Streamlining Progress Tracking with a Data-Driven Admin Portal to Eradicate Open Defecation in Nigeria
MY ROLE
I led the end-to-end design process for this project, from initial research through to final handoff.
My work focused on understanding how program administrators and field agents operate and translating those insights into a system that effectively serves both groups.
I collaborated closely with front-end developers throughout, reviewing implementation against design specifications, addressing technical constraints early, and ensuring the final product matched the intended experience.
Company: Clean Nigeria: Use the Toilet Campaign (CNC)
Sector: NGO · Public Health · Water & Sanitation
Methods: User Research · Stakeholder Interviews · Problem Framing · Data Visualization Design · Usability Testing · Developer Collaboration
Tools: Figma · Asana · Google Docs
Year: 2024
PROJECT OVERVIEW
WHAT IS CNC ABOUT?
Clean Nigeria: Use the Toilet is a national initiative working to eliminate open defecation by 2025 through behavior change, improved sanitation infrastructure, and community-driven monitoring systems. The program relies on field data collected by agents across rural communities to track progress and inform interventions.
THE PROBLEM
In a country of over 220 million people, where 1 in 4 still practices open defecation, the impact extends beyond dignity to public health, child mortality, and preventable disease at the national scale.
While the Clean Nigeria campaign deployed field agents to collect sanitation data across rural communities, the system to manage that data was broken. Reports were fragmented, inconsistent, and too delayed to support timely decision-making.
As a result, program administrators lacked a clear, reliable view of which communities had achieved open defecation-free status and which were falling behind, making it difficult to track progress, allocate resources, and ensure accountability.
The challenge wasn’t data collection; it was transforming field data into actionable insight.
THE SOLUTION
To address this gap, we designed a web-based admin portal that centralizes field data into a single, actionable program management system.
The platform transforms raw reports into real-time dashboards, providing visibility into ODF progress across states, local governments, and communities, with tools to validate submissions, track key indicators, and generate stakeholder reports.
Administrators who once relied on fragmented, delayed reporting now had a live, reliable view of campaign progress, enabling faster decisions and more effective intervention.
DISCOVERY & INSIGHTS
Before making product decisions, we focused on understanding how the initiative operated, how field data was collected, how administrators used it, and where the process was breaking down.
Our research explored three areas: how sanitation programs function across field and administrative levels, the needs of the people using the system, and where existing tools fell short.
BENCHMARKING & LANDSCAPE REVIEW
We reviewed similar open defecation elimination initiatives, including Washims and India's Swachh Bharat Mission, to understand how comparable programs structured their field monitoring and reporting processes.
This wasn't a direct feature audit. It was a reference exercise to help us understand the approaches available, the information these programs prioritize, and what a structured sanitation monitoring system could look like in practice.
Those reference points informed how we thought about the CNC portal's core structure, particularly around data presentation, progress tracking, and report management.
USER INTERVIEWS & STAKEHOLDER ANALYSIS
To ground the design in real operational needs, I conducted user interviews with two key groups:
PROGRAM ADMINISTRATORS: The primary users of the portal responsible for monitoring ODF progress, reviewing field reports, managing access, and reporting to stakeholders.
Key needs: real-time visibility into regional progress, clear performance indicators, and tools to act without relying on multiple systems.
LOCAL GOVERNMENT FIELD AGENTS: Responsible for collecting and submitting data from communities, including sanitation verification and progress updates.
Key needs: a simple reporting process, confirmation of submissions, and visibility into feedback from administrators.
The relationship between these groups became a central design challenge: how to support both data collection in the field and decision-making at the administrative level within a single system.
DEFINING THE PROBLEM
PROBLEM STATEMENT
Program administrators need a centralized system to monitor field progress, review reports, and track sanitation status across distributed rural communities in real time. Without a centralized system, data from the field remains difficult to interpret, making it hard to coordinate resources, maintain accountability, and respond effectively to areas that need attention.
How might we design a system that helps administrators track progress, review field data, and make timely decisions across distributed communities?
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PRODUCT GOALS
The goal was to create a simple and intuitive system that enables administrators to easily monitor community-level progress in real time, efficiently review and validate field reports, and make faster, more informed decisions across regions.
