Get the Lead Out
How might we engage citizens in participating in lead pipe inventories?
The Solution
We created a digital tool based on crowd-sourced & open source data which engages participation in lead pipe service line mapping, to facilitate an essential step in applying for federal funding for replacement: inventory. The inventory is accessible to multiple stakeholders including residents, local governments, engineers, academics and nonprofits.
.
Client
Census Open Innovation Labs at U.S. Census Bureau & General Assembly
Team
Najwa Hossain - UXD and PM
Jamie Ramsay - UXR
Parita Shah - UXD
Isa Sabraw - UXD
Natasha DiCostanzo - UXD
Maddy Hale - UXD
Jane Huntington - UXD
Time Frame
6 weeks
Skills
Research, Ideation, UX/UI Design, Story Writing, Cross-Functional Cooperation, Presentation
Tools & Methods
Figma, Photoshop, Notion, Secondary Research, Heuristic Evaluation, User Interviews, Personas, Comparative/Competitive Analysis, Journey Mapping, Affinity Mapping, Usability Testing, Wireframing, Prototyping
Challenge
Tasked with building a tech tool that helps lower-resourced communities apply for federal funding provided by Bipartisan Infrastructure Law (BIL)
Why Lead Services Lines are a Problem
To narrow the scope of our challenge we chose a specific type of grant application to investigate: Lead Pipes. Why? This pernicious issue that has long gone unsolved due to two things at the core of this sprint: data and funding.
Residents in Benton Harbor, MI, still pick up city-supplied, bottled water for their cooking and drinking. As recently as September 2021, water there contained up to 60X federal limits for lead. Media attention focused on Flint in 2015, but the lead issue touches every state. An estimated 9.7-12.8 million lead service lines (LSL) carry drinking water to the homes of at least 22 million people. Prior to the 1980s, lead was a commonly-used material in water service lines, solder and even faucets. And although the U.S. Congress banned the use of lead pipes, in 1986, no requirement was made to remove existing lead lines, which leach lead as they corrode. There is no safe level of lead, so removal and replacement is the only solution.
The devastating community health effects of LSL came to the national forefront after Flint’s water crisis. To cut costs, Flint’s water supply was switched from Detroit’s system to the Flint River in 2014. Inadequate water treatment measures exposed Flint residents to lead through their drinking water. After the rerouting, Flint children began exhibiting elevated blood lead levels which increased from 2.4% to 4.9%, with a 6.6% increase in neighborhoods with the highest water lead levels. Children exposed to lead suffer decreased cognitive function and behavior problems. In adults, lead exposure can result in increased blood pressure, hypertension and can lead to coronary heart disease and death. Flint’s journalists, activists and citizens put the dangers of lead exposure on Americans’ radars, but it may not be clear that lead pipes are present in every state, in both rural and urban areas
1986
​
U.S. Congress bans the use of lead pipes, but does not make a requirement to remove existing lines
9.7-12.8
million
The number of lead pipes carrying drinking water to some 22 million Americans
60X
​
The amount Benton Harbor, MI, water exceeded federal limit for lead in September 2021
*Sources: NRDC and North Dakota Department of Environmental Quality
Funding for Lead Service Line Replacement
With the passing of the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law (BIL), states now have the opportunity to access $15 million in funding specifically targeted to lead service line replacement (LSLR). But communities with the greatest need often have the fewest resources to conduct inventories. Unfortunately, mapped locations of service lines have never been well-documented, historically. While computerized modeling can predict which homes might have lead pipes based on construction dates, accurate map data for replacement programs relies on citizens visually checking their property and communicating data with local governments. Recording, tracking, and confirming that information is difficult for under-resourced municipalities.
​
Therefore there are hurdles in even beginning to understand the scope of a community’s lead problem, let alone address it. Smaller communities such as Eau Claire, Wisconsin, and Hazel Crest, Illinois, which have both begun the process of lead pipe replacement, cite engagement with the community as vital to their replacement programs.
Research Highlights Unique Roadblocks
Without a background in grant writing or lead pipes, but with familiarity in health research, I initiated extensive secondary research reading: university research papers, EPA studies on the affects of lead, local newspapers describing their community’s water issues. I cold-called several water departments and community leaders of cities mentioned in studies.
​
Additionally I reached out to experts quoted in many of the articles including Tom Neltner of Environmental Defense Fund (EDF) and Maureen Cunningham of Environmental Policy Innovation Center (EPIC). Through tenacity and referrals, I assembled a group of interviewees that all touched the lead pipe issue at varying levels. Below are the takeaways from 4 of the 8 people with whom we spoke. Whether an engineer or a city manager, all were familiar with the pain points of funding and replacement programs started.
-
Communication - Negative messaging can dissuade communities from initiating a replacement plan because communities have contamination concerns
​
-
Training - Contractors and plumbers in private sector need to be trained on how they can also benefit taking part in LPRL programs
​
-
Inventory is vital. “If everything is unknown, we can’t make progress."
