State Tobacco Activities Tracking and Evaluation (STATE) System Modernization
Project Summary
In December 2023, the CDC tasked our team with modernizing the STATE system using a new enterprise tool called the Open-Source Visualization Editor (COVE). During our initial assessment, we found the legacy system’s tools to be fragmented and inconsistently distributed, leading to confusion within the information architecture.
Redesigning the system with COVE presented notable challenges and constraints, which underscored the importance of cross-functional collaboration and thorough documentation throughout the process.
My Role
UX Designer | Visual Design
Platform
Web Desktop & Mobile
Years
2023 - 2025
Check out my sticky note reflections!
What is the STATE System?
The Office of Smoking & Health’s (OSH) State Tobacco Activities Tracking and Evaluation (STATE) System is a data visualization tool that provides users with data on smoking policies across the US. Users are able to view national and state-level data on tobacco prevention and control.
At what point does a case study have too many acronyms?
What is COVE?
The CDC Open-Source Visualization Editor (COVE) is a CDC-built enterprise system that allows site developers to quickly render visualizations on webpages. It’s library is ever-expanding and its editor is quick to learn, making it an easy choice for data visualization projects.
Because this is a visualization system as its core and was not designed to be used to build entire systems (let alone to use APIs), we faced significant constraints during the STATE System’s design and development phase.
What was the problem?
As a legacy system, the STATE system seemed to be hitting all the notes: it was receiving a high number of visits and presented information that was easy for users who were looking for detailed data and surface-level information.
Upon further inspection, we realized that the portions of the system that provided detailed data were too complicated for users. The stakeholders also wanted to significantly pair down the amount of data within the system to allow for easier maintenance. Finally, the split between the two sides of the system didn’t translate well into the COVE system because they weren’t standardized enough for its format.
Like all great projects, we also needed to complete this in record time.
“Custom Reports” complicated UI, layered information architecture, and hidden features made it difficult for users to understand this tool.
It allowed more advanced users to build their own visualizations with the data and received significantly less views than its sister tool.
“State Highlights” limited users to only the previous four years of data and didn’t allow for comparisons between tobacco types.
This portion of the site held curated reports for each US state and was the more oftenof the two.
Needless to say, we made countless modifications to COVE along the way
Our challenge
Design modernized version of the STATE system that improved on existing functionality, met all COVE constraints and needs, and was able to be completed on time.
Identifying User Needs
Utilizing metrics and stakeholder interviews to identify needs
We utilized several years of web metric data and stakeholder interviews to learn what in this application could be improved. Through this, we determined the following two pain points for users:
Even though creating comparisons is an essential requirement for users, the system didn’t offer an easy way to view data points side-by-side
The system was fragmented and users had to access several screens to access information on the same topics
Adding to enterprise systems and collaborating across teams
While designing the system, we also worked closely with COVE developers to ensure the site met the specifications of the system and would be able to be developed to spec.
There were also four other teams across our center who were modernizing applications on the COVE system, so constant collaboration and communication between the teams was essential for the entire duration of this project. On a regular day, I would find myself speaking with: database managers, COVE developers, site developers, UX team, and Product Management teams. Every single ticket had to be triaged to determine which member of the team I had to speak to to get it fixed. In addition to that, each team used a different project management tracking system, so our team had to track our own bugs in a separate environment that combined all others (excel… it was excel).
When conducting development reviews, I created a framework for myself to follow when testing:
In other words, I lived on MS Teams and Excel
Solution
Places data comparisons are the forefront. With this new version, users can compare:
Both tobacco types
Additionally,
The system summarizes data in maps and charts for easy, quick glances
The home page provides quick and easy access to each section of the system
All locations and four quarters within a single sub-measure
Any four quarters within a single location OR any four locations within a single quarter
We really covered every way that a user might want to compare items in this system
Reflection
This project is one that I am very proud of because of how challenging it was. It put to test not just my ability to solve the users’ problems, but also my collaboration and project management skills. I am particularly proud of the fact that we were able to create a new, enhanced version of the previous system given the technical and time limitations we faced throughout this project.
Since this project was recently launched, we haven’t been able to gather full user feedback or metrics. However, the stakeholders frequently shared with us their excitement for the new system.