VALUE Baltimore PBS
Strategic Designer, UX Researcher
Partner: Baltimore City Health Department + International Vaccine Access Center + Morgan State University
VALUE (Vaccine Acceptance & Access Lives in Unity, Engagement & Education) Baltimore is a public-private partnership of the Baltimore City Health Department, Johns Hopkins International Vaccine Access Center, Morgan State University, Maryland Institute College of Art’s Center for Social Design, and Jhpiego, among others.
VALUE works with respected members of Baltimore’s VALUE communities to build trust in the health system, educate the community, and promote unity to combat COVID-19 and other health issues.
In collaboration with the VALUE initiative of Baltimore City Health Department (BCHD) that is working to achieve population immunity against COVID-19 through a vaccination effort that is supported by residents, community organizations, and businesses across the city.
Critical to achieving population immunity is mounting an urgent effort to learn from the community what is needed in order to educate and address vaccine hesitancy and access through mass communications and in populations of Baltimore City residents that are vulnerable due to increased risk of exposure to or severe disease stemming from COVID-19:
• People experiencing homelessness
• Residents with disabilities
• Latinx residents
• Immigrant and refugee residents
• Pregnant and lactating people
• Young men between the ages of 18-24
• Orthodox Jewish residents
• Children
In addition, BCHD plans to engage with faith-based and community leaders in vulnerable neighborhoods across the city in the effort to educate residents about the vaccine and emphasize on the need for training and education content tailored to these leaders.
September 2021 - May 2022
Project Website:
Partners:
Baltimore City Health Department
International Vaccine Access Center
MICA’s Center for Social Design
Role:
Stratagic Designer + Industrial Designer + UX Researcher
How might we support vaccine peer ambassadors in engaging Baltimore communities around COVAX?
Research During September - November, 2021
PhaseⅠ
RESEARCH:
Research included ambassador coordinator meeting, thinking tanks, and ambassador shadowings where we facilitated conversations around vaccine hesitancy and access. We also conducted brainstorming sessions as part of gathering data around what the residents of Baltimore needed to ensure an easy process to access COVID-19 vaccines.
We also conducted virtual poll sessions as live surveys to assess and gather information.
To better understand the pain point of ambassadors, we facilitated CO-Design Sessions and MURAL Recaps.
CO-Design Sessions helped emphasize the voice of peer ambassadors and gain a deeper understanding of their difficulties and gaps in the existing system.
CO-Design Session #1 - Brainstorming, October 2021
MURAL Recaps were important to synthesize the data that ambassadors provide. It was also crucial to look at gaps in these connections and think about which connections could be leveraged for a community-centric solution.
MURAL Recap - CO-Design Session #1, October 2021
MURAL Synthesis - Themes & Insights
PhaseⅡ
SYNTHESIS
Using the data we obtained from the first CO-Design Session with the VALUE Peer Ambassadors, we began to look for patterns in the data to determine greater themes and insights. We also discussed design principles for our research and created personas that will help guide our design process.
Themes and Insights
We worked in teams of two (Team Quicksilver and Team Lemon and Ginger) to identify insights and themes. Some themes we explored were:
• Combatting Medical Mistrust
• Addressing Future Vaccine Engagement
• Addressing Vaccines for Kids
• Engaging With Social Media
• Providing Materials
• Providing Accurate Information
Using MURAL, we were able to populate the themes with observations, quotes, and ideas from ambassador shadowing, online COVAX meetings, and CO-Design Sessions. Over the next week, we continued to solidify themes and craft insights that go deeper and address tensions within the themes.
Synthesis / Process
Synthesis / Finding Themes
Using MURAL, we mapped out and clustered ideas and thought through an impact/effort matrix to think about which ideas to focus on.
Design Principles
We learned that design principles are key reminders to guide the design process and should be informed by research. Some ideas we brainstormed included: listen to people’s COVID stories and honoring their lived experiences, acknowledge that people’s anxieties & concerns are often informed by historical and social context, approach with empathy, design with and not for ambassadors, and validate the successes of the ambassadors.
We narrowed down on 6 principles to guide us as we move through the project.
Personas
After discussing whether personas would be a useful tool for this project, in particular, we decided to create personas based on two peer ambassador categories and two types of people who PAs engage with.
Personas are representations of our core stakeholders. They give us people to keep in mind during the design process.
PhaseⅢ
IDEATION
Using the data we obtained from the first CO-Design Session with the VALUE Peer Ambassadors, we began to look for patterns in the data to determine greater themes and insights. We also discussed design principles for our research and created personas that will help guide our design process.
Themes and Insights
We worked in teams of two (Team Quicksilver and Team Lemon and Ginger) to identify insights and themes. Some themes we explored were:
• Combatting Medical Mistrust
• Addressing Future Vaccine Engagement
• Addressing Vaccines for Kids
• Engaging With Social Media
• Providing Materials
• Providing Accurate Information
Using MURAL, we were able to populate the themes with observations, quotes, and ideas from ambassador shadowing, online COVAX meetings, and CO-Design Sessions. Over the next week, we continued to solidify themes and craft insights that go deeper and address tensions within the themes.
