Creating a user-friendly process

Buprenorphine Home-Induction Guide

Designed in partnership with a specialist in addiction psychiatry at UC Davis Health, this multi-page packet guides a patient through the process of starting a buprenorphine treatment plan at home.

The buprenorphine induction process requires tracking and adjusting dosages of the medicine over a three-day period. In certain cases, patients can do this at home, rather than coming into the clinic. This is a time when patients will be feeling the effects of withdrawal symptoms—not a time when they will be in top form.

Part process tracker and part reference guide, the worksheets are designed to be as clear and self‑explanatory as possible.

Teams I collaborated with:

• UC Davis Center for Design in the Public Interest (DiPi)

• Specialist in addiction psychiatry

Key elements of my role:

• Worked directly with the addiction psychiatry specialist to understand the user needs for the home-induction guide

• Designed working prototypes and solutions to produce an easy-to-use and accurate home-induction guide

• Considered user-centric details. For example: designed the worksheets to be letter-sized and grayscale so they may be emailed and printed at home

Outcomes:

• Clarification of a complex, multi-day, self-tracking process