Digital Tools for Research Projects

You own the research. I help turn it into an interactive digital experience.

Research projects increasingly produce more than papers and reports. They produce trainings, toolkits, assessments, decision tools, data resources, and other materials designed to be used by patients, practitioners, community partners, researchers, and the public.

I work with university researchers and project teams to design and build those digital experiences.

Sometimes that means joining a project after funding has been awarded and the team is ready to build. Sometimes it means getting involved during the development of the grant proposal to help define the technical scope, estimate development costs, and make sure the digital component is feasible from the start.

Project Types

Custom online trainings
Implementation toolkits
Interactive assessments and scorecards
Decision-support tools
Data dashboards and visualizations
Digital resources

The format varies. The goal is the same: turning research into something people can meaningfully interact with and use.

Featured Case Studies

FYREworks is a PCORI-funded online training platform developed to prepare adolescents and their parents or caregivers to participate as partners in research. I worked with the research team to translate the training content into an interactive digital experience with separate learning tracks for youth and adults. Nearly a decade later, the platform has continued to support new populations, new research projects, and additional funded adaptations.

Research Ethics for All (RE4ALL) is an interactive research ethics training program created for community research partners with intellectual and developmental disabilities. I designed and built the digital training experience, including the interface, activities, assessment and certification workflows, downloadable resources, and administrative tools. The program has since been adopted by research institutions across the country.

From Research to Digital Experience

Translating research findings into digital experiences beings with questions like these:

What should the user be able to do?
What information needs to be presented, collected, calculated, or customized?
How should complicated research concepts be organized so users can navigate them?
How does the product need to accommodate accessibility, privacy, institutional requirements, or future expansion?

I combine strategy, user experience, interface design, and development, so the technical decisions stay connected to the purpose of the research instead of being handed from one vendor to another.

Planning a Grant Proposal?

The best time to think through a digital deliverable is often before the grant proposal is submitted.

I work with investigators and research teams during proposal development to help:

Define the proposed digital deliverable
Estimate costs for the project budget
Provide technical language for the proposal
Supply a letter of support when appropriate

You don’t need to have the technology figured out before we talk. If your proposal says something like “develop an online training,” “create an interactive toolkit,” “build a web-based assessment,” or “disseminate findings through a digital resource,” that is usually enough of a starting point.

Real Research Experience

I’ve spent more than a decade building digital tools and resources with university-based research teams, including projects associated with:

Johns Hopkins University
Temple University
University of Virginia
Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia
University of Florida
Syracuse University
University of New Hampshire
University of Vermont

Real experience matters because research projects come with constraints ordinary web projects often don’t:

grant timelines
multiple institutions
evolving study requirements
stakeholder review
data and privacy considerations
accessibility requirements, and
the reality that the product may need to keep growing after the original award ends.

Have a Digital Component in Your Research Project?

If you’re planning a grant proposal, have recently received funding, or already have a research project that needs a digital home, I’d love to hear what you’re building.

Let's Talk About Your Project