​
-
Incentivizing community buy- in: should be easy but is not
​
-
Replacement is inevitable
-
Technical assistance involves: access to financing, technology data and asset management, inventory, and communications
​
-
Outsourcing applications to an engineering firm is expensive
​
-
Inventories vary widely & are hurdle for LSLR projects
​
-
Community participation and consent is critical to successful LSLR projects. Information should be available in multiple languages.
​
-
Combining LSLR with other water services could make the process more efficient.
-
Partnerships & technical assistance are key for lower-resourced municipalities to complete applications
​
-
Hiring an engineering firm to complete Proposal Plan required for application can be cost prohibitive for lower-resourced communities
​
-
Community engagement is critical throughout the process - especially for inventory
​
-
Technical assistance requirements include data analytics and data management
-
Application process can be daunting for communities who do not have staffing to collect data, signatures, etc for an engineering firm to create a plan or the labor to do the LSLR work
​
-
Confusion over BIL qualifications and rubric prevents some communities from even attempting to apply (costly, unclear)
​
-
Inventory and execution require community cooperation
​
-
Communities need technical assistance
Thinking Outside the Bureaucratic Box
As I dug into secondary research and with the experts that I interviewed, a common roadback to replacement was unanimously repeated: inventory. To further complicate the matter, the inventories require mapping on both private and public land. Confusion, hesitation, deprioritization and concerns of remediation costs result in poor data reporting by private property owners to local governments and water systems. A city like Eau Claire, WI found they needed city representatives to go door to door to record the data they needed. Hazel Crest, IL, attempted to complete its inventory through a mailed survey to homeowners and received only a 10% response.
Therefore, it became apparent that inventory was a key pain point to the lead pipe replacement process. More importantly, in terms of our scope, it was the point at which municipalities were getting hung up in the grant application process. At least a partial inventory is needed to determine the extent of a city’s lead pipe problems and to create a project plan for grant application. If residents are not participating, and a city does not have the funds for technical support to carry out an inventory in proactive ways like Eau Claire, the grant application process is nearly impossible.
This unique data need made our eventual solution to the original remit a bit less obvious. To make application for BIL funds easier for lower-resourced municipalities, we had to help them first get the data they needed for the application. Without that, any solution that ignored that essential step would ultimately not assist communities with getting funding for their lead pipe replacement, no matter how good the search or how slick the UI. I stood by the data our interviewees and research clearly laid out: find a way to help cities complete their inventories.
Click image to magnify.
Early Journey Map of Current Grant Application Process
Constructing a Solution
While our Data Team began the difficult task of finding scarce lead line data sets to test out predictive modeling of a building's likelihood of having lead pipes, we moved on to constructing our digital solution with these three takeaways from research:
People do not know the dangers of having lead pipes in their homes
Location of lead service lines in often unknown
​
Grants for replacement require inventory data
​
Lower-resourced communities need a way to engage residents in the lead line inventory process so that they can gather the data that they need to apply for federal funding. Through approachable map data of lead service lines and the opportunity for residents to contribute to that data, more Americans will be educated on their risk factor for lead pipes, learn how to manage lead levels in their homes, and be able to assist their local governments with accurate inventories for replacement programs.
Constraints and Essential Features
With a 6 week timeframe to develop a working product, we got our Design, Data and Dev Teams together to prioritize what features we could realistically build and deliver by the project deadline for our Minimum Viable Product (MVP). We decided to narrow our focus to the town of Hazel Crest, IL, a town of about 13,000 outside of Illinois which had successfully received grants money for LSLR.
Hazel Crest had conducted a similar analysis to what we want to accomplish in this project, and census data provided important address-specific information which we hoped to use to generate predictions on the presence of lead in specific homes. Using the Cook County Census Report and a report done on lead in service lines in Hazel Crest, the Data Team created a model could predict where lead pipes are located with 95% accuracy. This means this formula can potentially be applied to any town in the US where open sourced federal data is available.
​
Data Team's Hazel Crest Data Analysis here.
Feature Prioritization
Two Users
Although our end user is a community leader who needs to apply to get their community’s lead pipes replaced, we kept the concerned citizen in mind in our creating the tool's flow and design. The concerned citizen will be filling the data gaps in inventories. The community leader will then have the data necessary to apply for funding.
32
Store Manager
Hazel Crest, IL
Jessica
The Concerned
Citizen
My job is to make sure I have a safe home for my children and that includes safe water. I didn't provide that. I didn't know. That's definitely the hardest part."
Background
Jessica recently heard about the existence of lead pipes in her community. She is increasingly alarmed about the quality of water within her home. Although Jessica is having a hard time finding information, she wants to avoid reaching out to her landlord is she can.
Goals
-
Easy steps to identify pipes & clear protective measures
-
House-specific info regarding her pipes
-
Increased awareness of the problem in her community
Frustrations
-
Available info on lead is confusing and vague
-
Cannot find resources online
-
Does not know who or where to look for help
45
Town Mayor
New England
Mark
The Community
Leader
"What can we do to take care of this problem?"
