MIC x PUXD

The Basics

🤝 The Team

A group of 7 UX Design students at various points within the program collaborated to produce a UX Research and Design project for MIC - a CASA documentation start up.

We collaborated predominantly with CASA volunteers and employees, all under the guidance of our sponsor Landon Young.

🚀 Research Outcomes

Hi-fidelity prototypes of the MIC interface
Increased usability consideration for older CASA volunteers and supervisors

📅 The Timeframe

The project took place from August to December 2024, building on insights from previous semesters and summer internship findings.

🙋 My Role

Primary and Secondary Research
User Interviews
Ideating and Sketching
Wireframing and Prototyping
Usability Testing

Project Overview

A Court Appointed Special Advocate (CASA) is a trained volunteer advocating for abused and neglected children in the child welfare system. In 2021, Indiana volunteers served 23,290 children, but many still lacked representation. Improving the CASA volunteer experience can free up time for volunteers to focus on building relationships and addressing children’s needs in court.

Our final goal: Create high-fidelity prototypes of the MIC platform to alleviate the report-writing process of CASA volunteers and return as much time as possible to the children.

What is CASA?

Court Appointed Special Advocates is an organization containing court-appointed volunteers who ensure every child experiencing domestic challenges gets their voice heard in court.

What is MIC?

A digital workspace aimed to streamline the data collection and report writing process for CASA volunteers.

MIC Stakeholders

✋ Primary Stakeholder: CASAs

Court Appointed Special Advocates can also be called CASA Volunteers, CASAs, or Volunteers.

These names are used interchangeably.

🧑‍⚖️ Secondary Stakeholders: Parties

The people related to the child that the CASA volunteer is helping or otherwise are related to during the case.

This includes biological and foster parents, legal guardians, court judges, health professionals, educators, etc.

🚸 Secondary Stakeholder: Children

The Child the CASA volunteer is directly working with in each case.

The work done by the CASA impacts decisions regarding their wellbeing.

User Group and Primary Stakeholder

Court Appointed Special Advocates (CASAs)

They are the ‘voice’ for children in court.
They spend time with their court-appointed child.
They interact with stakeholders/parties.
They collect information to write reports that provide judges with the necessary information to make decisions regarding the child’s welfare.

Deliverables

Volunteer Responsibilities

In the secondary research phase, we’ll build a fact-based understanding of the CASA process. While project specifics may vary, key volunteer responsibilities include:

Providing fact-based court recommendations

Ensuring compliance with court orders and submitting hearing reports

Documenting case details in Optima software

Communicating with all parties in the child’s life and documenting findings

This CASA project builds on work from the previous semester and a summer internship. To familiarize ourselves with the provided framework, we conducted an audit of prior work and identified key pain points.

These challenges included difficulty remembering timelines, dates, and meetings, transferring notes into Optima, and organizing reports to deliver effective recommendations.

Current Report Writing Issues

We interviewed three CASA staff members to understand their processes and frustrations. Combined with secondary research, these interviews highlighted key pain points in the CASA documentation process, including:

😤 Optima is inconvenient: technical issues, only for uploading data

😟 Stress around writing reports

💢 Inconsistent workflow between involved parties (Optima, Odyssey, Messaging)

🛠️ 3rd party tools being used (ex. Microsoft Word)

A Typical Case Flow

Sketching Process

Our second milestone focused on initial sketching and iterations using exercises like Round Robin and Crazy 6’s to bring ideas from our research to paper. Emphasizing collaboration, we prioritized group projects to ensure diverse perspectives were heard and considered.

Round Robin and Crazy 6’s

Synthesize Our Ideas

Mid-Fis/Feedback

After creating initial sketches, we sought feedback on our wireframes from field volunteers. While our designs were based on CASA insights, we prioritized consistent feedback at every stage to ensure alignment with field needs.

High-Fi Prototypes

Test, Iterate, and Create a High Fidelity prototype of a streamlined report-writing platform.

CASA Workshop Findings

Our design workshop was conducted in collaboration with an active CASA to better understand the process and explore the potential of current features. This collaboration helped us identify which components stood out and which were ineffective.

Lots of time spent inefficiently communicating

Al would be utilized if it’s not intrusive or blatant

Many CASAs take notes on pen and paper

Privacy is very important for protecting CASAs

Testing Our Designs

Next Steps

🔬 Feasibility Research

Now that we have a design, we still need to determine whether creating all the platform’s features is technologically feasible. We plan to consult with interface developers as we begin developing the interface to see what might best apply.

🧪 Usability Testing

Usability testing with CASA volunteers is essential to ensure our design meets their needs and is efficient for them to use. Although we have completed some testing with our peers, we recognize the need to consult directly with individuals currently active in the field.

🎨 Research & Design

Our design lacks an administrative view with features that case managers and supervisors would need. While our interface was designed with volunteers in mind, it would be useful to expand the site’s reach to all involved parties.

Overall Limitations

❌ Lack of Access

Due to the sensitive nature of CASA files, we were unable to directly evaluate and compare CASA’s current platform Optima to our design. To midicate, we would commit to more anecdotal research to more precisely understand the CASA experience.

🦗 Usability Testing

Testing was done mostly with classmates. This was due to time constraints and the difficulty of contacting and scheduling with CASA volunteers. To mitigate we would highlight the express need to test with CASA volunteers for future project designers.

🙅 Design Limitations

Due to time constraints, several platform details, such as logging in, personalization, and the supervisor view, were not included in our design. To address this, we will provide basic wireframes in our transition document for future project iterations.

Self-Reflection

This project allowed me to apply classroom concepts to an emerging startup. It was my first sponsored design project, and I found it rewarding to expand my design specialization.
Audience is Everything: While many aspects of our design were efficient, we sometimes struggled to access CASA volunteers. Often, we worked with employed CASA personnel rather than volunteers. Although their insights were valuable, our focus is on CASA volunteers. We remain confident in our final design and are grateful for the volunteer-specific insights we received. journey. While our current approach provided key insights, future efforts will leverage detailed journey maps and case studies to identify pivotal interaction points and deliver more targeted solutions.
Freedom in the Unformed: While I appreciate the guardrails of my prior projects, working with a startup offered a degree of freedom. The fluidity in design and depth of research made it a liberating experience to experiment and actively shape the organization with my team.
This project has profoundly transformed my approach to design work. Through a blend of research and drafting, I’ve become more proficient with tools like Figma and Whimsical while strengthening my research capabilities. My work with MIC has deepened my understanding of both UX Design and Research, making me a more well-rounded designer.

Alyssa Berger