MURAL Synthesis - Themes & Insights
The CO-Design Session #2 was joined by new coworker Estella for our Brainstorming Sessions with the Ambassadors! The team and peer ambassadors ideated and offered excellent insight and feedback.
PhaseⅢ
PROTOTYPE
Our team was hard at work designing & bringing the ideas to life with prototyping. Each had three ideas to prototype and share with the whole team, like "schools are a community - using to our advantage for outreach," "coloring books were vaccine centered to engaged kids," and "Ambassador directory." Brainstorming feedbacks like "I like...", "I wish...", and "What if..." for each prototype give us a more transparent vision to further iterate showcase prototyping to CO-Designer peer ambassadors.
Key ideations & prototypes
Prototypes & Peer feedbacks
CO-Design Session #3 - We showed them preliminary prototypes based on ideas we brainstormed together in previous sessions.
CO-Design Session #3 - We showed them preliminary prototypes based on ideas we brainstormed together in previous sessions.
Our goal is still to answer the following design challenge: "How might we support peer ambassadors in their engagement and outreach around COVAX?" We presented five prototypes and received truly valuable feedback from the ambassadors. Our prototypes were:
1. Intergenerational Social Media Campaign: Utilizing social media like Tik Tok, VALUE peer ambassadors of all ages can learn from one another and create content around COVAX engagement and outreach.
Feedback from PAs: Will this be effective in promoting vaccines in kids? Or is it more of a fun activity? The audience is young people. This could be a fun activity for everyone involved.
2. Engagement for Kids: An interactive coloring book that addresses the concerns of children before being vaccinated. This book could be distributed at events, in schools, or vaccine settings. An optional parent information page can be included.
Feedback from PAs: Children with disabilities use ‘social stories,’ in their development - may be a good idea to connect with the disability group. Teachers have asked for materials before, so this will be helpful and utilized. A word search or crossword puzzle could be added for older youth, or it could be a kit with play-doh and other sensory tools for kids.
3. Increasing Collaboration Amongst Ambassadors: This ambassador directory celebrates individual ambassadors and recognizes their strengths and accomplishments. It's a way for ambassadors to connect with the general public and connect.
Feedback from PAs: This will be helpful for PAs, but there was some discussion around what contact information is preferred or appropriate. Google phone numbers were suggested. A major source that people trust (like CDC) should be referred to in these materials to build trust.
4. Providing Updated and Accurate Information: An online space where ambassadors easily have access to updated and accurate COVAX information. They can access this information in the field and share it with interested individuals.
Feedback from PAs: PAs need accurate info at their fingertips, so this has the potential to be helpful. But it needs to be effective, and different from what they already have access to.
5. Digital Storytelling Toolkit: Building on the idea that everyone has a COVID story, this digital storytelling toolkit will enable peer ambassadors to capture and tell stories and important messaging around COVAX through digital methods, like personal and public social media accounts.
Feedback from PAs: People already have strong stories, and are excited to have the tools to share the stories they create. This kit needs to be translated into Spanish. They were hesitant about which social media accounts to use: personal, VALUE, BCHD.....
We also brought up the idea of collaborating with schools more generally, since youth ages 5-11 are eligible to be vaccinated. At the end of the session, peer ambassadors voted for their two favorite prototypes, which will guide our next iterations in addition to the feedback they provided.
Phase Ⅳ
IMPLEMENT + ITERATE
We created a testing plan for each of the prototype to detail out how the prototype will be put to test, we looked at roles and responsibilities of each teammate and decided measures of success. We then decided the most suited peer ambassadors for each of these activities, and reached out to them to facilitate the testing.
I took 40 copies of Vax Activity Book to a clinic hosted at Patterson Park Public Charter School and distributed them as children came in for vaccines. Each child immediately engaged with the material. During the observation process, we realized we had designed more for general outreach to prepare kids for the vaccination, though the 15 minute post vax observation time was a great time for kids to have the material. In further iterations of this prototype, we might have accounted for some post-vax activities.
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Proudly showed us the Vax Hero.
Vax Activity Book Mockups, I created the illustration and lead to print 40 copies to the clinic prototype site.
The Vax Activity Book is perfect material for 15 mins post-vaccine observation time! Children love to create their own Vax experience note on the Vax Activity Book.
During the intergenerational ambassadors workshop Daniel had the technical skills and Destiny had some big ideas.
We hosted a session with 3 intergenerational ambassadors. We coached them on how to create a tiktok, what makes tiktoks go viral, and watched a few examples. Daniel had the technical skills and Destiny had some big ideas. Tamara was super flexible and wanted to learn. They landed on the “Mission Impossible” theme and sketched out a plan for their video. The collaboration was so fun! Daniel says he’ll bring up more collaboration opportunities in the next Youth Ambassador meeting, and Destiny and Tamara both seem enthusiastic about future opportunities.
“Lol so funny, you included everyone, even the recognizable yellow shirts” - Estela