Background
Mark is the town mayor of a small New England town. The town's water has tested positive for elevated lead levels & citizens look to him for a solution. He knows federal grants are available. However he does not know the scope of his lead issue, nor what is required to apply for funding.
Goals
-
Access federal grant money
-
Assessment of his resources & costs to apply for grants
-
Find a system to inventory lead lines
Frustrations
-
No accurate data on his town's LSL
-
No technical resources for inventory record-keeping
-
Limited budget & resources for grant applications
User Flow for Jessica
User Flow for Mark
Iterating and Testing
We conducted 4 rounds of Usability Testing on each of our 4 iterations of the mobile site.
​
Our first mobile iteration had a static, place-holder map to simulate the interactive map on the home page. In this early stage of design, it was minimally functional. That lack of interactivity on the home screen seemed distracting to initial testers who wanted to touch and interact with it. We had only one tester for the initial test and moved to a higher fidelity to conduct more robust testing.
​
Main observations from the second round of 4 testers was:
-
Testers understood the purpose of the product
-
Search bar on the map did not stand out visually
-
Uploading photos page was frustrating and confusing
-
UX Writing might have been too colloquial and needed to be more straightforward
​
Click any image below to magnify.
Language too colloquial
Search bar gets lost
Search bar more obvious in relation
to map key
More context added
to home screen
More specificity
in map key
Clearer calls to action
Iterations
Iterations
On our third round of 3 testers, the map interactivity had still not been developed, and testers continued to point out their desire to interact with the static map. We had added onboarding modals to help guide first time users through the mobile site on this iteration. There was still no logo created which testers commented made them suspicious of the site.
What we learned from testers was:
-
Map key needed to be bigger and more explicit for readability
-
Written content used "Lead Pipe" and "Lead Service Line" interchangeably - confusing
-
Testers wanted more "next steps" or someone to contact after submitting their photo and information
-
Who has created this site?
​
In our final round of testing, our user carried out four tasks with 100% accuracy and only a few notes on verbiage, which we addressed for clarity before presenting the final product.
Click any image below to magnify.
Iterations
Call to action
left users with questions or suspicions
Insufficient resources
Generic icon = suspicious
Iterations
Improved UX writing
Typeface
hierarchy for
clarity
Cognitive overload and unnecessary questions
Streamlined upload process and form
Improved UX writing
Logo added, improved trustworthiness
Confirmation screen added & resources provided for user
Final Prototype & Fully Developed
Mobile Site
Perhaps the hardest part of our collective effort was landing on a name and logo. We finally decided on "Get the Lead Out" which added a great deal of trustworthiness during usability testing. The color choices were based on color schemes recognizable as reliable government websites to which people would feel safe submitting personal information: blues with white background. Additionally, blue leant itself well to a site that helps promotes safe and clean drinking water.
​
Our Development Team, made up of 4 software engineers, built a functioning mobile website based on our Figma prototype and design system. Our Postgres database and Django back-end are deployed and hosted on Microsoft Azure. Using the Azure Cloud means that there is high availability, reliability, and potential for easy scalability. The code repository is hosted on Github and our front-end is deployed on Netlify which is installed in our repo, enabling continuous integration and continuous delivery.
The Get the Lead Out application uses React and is built with a mobile-first approach. This design allows our solution to reach the share of Americans who are smartphone-only internet users, approximately 15%. It also allows users to easily share the Get The Lead Out awareness campaign via built-in social media share buttons.
Please open on a mobile device, as this product is optimized for mobile browsers.
Press Play above for a preview of the fully-functional mobile site
Next Phases of Work:
-
​Add desktop site
​
-
Future project administrators needed to check photos and lead pipe status
​
-
Integrate AI learning solution for checking lead pipe images
​
-
Developers and designers needed to conduct bug fixes, usability tests and desktop version
​
-
Stakeholders to set up predictive formula and update map data with confirmed lead pipes
​
-
Create functionality to email data sets when requested
What I Learned
Despite stereotypes of bureaucracy, government timelines can be crazy fast.
Finding new user interviews through other user interviews is awesome. At the end of an interview, ask if interviewees could suggest referrals. It was in that way that I was connected to the City Manager of Hazel Crest, IL, which became the model city for building our site and for the Data Team’s predictive model.
​
Good UX writing often needs to be very literal, especially when asking someone to provide their personal information. Our testers demonstrated how much people actually read every sentence you put on a prototype page and question every word.
​
Communicative, cross-functional teams really help with efficiency. Having everyone aligned on an MVP kept the teams accountable to each other, managed time, & prevented feature creep.
**Interested in the details of this project? Notion is here.
Also, my teammates for this project are amazing.
Please take a moment to check out their work via their LinkedIn pages at the top of this page under "Team"