Problem Statement: The Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA) presented grant funding opportunities in static tables, limiting users’ ability to sort, filter, or refine grants to match their specific needs. This lack of interactivity made it challenging for users to explore opportunities effectively. Additionally, the final solution needed to comply with the United States Web Design System (USWDS) standards.
Legacy SAMHSA grants listing
Grant listings were curated by the SAMHSA content team through a combination of email and notices form grants.gov and manually posted to the website in table format.
Context: SAMHSA offers grant funding opportunities nationwide, supporting programs of varying sizes to deliver impactful healthcare solutions. The platform serves as a critical resource for users seeking to identify and apply for funding to address substance abuse and mental health challenges.
Goal: To design and deliver an intuitive, dynamic interface that empowers users to explore all current, historical, and upcoming grant opportunities with ease. The solution aimed to provide a repeatable and exploratory experience, enabling users to find relevant grants efficiently while adhering to United State Web Design System (USWDS) standards.
Research & Design Iterations
Research: With limited resources, I conducted a heuristic analysis targeting internal grant stakeholders. User interviews uncovered the need for current and archived grant data to be easily accesible wihin a single source. Additionally, Grants.gov served as a reference for effective faceting and filtering methods as well as guide to the clients request for a “Dashboard” look and feel.
Design: With the Initial wireframes I explored faceting strucures and various controls for refining the searches using USWDS checkboxes, radio buttons and dropdowns. Given the extensive data, I proposed a synchronous presentation model, allowing users to see real-time feedback based on their input. This approach minimized page loads and supported a flexible workflow hierarchy tailored to individual exploration needs.
Testing: Early testing revealed gaps in data points and legacy logic issues. Iterative refinements addressed these gaps, ensuring a more robust and user-focused final design.
SAMHSA Mobile Grants Dashboard
The Results & Impact
Impacts: The new SAMHSA Grants Portal has significantly impacted the grant application process by streamlining the application procedure, improving transparency, and enhancing accessibility for potential grant recipients, allowing for more efficient distribution of funding for mental health and substance abuse prevention programs across the United States, ultimately leading to better access to critical services for communities in need.
Reflections: Throughout my experience on this project I was reminded that a dedicated user group and a client that values the user journey can overcome process constraints. I relied on stakeholder insights used design best practices to deliver a visually appealing, functional product, and user experience.
SAMHSA Grants Dashboard Redesign
In designing an interactive panel layout, I prioritized understanding data types and their relationships to create a structured and intuitive search architecture.
By providing filter/facet options, data type selections and dropdowns the user can drill down to exactly what they would like to view.
The tabbed panel layout provides the user the ability to choose between result sets.
Filtered Results
The user can easily adjust the filter controls to change the resulting data.
This design leveraged the USWDS for standardization and overall consistency.
View Grants by State
The user is given access to mutiple panel views including Grants by State utilizing rollover functionality providing detailed state grant data.
