Radiant partnered with the University of Minnesota to design and develop a research-oriented, online, mobile-responsive social intervention program called Thrive With Me. The goal of the application is to promote improved medication adherence and disease self-management among men with HIV. Radiant was responsible for system and software development, infrastructure design, maintenance, and ongoing user support. In addition to developing the intervention software, we provided expert consulting regarding overall intervention design, user experience, and field implementation.
Radiant implemented an iterative development approach featuring frequent stakeholder review, automated testing, and continuous integration/deployment (CI/CD). Our agile process implemented the Scrum framework as follows:
- Before beginning development, the product team collaboratively developed the technical approach (technology stack, tooling) and working methods (definition of 'done,' testing, and continuous deployment methods).
- Desired product functionality was captured as User Stories and collected in a Project Backlog. The Product Backlog was pruned and prioritized regularly by the Product Owner with input from all project stakeholders.
- In collaboration with development, the UI/UX team utilized interactive prototyping to quickly model and verify approaches with the client and end-user stakeholders.
- User Stories were estimated using a relative estimation method (modified Fibonacci series).
- Radiant organized the project into two-week sprints; the Product Owner prioritized User Stories in the Product Backlog, and the development team selected stories for the sprint based on this prioritization.
- Through tracking and measuring Sprint velocity weekly, overall project velocity was tracked and measured at the end of each sprint, permitting the team to predict the story points completed by the project release date.
- A cohort of representative users in a community advisory group collected data from end-user perspectives throughout the development process. Perspectives included aesthetic concerns, content evaluation, usability, and overall user experience.
A technical infrastructure enabled the continuous release of code:
- The CI/CD process utilized Tuleap ALM for continuous integration. The system integrated Github for source code management and Jenkins for automated testing and deployment from developer machines to staging and production environments.
Using this agile approach, our team delivered a solution that incorporated the following features:
- An interactive online social space wherein participants can share text, videos, and images. This social space also implemented related features such as commenting, "liking," and flagging and was integrated with a game mechanics system.
- An extensive game mechanics system that awarded points to users based on their activities throughout the site. Based on these point awards, participants earned badges, progressed through levels, and became recognized on the site via notifications and leaderboards.
- An expert content system that displayed skills-training content to each user daily and highlighted particularly relevant content based on its profile.
- An automated participant onboarding system integrated with an external survey tool (Qualtrics). Leveraging custom code and Qualtrics' API, study participants were automatically provided user accounts after completing a baseline survey, and survey data were stored in a user profile. These survey variables were utilized for content tailoring. This feature significantly reduced the work burden of study administrators.
- A configurable, interactive SMS-based medication reminder system that allowed users to configure a set of daily reminders. Each reminder collected medication-taking status and mood. Organized into a "weekly check," these data points allowed users to review their medication-taking and reflect on the relationship between their mood, meds, and substance use.
- Extensive moderation and content management controls for study administrators, including user management and condition assignment, flagged content alerts and review, process data export, content creation, editing, and revision workflows.
Our technical solution incorporated the following components:
- Drupal CMS/AMF, with custom modules written in PHP
- Qualtrics API integration for automated participant onboarding
- Twilio API integration for interactive SMS
- Responsive UI based on Bootstrap framework and developed in HTML5. Utilized automation tools such as Less preprocessor and Grunt task runner.
Radiant continues to support the intervention software during an ongoing randomized controlled trial.
- CI/CD process permitted code release daily.
- The scrum approach ensured the highest-value features were implemented with available project resources.
- Automated testing increased overall solution stability throughout the project.
- The responsive web approach permitted access to the intervention on any web browser device.
- Integration with Qualtrics yielded more efficient study management and the ability to tailor and highlight content, making the intervention more relevant to end-users.
- Working directly with end-users during development delivered a well-received user-focused product with subsequent usability/feasibility testing.
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