Overview
Definition: Depression is a mental health disorder characterized by persistently depressed mood or loss of interest in activities, causing significant impairment in daily life. Most of us know of someone who is dealing with depression or experiences it firsthand. One of the most important steps to health is seeing a therapist.Making the appointment and finding the right therapist is one of the hardest parts of dealing with depression. My goal is to develop an app to ease this step for those dealing with depression by collecting the right information and finding the right therapist.
My Role
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I started my process by defining the problem and researching the existing apps and websites to see what is being offered. Finding the right therapist and making an appointment is still the number one issue and I was determined to find out why, even with all of these resources available.
Heuristic Research
My findings after the Heuristic research and competitive analysis were shocking and with the commonality of depression in our society we are still dealing with:
- Lack of sufficient help and resources
- Lack of effective methods of gathering information
- Limited resources for search
- Inadequate result
These findings gave me a stronger motivation to make my app. I started my process with interviewing possible users of the app
Primary Research
For the interview I picked two types of people:
- People who have experienced therapy whether good or bad
- People who are in the process of finding a therapist
My findings from the interviews verified the three main areas of focus in order to make a user-friendly and innovative app.
Collect Information, Search, Result
My understanding of the problem areas using the Affinity mapping technique indicate:
- The current existing database is insufficient
- Collecting information from the therapists and patients is ground zero for any action
- Creating a database accessible to everyone is the first step
- Recommending a feasible therapist and method of therapy will be highly useful
- Providing the correct information for insurance, co-pay, and methods of payment will be beneficial to users
- The therapist matching the patient needs to have availability and flexibility for scheduling
- Having the option to view more details about the therapist before making the appointment
Empathy mapping method helped me decide how many and what types of personas I need to have in order to understand my users.
Personas
The personas helped me create
How Might We … & User studies
How might we help people to narrow down their choices on picking the therapist?
How might we be able to figure out what type of therapist each person needs?
How might we create a safe and trusting place for people to search for therapist?
How might we give people good information without overwhelming them?
How might we gather enough information from people without overwhelming them?
To develop an app that would help people find the right therapist without a headache, I needed to have the right information from both sides (Patient and Therapist) to match them. I was inspired by apps such as:
Travel agency (Kayak)
Dating apps (Tinder)
Job Search engine apps (Indeed)
for their method of collecting personal information about their users and finding the right match.
Prototyping
With the help of user stories method, I decided on information architecture of the site. Therapy Finder became closer to reality after creating the site map and user flow of the app.
Sitemap
User Flow
The sketching process followed, and the first wireframe of the Therapy Finder app was tested via POP (online prototyping app).
Ideation & Iteration
The next step was to find out what would be the look and feel of the app. I was going for a calm and supportive feel that would restore hope. Creating the mood board and style board helped pick the color theme and images for the site.
Mood Board
Style Board
High Fidelity Prototype
Usability Testing
Using envision I was able to turn my design mockups into interactive prototypes, which allowed me to conduct usability testing and see how my app would work.
Feedback from the usability testing:
- The app is simple and straightforward
- The app is easy to use
- Suggestions regarding the questionnaire and its design
- Suggestions about how they want the results to show up
With the feedback from the usability testing I was able to iterate my design and Therapy Finder can be made into a reality.
But for now, using the link below you are able to see how Therapy Finder looks and works. Via In-vision program.
Please Test It!
