Get the Lead Out
The Challenge: Create a digital tool that uses open data to help local governments navigate grant opportunities enabled by the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law.
The Solution: We created a digital tool based on crowd-sourced & open source data which engages communities in collective participation in the LSL inventories. Residents and governments work together to gather the necessary data to apply for grant funding to replace lead pipes in their communities.
Client
Census Open Innovation Labs at U.S. Census Bureau
UX Team
Najwa Hossain - UXD and PM
Jamie Ramsay - UXR & UXD
Parita Shah - UXD
Isa Sabraw - UXD
Natasha DiCostanzo - UXD
Maddy Hale - UXD
Jane Huntington - UXD
Time Frame
6 weeeks
Tools & Methods
Figma, Photoshop, Notion, Secondary Research, Heuristic Evaluation, User Interviews, Personas, Comparative/Competitive Analysis, Journey Mapping, Affinity Mapping, Usability Testing, Wireframing, Prototyping
Skills
Research, Ideation, UX/UI Design, Story Writing, Cross-Functional Cooperation, Presentation
The Context
Concerned about lead contamination, residents of Benton Harbor, Michigan, picked up city-supplied, bottled water for their cooking and drinking as recently as December 2022. While media attention focused on Flint’s lead pipe crisis in 2015, the lead issue continues to touch other parts of Michigan and each of the other 49 states. Prior to the 1980s, lead was a commonly-used material in water service lines, solder, and even faucets. As lead service lines (LSL) corrode, they leach lead. There is no safe level of lead. Therefore, removal and replacement of old LSL is the only solution to preventing potential lead contamination.
The community health effects of lead contamination are devastating. Children exposed to lead suffer decreased cognitive function and behavior problems. In adults, lead exposure can result in increased blood pressure and hypertension, as well as coronary heart disease and death. Flint’s journalists, activists, and citizens put the dangers of lead exposure on Americans’ radars. But it might not be clear that the problem is ubiquitous. An estimated 9.7-12.8 million lead pipes carry drinking water to the homes of at least 22 million people in the U.S. Every state has lead pipes, with the highest concentration around the Great Lakes.
With the passing of the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law (BIL), states now have the opportunity to access funding specifically targeted to Lead Service Line Replacement (LSLR). But often communities with the greatest need have the fewest resources to conduct essential inventories to map their service lines. Unfortunately, LSL locations have never been well- mapped, and methods to document them vary widely. To gather accurate map data for replacement programs, communities rely on citizens to visually check their property’s service lines and communicate that information to local governments. The necessity for private and public sectors to cooperate presents a unique factor in grasping the scope of a community’s lead issues, even before applying for funding to address it.
Research Goals
We sought answers to these questions:
What are the pain points in applying for grant funding?
What specific issues do lower- resourced communities face when applying for BIL grants?
What makes for a successful Federal grant application?
Is LSLR a high priority in lower- resourced communities? Do residents know about it?
What is the technical process required to remove and replace lead pipes?
Can we narrow the scope of our tool for manageability in a 6-week sprint?
*Goal was to complete a bulk of the research within the first 2 weeks of sprint
Assumptions
The current grant application process for LSLR is confusing
Short windows of time to complete applications are unfavorable to small and understaffed communities
Lower-resourced communities are not receiving LSLR Grants through the BIL
Residents care about clean water supplies
Journey Map of Current Grant Application Process
Interviews
Interviews that I conducted over Zoom and the phone, provided the primary source of insight for the tool design. I was able to identify the real-time pain points in the process of applying for Federal grant money, by talking to local government officials and contrators.
Reviewing news articles and research papers, I found other important players in the clean water space including activist groups like Fresh Water for Life Action Coalition in Milwaukee; NGOs like the Environmental Policy Innovation Center, engineers and scientific researchers. Leading recruitment for our team, I included these folks in our 9 interviews. The response rate for interview requests was 78% affirmative showing eagerness to improve the issue.
Full interview transcripts and questions can be found here.
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Without inventory of lead pipes, grant application is impossible for local governments to complete and submit
“If everything is unknown, we can’t make progress...Mapping is very important.”
"There's so much missing data.”
”In Chelsea, Massachusetts, they have what's called tie cards...literally like an old card catalog...They are developing technology that digitizes tie cards.”
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Lower-resourced communities need technical assistance to apply
“Technical assistance includes: finding access to financing, data and asset management, inventory, and communications"
“Our own research showed that only 7% of eligible systems accessed SRF (State Revolving Fund) funding in the last 10 years. So just putting in more money wasn't going to change anything. “
“I don't have anyone on staff that will have the level of expertise needed to do the type of data analytics...to help track this project.” “We want to figure out how to get the right people trained and do that right...workers at Cincinnati got elevated blood levels because they were handling the pipe and were not being careful.”
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Inclusive and willing community buy-in is critical to successful LSLR projects and mistrust of outside help has caused some communities to refuse assistance
“We didn't go further with them because we weren't invited by the community.”
"There is a community engagement component...the best way to identify (lead pipes) is to visually look at the connection (in homes).”
“Partner with the (local) utility and go door to door to houses to get that data out there (in Spanish and English).”
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Qualification and process for Federal grant application is confusing & has expenses, barriers for lower-resourced communities
"Each state has its own timeframe... It's the same program and same requirements, but it's just implemented differently in different states”
“We can't get people to sign up to do it, because they're not sure that they're going to get funding. Is it going to low-income communities or is it not? There's a lot of confusion with that.”
