Advancing digital health interventions and tools

The Research Application Design and Development (RADD) team is a software development team focused on advancing digital health interventions and tools by providing comprehensive technical services for researchers at Northwestern University and beyond.

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Our Services

Grant Writing Support
Prototype Development
Software Development
Quality Control Testing
Project Management Solutions
UX/UI Design
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Usability Testing Consultation
Graphic Design & Animation

Featured Projects

Explore our diverse portfolio of research software solutions, each tailored to meet the unique needs of the academic and scientific community.

RADD Chat is a web-based tool for securely sending individual or bulk messages to study participants, using a dedicated study phone number and Twilio for SMS and call communications while maintaining researcher privacy.

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Think Thank is a bilingual crowdsourcing platform for tackling challenges in health and wellness, where users submit, rate, and comment on ideas, with automatic translation between English and Spanish.

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KIU! is an online sexual health program for young men, covering topics like dating, drugs, and LGBTQ+ connections through videos, games, and humor to promote positive behavior change. It’s also available on WordPress and Canvas.

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Hear what our collaborators are saying...

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It was a joy working with RADD! They brought our team’s vision for a virtual innovation tournament to life. I’m confident that our research project was a success in part due to the user-friendly platform developed by RADD. The development process was collaborative, efficient, and transparent.

Amelia Van Pelt, PhD, MPH (She/Her/Hers)
Assistant Professor, Center for Dissemination
Associate Director of Research, Havey Institute for Global Health Ryan Family Center for Global Primary Care
Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine

The RADD team’s enthusiasm and dedication to creating accessible, impactful digital health tools made them a critical partner in the creation of SMART and Keep It Up! The scope of these projects was massive, yet they delivered something that felt both personal and scalable. Their seamless integration of academic research into cutting-edge digital solutions was impressive, but even more remarkable was their commitment to making these tools accessible and engaging for our participants. What struck me most was their work ethic—their ability to rapidly prototype, adapt, and refine, all while staying focused on the bigger picture. I can’t wait to collaborate with them again in the future.

Brian Mustanski, PhD (He/Him/His)
Associate Vice President for Social and Behavioral Research
Director, Institute for Sexual and Gender Minority Health and Wellbeing
Director, Third Coast Center for AIDS Research (CFAR)
Professor, Division of Implementation Science, Department of Medical Social Sciences

I've worked with RADD for several years on different projects with different budgets - ranging from building a website, to a SMS/MMS HIV prevention intervention for teens, and web-based/webapp-based interventions for teens and adults. Their team is super collaborative, and unlike “off the shelf” software for interventions they are able to endlessly customize what you want your end product to look like and what data you’d like to capture. Plus, many of their team members have a background in research or science so for folks new to digital interventions this is super helpful when trying to figure out how to translate an “in person” program to something web- or SMS/MMS-based.

Kathryn Macapagal, Ph.D. (She/Her/Hers)
Associate Director, THRIVE Center, Institute for Sexual and Gender Minority Health and Wellbeing
Co-Director, Developmental Core, Third Coast Center for AIDS Research
Northwestern University

The RADD team does much more than build technology – they have a deep understanding of behavioral HIV research and the need for technology that is responsive to community needs. They meet with us regularly to help us think through issues like how best to collect data from potential users to inform the design of the technology that will ultimately be developed. They are also helpful in thinking through issues of sustainability and feasibility, and ensuring that technology is built within the needs and resources of a given project. We are extremely grateful for our ongoing collaborations with RADD because they are partners in all aspects of the research, including but not limited to the technology itself.

Audrey Harkness, PhD (She/Her/Hers)
Assistant Professor
School of Nursing and Health Studies
University of Miami