PROJECT: Udesa
ROLE: Brand Designer, UX Designer, UX Researcher
DURATION: July 2021(4 weeks)
The Problem
Project Vision
Udesa is an open source educational platform centered around mental health. Udesa is aimed at users between the ages of 20-60. Due to the nature of the content on the platform, the main focus for this project was to create a simple user interface that is intuitively understood by users of all backgrounds. This project was designed for mobile and web. Udesa aims to offer a cost effective therapy alternative including group therapy, courses and free content to assist users in their journey to managing and overcoming their mental and emotional barriers.
Seeking help for ones mental health has recently become a complicated, time consuming and expensive process. When an individual decides to embark on the journey of seeking help, they usually go through 2-3 different therapists until they find one whom they resonate with. When they eventually find a therapist that they resonate with, maintaining a long-term practice can be extremely costly in the long term. In addition, with a dire need and want, many mental health issues can be managed and overcome by the individual themselves given the right education, support and advice.
Kickoff
When starting this project, I asked myself some crucial questions that were designed to push the process forward toward a user centric design. Who is our primary user? What kind of goals do they have? Why and when would someone want to use this platform? After interviewing three participants to establish archetypes, it became evident that the goals they wanted to accomplish all fell within the same categories; To find mental clarity, learn about who they truly are and live as their most authentic self - free of self inflicted suffering.
Initial Research
After conducting in-person interviews at a local coffee shop, I found that 90% of interviewees knew they needed help with their mental health on some level but neglected seeking it. The majority expressed that they have tried to seek help once before but gave up; saying ”I didn’t know where to start when it came to seeking help”. They all seemed to shared a common frustration towards the lack of straightforwardness and intuitiveness when seeking a therapist. Some even spoke about experiences where their family doctor couldn’t help them because they did not have the correct information, training or process to direct them to a professional or start the process of seeking help on the patients behalf. 6 out of 10 participants gave me their contact information and told me to contact them when this project was a real product. This lead me to the conclusion that in some cases, maybe finding and seeing a therapist isn’t the only path to mental clarity; if presented with the option, many people would take their mental health into their own hands in their own time. There is a need for people who want to take their development into their own hands. There is a need for a platform like Udesa.
Meet the Users
PRIMARY
Name: Jessica
Age: 24
Occupation: College Student
Jessica is a college student studying to become a nurse. She is finding that as her responsibilities rise, so do her stress levels. She has expressed that due to the stress, her anxiety and depression levels have risen as well. Since she is limited with her time and money, her options for seeking help are also limited. She is looking for an on-the-go, cost effective way to educate herself on the proven methods to manage stress, anxiety and depression so that she can slowly start to integrate the teachings into her everyday life, take control of her mind and successfully tackle challenges head on.
SECONDARY
Name: Stephanie
Age: 52
Occupation: Work from home mother of 3
Stephanie is a busy mom of 3 young boys. She is finding that stress at home and work is taking a toll on her relationships and needs a strategy to manage her negative thoughts. Because of the kids, she can’t leave the house to go to therapy. in addition, it’s too expensive and time consuming. She has thought of doing phone therapy but finding the privacy to talk with someone is a battle in and of itself.
SUPPLEMENTARY
Name: Matt
Age: 36
Occupation: Sales Agent
Matt is a sales agent who is on the road for months at a time. He often finds himself in isolation with his thoughts and has noticed some patterns that he wants to change and overcome. Since he is constantly on the road for work he cannot meet with a therapist in person. Some days after 9 hours of speaking all he wants to do is listen and be introspective. He wants to connect with people going through the same situation and learn how to manage his negative thought patterns so that he can show up as his authentic self at every sales meeting.
Competitive Analysis
I reviewed many of the direct and indirect competitors and although many of them offer a therapist, they all relatively offered the same services in a very similar price range. None of them offered a cost effective group therapy option or self-paced courses.
1on1 Therapy vs Group Therapy & courses
Information heavy screens vs Straight forward screens
Little to no accessibility considerations
Information Architecture
I constructed an information architecture to identify the improvements that needed to be made before creating the wireframes and wireflow.
Wireflow
After reviewing some of the leading course platforms and drawing wireframes, I started to lay out the user flow to finalize the user journey.
CHALLENGE 1
Hiding Identities
Group Therapy is an great way to reduce the cost of receiving mental health and connect with a group of people growing through the same situation. With the added barrier of a screen, study participants have asked if they could have the option of hiding their name and photo when interacting publicly within a Group Therapy session.
CHALLENGE 2
Advanced Search
I have found that many people who seek therapy don’t know exactly what to look/search for in terms of solutions. One of the reasons people seek therapy is because they know something is off but they don’t exactly know what it is. Adding a keyword selection and professional accreditation slider, users may stumble upon a keyword that resonates with them and further their search efforts from there. Adding the assisted search functionality reduces stress and helps users in the process of taking the first step towards healing.
CHALLENGE 3
The Right Course For The Right User
Udesa aims to provide high-quality actionable mental health content for free. In addition to the vast array of free content, Therapists can create and host their own in-depth course within the Udesa platform. The challenge was to create a seamless way for members to access the course landing page as well as assist therapists in the selling of the courses. Content pages now double as a sales landing page while still remaining effective and intuitive.
Style Guide
Udesa is meant to be a safe space where one can come and learn to fully be themselves. I made it a priority to reflect that in the stylistic experience in addition to the user experience. In my opinion neutral tones where the best choice for a platform like Udesa due to the fact that they elicit calmness and peace when combined.
