Thero
In collaboration with another designer, I helped shape a prototype for a new healthcare app that offers a secure, easy, and time-efficient way to connect with a compatible therapist.
From conception to completion, I was part of the entire design process, which included researching, interviewing users, developing storyboards and user journey frameworks, wireframing, prototyping, visual design, and usability testing.
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One of the biggest challenges was constantly putting aside my own assumptions about users’ feelings and allowing the data to speak for itself. In the end, I believe we were able to do just that.
Challenge + Goal
According to the National Alliance on Mental Illness (NAMI), 20.6% of the US population, or 1 in 5 adults, experienced mental illness in 2019.
Of those nearly 52 million people, 24% have reported an unmet need for treatment. That’s over 12 million people who need mental health care but can’t get it. We believe that everyone deserves to have their health needs met.
1 4
in
adults experiencing mental illness report an unmet need for treatment
12 million
By designing a digital product to streamline the process of finding a compatible therapist, we can eliminate one of the major roadblocks
people face on their way to better mental health.
Research + Discovery
How might we...
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Make discovery effortless
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Increase the success rate of users matching with a compatible therapist
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Create an end-to-end experience that delights users and earns customer trust
What are others already doing?
To see how the market is currently being served, we conducted a SWOT analysis on close competitors to determine what gaps existed and how we could leverage our findings to design a better product to meet market needs.
Proto-Persona
We made some assumptions about who our user might be based on the demographics from our market research. Our proto-persona started us on our journey to discover our user.
User Interviews
We conducted user interviews to dive deeper into the needs of a wide range of people, including target users closely resembling our proto-persona who had previous experience searching for mental health care, and potential users who were interested in finding a therapist for the first time. By learning about their motivations, frustrations, and needs, we were able to gain user insights through synthesizing our findings in an empathy map.
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Insights
For those with mental health struggles, most of their energy is expended well before they can even get to normal daily activities because they are in constant combat with their illness.
Our users need a secure, easy, time- and energy-efficient way to research compatible mental health care providers and begin treatment.
Definition + Ideation
User Personas
Our research uncovered two clear categories and four types of users:
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Providers (out of scope for this project)
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mental healthcare professionals,​ including doctors, therapists, counselors, etc.
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Clients / Patients
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middle-aged, career women
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returned military personnel
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parents of children with mental health care needs
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*Personas were based on actual user interviews conducted by Amanda and Rebecca.
Aligning user insights and goals with product goals:
After interviewing potential users, we aligned their needs with our product goals to develop a common understanding, find compromises, and formulate user insights throughout their journey. Based on the results, we developed the storyboard, which will be the conceptual basis for our (lo-fi) prototype.
Guiding Principles
​We developed three guiding principles through our user insights and product goals.
The product had to be:​
1.
2.
3.
Instructive​
We wanted to guide users throughout the journey and ultimately guide new users who have never searched for a therapist, assuming they don't know how it works.​
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Convenient​
Since the product aims to offer users a streamlined way of finding a therapist, it must be more convenient than the current methods. It also needs an all-inclusive database of therapists.
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Secure​
While interviewing potential users, we learned they needed to be reassured that it’s a trustworthy and reliable product. We wanted to achieve this by not asking for personal information beyond what was necessary to connect them with the right matches.
Turning broad concepts into UX solutions, we generated a wide range of ideas and turned our sketches...
...into task and user flows, and turned our flows...
...into wireframes and mocks.
*due to COVID-19 protocols, team meetings were conducted via video conference
Usability Tests
​In several rounds, we tested our prototypes, observed users interacting with them, and listened to their likes and dislikes. After we validated our concepts and assumptions, we applied the visual branding elements.
Shaping our design decisions based on our “How might we..." explorations​
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... make discovery effortless?​
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by allowing users to add minimal personal information before accessing full use of the product
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by adding provider criteria filters accessible from their profile
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by allowing changes to be made at any time
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by giving users the ability to remove incompatible providers from their search
... increase the success rate of users matching with a compatible therapist?​
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by allowing users to match with as many providers as they'd like
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by giving users the ability to schedule chats with multiple providers
... create an end-to-end experience that delights users and earns customer trust?​
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by creating design considerations for every step of the journey
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by clearly communicating using microcopy
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by considering edge cases and error states
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by making customer support easy to access
Introducing
Thero
Discover and Create Your Profile
Follow quick and easy instructions to create an account with minimal personal information. From your profile page, you can access your favorite providers, start a new provider search, edit your settings, or adjust provider filters.
Choose the Criteria That Fit Your Needs
Narrow the field to show only the providers that meet your criteria using specific filters such as insurance, location, gender, specialties, and years in practice. You can easily adjust these filters to broaden or narrow your search at any time from your profile.
Scroll Through Providers and Choose the Right One for You
Read through the provider bio and add them to your favorites or remove them to see the next provider in the queue.
Choose to connect with the provider or store them in your favorites and continue searching until you're ready to take the next step.
Connect through the app via text or phone, or request a video chat or appointment.
Adding Flexibility Around Planning
Reach out to a chosen provider by requesting a video chat with your general availability. There’s no need to commit to an entire session until you can meet and decide if they’re a good fit. You’ll receive a message to verify that your request went through.
Research, Discover, and Connect
We wanted to ensure users had a faster and more convenient way of connecting with a compatible mental healthcare provider. By thinking about what essential information is relevant while the user is searching, we were able to put the user and their journey at the center.
Next Steps
Our immediate next step would be to test our hi-fi iteration, then refine it according to user feedback. Once that’s been dialed in, we need to turn our attention toward building out the Provider side of the app.
Key Learnings
Scope creep is a thing.​
The scope of this project was huge, and it was way too much for two people to accomplish well in just a month. It was important to be clear about our goals and priorities in order to make realistic progress.
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Spend more time on the research.​
An affinity diagram is only as good as the questions you ask in the interview. If you don’t have solid data to extract from the affinity diagram, you need to revisit and refine your questions to get to the heart of the matter. Otherwise, your design will likely be off-target.
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What I’d do differently:
Due to our limited time and resources, we missed opportunities to further improve this app. If we had the chance to push the project further, these are things I would do differently:
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Test and interview users in a physical setting instead of virtually
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Dive deeper into the user’s journey
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Incorporate more UI transitions to create visual orientation and interest
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Accessibility considerations