What we did
The project
Identifying micronutrient malnutrition in different populations is key to understanding global health conditions, but resources for surveyors are scarce. The Center for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) in partnership with UNICEF, WHO and Nutrition International partnered to find a modern and practical solution that would support surveyors and practitioners as they do their work.
Understanding the need
We worked with the CDC team to identify the resources that were needed and how surveys were being conducted in the field. We found a set of core issues that could be addressed through technology:
- Surveyors oftentimes did not have relevant resources to conduct their surveys, including internet/browser access
- Those in different regions did not have the same access to resources and found it hard to know best practices
- When staff did gain access to internet, they would at best have access to low-bandwidth environments
On- and offline design
We conducted workshops and interviews with the CDC team to structure and organize the existing manual into a digital form that met identified needs. Users were able to download the entire site onto a USB key or their laptop for portability and offline use. Structured in Electron,the offline application that could be then loaded onto Windows, Apple, Linux, Android and iOS with little maintenance.
Evolution and launch
GDPR compliance became a necessary development which we included into the system along with custom advanced analytics dashboard to track the use and growth of the platform. The Micronutrient Survey Toolkit website was successfully launched in October 2020 and included more than 200 tools and 16 interactive modules.
On the first day of launch, the site received over 800 unique users rendering over 3,600 pages with an average session time of over three minutes. The site also received the most visits from target countries across Eastern and Western Africa and South Asia. Since launch, the site has been actively used by surveyors in India, Nigeria, Ethiopia, Canada, Kenya, Pakistan, China and Indonesia.
