Link to Figma file for a detailed presentation of
process, features, and outcomes
Context
Product designing for a tech driven non-profit focused on behavioral health for millions around the world without a good enough solution
Working in an agile development process, this was a first go-to-market product developed over the course of 6 months, where I helped design and advise on user experiences across features for the Product Experience Team.
Problem Space
Behavioral healthcare for kids and teens isn't engaging enough and is unreachable for most. It's also an addressed space with high demand
Today, there are hundreds of thousands of young people and families that can benefit from behavioral health services, but the reality is that it’s inaccessible in terms of cost or time.
A typical patient situation
New middle schooler, shy, good at school, but finds it hard to make friends. Likes being alone, teachers suggest therapy to their guardians.
Patient pain-points
💰 Cost and inconvenience limit therapy for parents.
😰 High stress leads to shortened therapy.
👎 Child resists therapy and finds it annoying.
🧑🏻💻 No fun, user-friendly alternative available.
Pivoting from initial explorations
Building on the work of a previous design team but deciding to ditch this idea eventually. It simply did not work.
A previous Product Manager had laid out the concept, information architecture, and product specifications documents for us design. Red flags started after users, and our own internal teams, started questioning it's general usability.
Key problems with this initial design iteration
❌ Long development and design time
❌ Almost no buy-in from users or internal teams
❌ Clunky navigation, confusing terminology
Exploring and testing solutions
A switch in PM's and a focus towards a more viable product direction had us designing to more familiar UX.
A previous Product Manager had laid out the concept, information architecture, and product specifications documents for us design. Red flags started after users, and our own internal teams, started questioning it's general usability.
Concepts from online learning games used by kids
Triple A gaming (Switch, Xbox, etc.)
Finance web-based games
Guided and interactive math games
But in the form factor of a SaaS dashboard
Why? Primarily for ease of development, including powerful AI/ML features, and having it be a tool to use for a long time
An all one display
Fine tuning the UI while planning the final visual approach to speed up the feedback process
💬 70% of youth groups loved look, most saying they'd use this regularly
🤔 But it depends on the final theme, which is a major dealbreaker for them
With integrated tracking
We tested a few different ways to encourage habit tracking. The third image, a tab switcher concept, turned out to be the most intuitive than a chatbox or a vertical scroll format.
💬 70% of youth groups loved look, most saying they'd use this regularly
🤔 But it depends on the final theme, which is a major dealbreaker for them
And a customizable layout
I worked primarily in cross-fidelity mode, working on fine tuning the UI while planning the final visual approach to speed up the feedback process
Approved features presented to stakeholders
Our attempt to reimagine virtual care in a fun and comprehensive package for kids and teens to use often
Several testing rounds with users co and buy-in from stakeholders allowed me to finalize designs for features to include in the platform. The engineering team initially gave a green-light on the dashboard design (at the bottom).
Finalizing UI
Generative AI visuals using Midjourney
Prompting Midjourney to produce consistent engaging visuals (a key focus for the project) helped form a cohesive theme for kids and teens
Simple habit and behavior goal setting with real rewards
Choosing a behavior goal is an already rewarding experience. Users choose up to three goals at a time where over time, they're able tor request real-life rewards.
Family habit tracking for wholistic wellness
We understand through research that family wellbeing = your wellbeing. Users are able to track positive and negative habits of family members, and receive feedback on how to best interact with them
Data gathering through simple journaling prompts
Powered by AI/ML from University researchers, the system provides prompts unique to the chosen behavior goal in order to better understand the user and provide the best insights
Intuitive habit, emotion, and behavior tracker tabs
We went through 2 variants before deciding on this tab interaction, which we deemed was a common enough UX pattern to be usable and saved a huge amount of screen space for the homepage.
Interactive learning blogs with learning quizzes
But what else after uses tracking and journal logging? Users can click through interactive “blogs” where they can read more about life, skills, and other learning nuggets to stay on track of their wellness
One powerful homepage simplified user experience and provided flexibility for future updates
But what else after uses tracking and journal logging? Users can click through interactive “blogs” where they can read more about life, skills, and other learning nuggets to stay on track of their wellness
Approved final mockups and business bottomline
An amazing experience and defined by navigating technical product teams, and being genuinely human in the entire process.
Grasping the business context and comprehending product marketing is crucial, rather than solely focusing on the product features. In addition to this, maintaining accountability by being mindful of task dependencies helped me balance creativity with being grounded.
It was a highly creative AND technical project, so being mindful of business objectives and finish lines in my design work was and essential resposibiliy. In June 2023, this project recieved an AWS Innovation Award signifying it's potential in furtering social impact in the behavior space.