OVERVIEW
The People Say is a web-based qualitative database designed to help policymakers hear the voices of the public when shaping policy.
The database features first-hand insights from a diverse group of older adults and caregivers, as well as feedback from subject-matter experts on policies affecting older adults.
ROLE
- Design Engineering Fellow
See the About Our Team page for a complete list of project collaborators.
DURATION
- Completed in 2024 with the Public Policy Lab for The SCAN Foundation
SCOPE
- User Research
- User Interface Design
- Product Development
TOOLS
- Figma
- Laravel
- Tailwind CSS
CONTEXT
The American population is rapidly aging.
Our society needs to prepare for this demographic shift.
Adults over the age of 65 are projected to make up more than 20% of the population by 2030 and will comprise more than 25% of the population in rural areas by 2040.
PROBLEM
Health and aging policies and systems are typically designed from the perspective of people who run systems, rather than those who use them.
Even when advocates, policymakers, and providers do seek to learn from older adults, those engagements often have significant limitations.
GOAL
Highlight the value of spoken word and qualitative data. Make the experiences of older adults across America easily accessible to policymakers.
THE SOLUTION
A Platform for Experiences
Visitors can search and filter the database, read curated insight pages with accompanying video playlists, view participant profiles, read about our research methodology, and more. The content of the qualitative research database was collected from 66 older adults from around the country, seven caregivers and staff, and 13 subject-matter experts from government agencies, policy think tanks, research organizations, and academia.
Homepage, www.thepeoplesay.org
FUNCTIONALITY
Content Offerings
This website revolves around three main ingredients — The Partcipants, The Database, and the Policy Insights. The data is collected, processed, uploaded to Airtable, and then queried to the website.
My role was to take this data and present it in a way that is easily parsable:
PROTOTYPE / THE DATABASE
Accessing the data
I began by building a filtering system that makes the full dataset accessible. Based on user research, we decided the full dataset (~2,400 units) loads by default. Filters on the left narrow results, sorted by relevance. A key focus was clearly indicating which filters are active.
This module on the homepage gives a easy way to discover what topics the data is sorted by without overwhelming the user.
On clicking a data point the content is arranged with meta data on the left and main content from the interview on the right.
PROTOTYPE / THE DATABASE
Searching for Content
I began by building a filtering system that makes the full dataset accessible. Based on user research, we decided the full dataset (~2,400 units) loads by default. Filters on the left narrow results, sorted by relevance. A key focus was clearly indicating which filters are active.
Before.
After. Filters are more integrated in the design and take up less visual space.
PROTOTYPE / THE DATABASE
Laying out the Content
The layout of the content cards themselves went under many revisions, even after launch.
On clicking a data point the content is arranged with meta data on the left and main content from the interview on the right.
Before
After
On clicking a data point the content is arranged with meta data on the left and main content from the interview on the right.
On clicking a data point the content is arranged with meta data on the left and main content from the interview on the right.
Result
The People Say was launched at the US Capitol in July 2024.