STRUCTURING THE EXPERIENCE
We mapped the admin portal as a system, defining how field data enters, moves through review workflows, and surfaces for decision-making. This structure guided every product decision, including what administrators see on entry, how they navigate across regions and reports, and how actions are handled at each stage of the workflow.
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FROM FLOW TO WIREFRAME
Low-fidelity wireframes were created to validate the structure before visual design.
This stage focused on defining three core areas: an overview that surfaces state-level data without additional navigation, a report review flow that supports clear decision-making, and a navigation system that keeps key tasks accessible without added complexity.
SOLUTIONS
The portal was built around five core features, each designed to address a specific gap in how program administrators monitored and managed sanitation progress.
Interactive Map & Regional Overview
The platform provides a geographic overview of sanitation progress across rural communities, allowing administrators to assess regional performance and identify gaps quickly.
Detailed data is accessible directly within the map view, enabling faster analysis without disrupting the workflow.
Progress Tracking System
Clear visual indicators highlight the status of each community, making it easy to distinguish between areas that have met targets and those that require attention.
This reduces the effort needed to interpret complex data and supports faster, more confident decision-making.
Report Reviews & Decision Controls
A structured review flow allows administrators to assess field reports, approve or reject submissions, and provide feedback when needed.
This creates a clear feedback loop between field agents and administrators, improving accountability and data reliability.
Document Management
Supporting documents are organized and differentiated by format, allowing administrators to quickly access and review submitted files.
This reduces time spent navigating documents and improves efficiency during report validation.
Admin-Focused Navigation
The system is structured around key administrative tasks, ensuring that report review, progress monitoring, and user management are always within reach.
This minimizes navigation effort and allows administrators to stay focused on decision-making.
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USABILITY TESTING & VALIDATION
DESIGN SYSTEM & DEVELOPER HANDOFF
To ensure consistency between designed intent and built output, reusable design components were developed and shared with the front-end development team.
Regular collaboration sessions created touchpoints to compare implementation progress against design specifications, catching discrepancies early and reducing rework during development.
This was particularly important for the interactive map feature and the report approval workflow, where the interaction logic required close alignment between design decisions and engineering implementation.
Usability sessions were conducted with four admin users and field agents, measuring three specific outcomes: Ease of navigation and task completion for core administrative workflows. The clarity of data presentation is essential for effectively communicating community ODF progress. Intuitiveness of the report review, submission, and approval process for both user groups.
NAVIGATION & TASK COMPLETION:
Both administrators and field agents were able to complete core tasks without guidance, confirming the navigation structure was aligned with how each group actually worked.
REGIONAL OVERVIEW CLARITY:
The interactive map was well received; administrators interpreted community ODF status quickly across regions. One improvement identified: clearer regional labels would reduce the time needed to locate specific areas.
ONE GAP IDENTIFIED:
Some administrators needed additional guidance when personalizing their dashboard views, flagged as the highest priority for the next iteration, specifically around onboarding and in-product contextual support.
CONCLUSION
IMPACT
Feedback from program administrators and field agents following launch showed clear improvements in visibility, efficiency, and accountability.
Centralized Visibility
Administrators moved from delayed, disconnected reports to a single, real-time view of community progress, reducing the time needed to assess overall status.
Faster Decision-Making
Real-time data and visual indicators enabled administrators to quickly identify areas needing attention and act without waiting for manual reports.
Improved Accountability
A structured review workflow ensured every field submission was reviewed, responded to, and tracked, strengthening coordination between field agents and administrators.
Reduced Operational Complexity
Consolidating field data into one platform eliminated the need to reconcile multiple sources, saving time and reducing errors.
Improved Stakeholder Communication
Enhanced stakeholder communication through clear, consistent reporting, increasing transparency, and trust.
KEY TAKEAWAY
This project strengthened my ability to design systems that transform complex data into clear, usable insights, balancing the needs of multiple users while keeping the experience simple and effective.
It also deepened my understanding of designing for systems, where the focus is on structuring information, supporting decision-making, and creating feedback loops that make systems easier to use and more effective in real-world contexts.