Project Goal
To design a mental health and well-being app for IADT students. Universal Design principles must be applied in order to address student groups that may be overlooked and ensure accessibility.
User Problems
I interviewed the student counsellor which helped me identified the main problems:
• Students become anxious and keep rescheduling or cancelling appointments.
• Students are not checking their emails after booking an appointment or contacting the counsellor.
• Students are not engaging with the services meaning they’re not getting the help they need.
Stakeholder Map and Empathy Map
User Personas and User Journey Maps
I carried out a survey to IADT students which helped inform these three personas, afterwards I created two user journey maps to envision how this app would be used in a student's everyday life.
User Stories
Key Insights from the interview
• Student counselling is not a long-term therapeutic model so an app should offer short-term therapy.
• Existing mental health apps help reduce waitlists for sessions with the student counsellor.
• Stress, anxiety and overthinking are the main problems that students face and I should research cognitive behavioural therapy, meditation and journalling.
Proposal
Quick and easy mindfulness exercises to help students during stressful moments. Journalling feature as a cathartic way to release energy, this gives students the option to show their journal entries to the student counsellor for a more in-depth session.
Paper Prototypes
Figma Prototype
App Walkthrough
This prototype was created in Figma.
Usability Testing
I had 5 participants for my app usability tests and although it was well received there were reoccurring pain points and I narrowed them down to the three most important issues to fix.
Journal & Entries combined
Majority of the participants tapped on 'Journal' instead of 'Entries' when tasked to look for the journal entries so I decided to combine both 'Journal' and 'Entries'.
Local Services relocated
When participants were tasked to get in touch with the student counsellor, majority considered tapping or tapped on 'Local Services' but this is for services outside of college. The 'Reach Out' button at the nav bar is the button for the student counsellor. To fix this I relocated 'Local Services' in the home screen to avoid confusion and prioritise the 'Reach Out' button. I also adjusted the background colour.
Automated messages
Automated or suggested messages were brought up by participants as an accessibility feature especially for anxious students or for those that don’t know what they’re looking for and need that extra help.