“There is usually some sort of scoring rubric...nobody's determined how the (BIL) money is going to be given and how you're going to fit into that. So it's been a little frustrating.”
“You still have to have enough working capital to pay for those studies up front...that costs in the range of $40,000”
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There is a lack of public awareness of the dangers and existence of lead pipes
“You want to be transparent, you want to give everybody information. You don't want to create hesitancy. You don't want to just further inflame any misconceptions.”
“We have to create the idea that all these pipes they're on the way out. It's a matter of when and are you going to be a laggard, are you going to be an early adopter”
Implementing Research
The following guided our approach to design:
Lower-resourced communities need a way to engage residents in the lead line inventory process so that they can gather the data needed to apply for Federal funding. Through approachable map data of lead service lines and the opportunity for residents to contribute to that data, more Americans will be educated on their risks, learn how to remediate lead in their homes, and be able to assist their local governments with accurate inventories for replacement programs.
Based on what I learned from research, I recommended the following features should be implemented in the prototype, to best serve users.
Recommendation: Address the creation of inventories before any other issues with the application process
Allow residents to input data on presence of lead pipes at their address
Implementation: We developed a mobile-optimized solution called Get the Lead Out, centered around a map of Hazel Crest, IL, a town that surfaced in research. Map is searchable by address and users can add data to the map to develop local inventory. Site will scale to the entire U.S.
Users can upload a photo of their service line with option to get it reviewed for confirmation
Recommendation: Create an address- searchable map detailing known and unknown areas of lead
Implementation: Using data sets from the Cook County Census and Hazel Crest, IL, Data Team developed 95% accurate predictive model for probability of lead in a particular mapped location
Recommendation: Spread awareness of Federal funding opportunities and promote community engagement
Implementation: Social sharing buttons allow users to post and share data from the mobile site. Site links out to Federal grant info
Recommendation: Educate residents on why they need to be concerned about lead pipes in a non- alarming way
Implementation: Onboarding flow helps guide users through info on why it is important to identify lead pipes and resources such as links to water department contacts and water testing kits
Recommendation: Employ the U.S. Web Design System (USWDS) for confidence building and user experience
Implementation: The Design system used was based on USWDS. Blue palette was common to other NGO and activist groups in the clean water space and government sites
Recommendation: Provide resources to help identify or deal with lead pipes
Implementation: The tool provides a step-by-step guide with photos to check for lead pipes, additional external guides
Testing
I conducted 4 rounds of Usability Testing on each of our 4 iterations.
Our 1st version had a static, place-holder map to simulate the interactive map. In this early stage of design, it was minimally functional. That lack of map interactivity seemed distracting to initial testers who wanted to touch and interact with it. I had only 1 tester for the initial test and moved to a higher fidelity to conduct more robust testing.
Main observations from the 2nd round of 4 testers:
Testers understood the purpose of the product
Search bar on the map did not stand out visually
Uploading photos page was frustrating and confusing
UX Writing might have been too colloquial
On the 3rd round testing, the map interactivity had still not been developed, and testers continued to point out their desire to interact with the static map.
Main observations from the 3rd round of 4 testers:
Map key needed to be bigger and more explicit for readability
Written content used "Lead Pipe" and "Lead Service Line" interchangeably - confusing
Testers wanted more "next steps" or someone to contact after submitting their photo and information
Who has created this site?
In the 4th round of testing, 1 user carried out 4 tasks with 100% accuracy and only a few notes on verbiage, which I addressed for clarity before presenting the final product. Logo was finally added.
Fully Developed
Mobile Site
Our Development Team, made up of 4 software engineers, built a functioning mobile website based on our Figma prototype and design system. Our Postgres database and Django back-end are deployed and hosted on Microsoft Azure. Using the Azure Cloud means that there is high availability, reliability, and potential for easy scalability. The code repository is hosted on Github and our front-end is deployed on Netlify which is installed in our repo, enabling continuous integration and continuous delivery.
The Get the Lead Out application uses React and is built with a mobile-first approach. This design allows our solution to reach the share of Americans who are smartphone-only internet users, approximately 15%. It also allows users to easily share the Get The Lead Out awareness campaign via built-in social media share buttons.
*mobile site best viewed on a mobile device
Demo video of Get the Lead Out
Next Steps
Add desktop site
Future project administrators needed to check photos and lead pipe status
Integrate AI learning solution for checking lead pipe images
Developers and designers needed to conduct bug fixes, usability tests and desktop version
Stakeholders to set up predictive formula and update map data with confirmed lead pipes
Create functionality to email data sets when requested
Reflections
Finding new user interviews through other user interviews is awesome. At the end of an interview, ask if interviewees could suggest referrals. It was in that way that I was connected to the City Manager of Hazel Crest, IL, which became the model city for building our site and for the Data Team’s predictive model.
Good UX writing often needs to be very literal, especially when asking someone to provide their personal information. Testers demonstrated how much people actually read every sentence you put on a prototype page and question every word.
Communicative, cross-functional teams really help with efficiency. Having everyone aligned on an MVP kept the teams accountable to each other, managed time, and prevented feature creep.
Each full lead service line replaced would yield $22,000 in societal benefits from reduced mortality from cardiovascular disease alone
— Environmental Defense Fund