiatives, volunteering, or collaboration interests.
- Customized dashboards and profiles
- Impact measurement
- Initiative insight and management
- Volunteer engagement and impact
- Collaboration management
engaging user experience
Engaging and intuitive
front-end experience
We designed a unique and dynamic look for the platform, while maintaining the integrity of the Duke brand. The color and angles are inspired by the logomark, and tie in conceptually to the intersection of Duke and community collaboration.
As a new platform, we analyzed personas and the user experience to create the site architecture and an intuitive interface.
- Site architecture
- Interactive map – initiatives + SDOH layer
- Resource hub
- Volunteer and collaboration tools
- Grant and sponsorship tools
- Event calendar
- User content submission
- Training videos
integrations
Enhancing the user experience with valuable integrations
We started with a competitive analysis to research the tools that would best meet user needs for volunteer activities and the grant application process.
These were seamlessly integrated into front- and back-end administrative tools and profiles.
- Volunteer management
- Shiboleth Single Sign-On
- Google Analytics
- Mapbox utilization
- Scholars@Duke API
strategy + experience
Our process
We knew going into the project that the complexity of the users and features of the platform, so we worked to align with our client every step of the way through a built in process.
Building a platform that combines layers of disparate data is a highly complex process and requires a sound understanding of user needs and the necessary functionality. To provide more clarity around our approach, we walked our clients through each step of our process.
Alignment workshop
An alignment workshop brings stakeholders together to align on product vision, user profiles, and priorities for building the product ecosystem.
Competitive analysis
Our product team reviewed our client’s existing research. We then expanded the analysis to competitive and partnership markets.
Build, buy, or partner
Through a landscape analysis of mapping and data visualization tools, we compiled a Good, Better, Best model to finalize direction on an MVP, and from there made a buy-vs-build recommendation based on budget, features, and user needs.
Solution architecture
From our research analysis, we also developed a comprehensive solution architecture document that would serve as our product roadmap to translate the scope and product needs with our client’s internal technical team.
Wireframes, design, and prototype
Because of the complexity of the platform, we applied an agile approach to design, beginning with wireframes. By applying digital design best practices and working through the user journey, we created prototypes for the end-product, including functionality, look and feel, user experience, and integrations.
Technology
Deliverables
- Admin interface
- API
- Clickable prototype
- Competitive analysis report
- Future design iterations & development
- Front-end component codebase & documentation
- Insights & findings report
- MVP
- Product style guide
- SDOH data sets
- Solution architecture
- Source code
- Step-by-step product commercials
- Step-by-step training guides
- User interviews
- User research insights
- User stories
- Visual design & prototype
- Wireframes