Case study spotlight
INFORMATION DESIGN

Equiflow: Bridging the Gap in California Water Equity Data

UX Designer
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COEQWAL
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June 2025- Oct 2025
[background image] image of contact office (for a general contractor)
[background image] image of contact office (for a general contractor)

The Analysis Breakdown

TL;DR: Led the UX strategy for a $9.1M multi-institutional project to transform complex climate and water datasets into accessible tools for marginalized California communities. Designed the "Framework Explorer" to ensure that data-driven water management is equitable, not just efficient.

The Problem

California’s water management systems are governed by massive, opaque datasets that are largely inaccessible to the people most affected by climate change—small-scale farmers, tribal communities, and marginalized residents.

‍The Pain Point: Scientific models are often built by engineers for engineers. This "technical gatekeeping" meant that community advocates couldn't interpret the data necessary to fight for their fair share of resources, leading to biased resource allocation.
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‍The Constraints: I had to navigate a high-stakes environment involving a $9.1M budget, multiple academic institutions, and the technical limitation of translating "messy," unstructured climate data into a real-time visual interface.

The Team

Worked as a solo designer in a team of two developers and under supervision of a Grad Student

image of team working with local communities

The Solution

I designed Equiflow, a platform that prioritizes "Data Literacy" as much as data delivery.

‍The Framework Explorer: A modular dashboard that allows users to toggle between different climate scenarios and see the direct impact on their specific region.

‍I didn't just design the UI; I worked directly with developers to refactor the JSON schema. By aligning the developer’s backend logic with the designer’s frontend vision, I ensured that the technical architecture supported the human-centered goals of the project. This eliminated the "translation error" between the code and the community.

The Approach

To build a tool that truly served the community, I had to find the human story buried in the spreadsheets.

‍Researching the "Truth": I conducted deep-dive interviews and auditing sessions with diverse stakeholders, from state policymakers to local activists. I realized the problem wasn't a lack of data, but a lack of structure

Information Architecture: I took the "messy" scientific variables—precipitation rates, reservoir levels, and socioeconomic indicators—and organized them into a hierarchical "Framework Explorer." This allowed users to filter data based on their specific community needs rather than wading through raw scientific noise.

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Impact & Reflect

This project was a rigorous test of my ability to lead within an interdisciplinary "black box." I learned that as a designer, my most important job isn't making the dashboard look clean—it's ensuring the data is honest.

In the future, I would implement an even more robust "Community Feedback Loop" earlier in the prototyping phase to ensure that the icons and labels we use match the local terminology of the farmers and residents. This project solidified my mission to be a System Translator who ensures that in the tech industry, a seat at the table is a right earned by merit, not a gift granted by a gatekeeper.

Qualitative

Facilitated alignment between 10+ distinct stakeholder groups, including academic researchers, state agencies, and community organizers.

Integrated over 50+ unique data variables into a single, intuitive interface.

Quantitative

A community advocate noted that the tool transformed the data from a "weapon of exclusion" into a "tool for advocacy.

Successfully shifted the project’s internal culture from "compliance-driven data" to "equity-centered design," ensuring that marginalized voices are now part of the structural conversation.

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