Bridging the information gap for 2.6 million Michigan residents who rely on private wells
Role
UX Researcher & Designer
Timeline
5 months
Platform
Responsive Web App
Tools
FigJam, Miro, Framer
TL;DR - FOR THE BUSY RECRUITER
The Problem
Michigan's well owners are navigating water safety in the dark
Nearly 30% of Michigan residents (2.6+ million people) rely on private wells, yet face critical information barriers: no centralized resources, limited access to location-specific contamination data (like dioxane plumes), and fragmented knowledge that exacerbates health disparities.
Our Solution
A centralized hub that doesn't reinvent the wheel—it leverages it
MI Safe Water aggregates existing trusted resources, community data, and local testing facilities into one accessible platform. We built a working Framer prototype that demonstrates how users can find testing resources, view area water quality maps filtered by contaminants, track their test results, and connect with neighbors who share water concerns—all without navigating dozens of fragmented government sites.
Impact & Contribution
First-place winning research and platform design
A functional proof-of-concept reshaping how 2.6+ million people engage with their most basic need: safe water. I led qualitative interviews with well owners and SMEs, synthesized insights into user flows and information architecture, and designed a Framer prototype and viable business model—contributing to a 1st place finish at the UMSI Expo among 100+ projects.
Quick Action Buttons: ▶️ Watch Project Video |🧾 View Research Poster | 💻 Try Prototype
Where did this project begin?
This graduate capstone project was completed as part of the SI 699 Mastery User Experience Research and Design course at the University of Michigan School of Information. The course challenged students to tackle complex UX problems with fuzzy goals while applying advanced research and design methodologies.
Our only prompt was: “Do something related to water.”
- No defined user, no clear outcome — just an open UMSI theme of the year for exploration.
- We entered the problem space broadly, considering these fuzzy goals: water quality, consumer health, pollution, and contamination.
This ambiguity became our first design challenge.
How did we navigate ambiguity?
We combined user-centered design, double diamond, and design -driven innovation in our design process to navigate the unknown — beginning wide with divergent discovery before narrowing through research synthesis.
Through brainstorming and early preliminary desk research, we uncovered a hidden issue:
~30%
~1 in 3
Michigan residents rely on wells, yet contaminated water poses a serious health risk.
Preliminary Secondary Research
We started to converge on goals by creating a Stakeholder/Audience Map and dot voting on who we wanted to focus on most - Focusing on users who use private water/wells and may be looking for water resources
Individual
Users who use private-well water
Individual
Users who own private-wells
Organizational
Government Water Suppliers
What initial value did we hope to bring to our users?
Accessibility (access to broad and local challenges)
Real-time Information/Data Integration
Water safety and peace of mind
How did we make sense of Michigan's complex well water ecosystem?
Our discovery phase involved multi-method research to understand both the human and systemic sides of Michigan’s water ecosystem.
Managing risk in this ambiguous space
We created an innovation thesis with assumptions and potential risks of those assumptions broken down in 3 categories: market, feasibility, or viability risks.
Planning to understand our users and their problems
A discovery plan containing the What? (Scope, Focus, Audience, and Value Proposition ), Why? (Innovation Thesis), and How? (Brainstorm of research methods)
How did we move from research insights into actionable design challenge?
Affinity Mapping
Synthesized and clustered our qualitative data into 4 major themes then dot voted on most important.
"Lack of a centralized website or
resources for well water information"
- MI Residential Well Owner
“This is an intergenerational and multigenerational problem.
We have to plan ahead”
- Chair of Local Nonprofit
How Might We Statement
Success Criteria
Pre-Mortem
How did we decide on a design direction?
We started with a brainstorming session exploring potential solutions and strategy methods to take.
Sketching Solutions w/ business viability in mind
Business Model Canvas: Strategically aligning our design solution's plan, goals, and vision
Confidence Building Questions: Continuing to take a proactive approach to risks
White Board Ideation: Sketching solutions as a team
Breadboard Map: Turning our sketches into a breadboard map to send our participants for concept testing
How did our ideas take form through design?
Designing based on the journey
Platform Choice
Web-first (responsive) & accessible
“Don’t want another app”
- MI Residential Well Owner
Sketching & Wireframing
🤖 Rapid Prototyping
On a tight schedule, we used Framer's AI Prompting to quickly build and iterate a working prototype for validation and expo demonstration
What was the main idea of our design solution?
1
Central hub to find testing resources
2
Community map that shows water quality data
3
User accounts to track household water testing results
Own your water quality by finding local resources to test, access, and maintenance.
Find out what the water quality is in your area and filter by contaminants.
Manage your water sustainably with free access to water education, community connections, and local resources.
Act early by reviewing and updating your water status.
Sustaining our Solution
Strategizing for the future we developed a business model for the sustainability of our solution:
A Non-Profit that Empowers focused on educating and informing!
I took the lead on defining our business model via whiteboarding
Where's the Capital?
What was the impact of MI Safe Water?
By connecting human-centered design with data transparency, MI Safe Water helped reshape how people engage with their most basic need — safe water.
Our targeted social impact were:
Raise awareness around local water quality issues
Empower users to test and treat their water
Aggregate existing water data for easier access
Our business model had positive community vitality opportunities in economic development and sustainability
Viable
Sustainable
Reflecting on the project
The Road Not Taken
Despite strong validation, partner interest, and first-place recognition, the team ultimately chose not to pursue this as a startup post-graduation. As we approached the end of our master's program, the immediate pressures of job searches and career launches took priority over the long-term investment required to turn MI Safe Water into reality.
This remains one of those "what if" projects—we had the research, the concept validation, the stakeholder buy-in, and even professors willing to guide us through grant applications. But sometimes timing matters as much as opportunity.