designing a mobile experience
(iOS)
Designs to be launched Spring 2021
What is a2i?
a platform of mental health and wellness content, support, and social media.
Problem: a2i (pronounced addee) is best accessed on a desktop and those who use it would prefer a mobile version, which would ultimately help expand the user base.
Challenge: 3-week design sprint to create and design a mobile application that showcases a mood tracker, communities and groups, and a supportive online experience for those who are working on achieving mental wellness.
Solution: Create a mobile experience that allows users to easily discover the architecture of the app and its unique content and features.
Tools: Figma, Miro, pencil, sketchpad
Team of 4
My contributions: User research, research analysis and synthesis, design, business strategy alignment, wireframes, usability testing, mock-ups
research
a2i’s social features make it comparable to social media giants. With its mental wellness focus, we also decided to compare it against Carity, Daily Haloha, and Tangerine. a2i’s founder named these as direct competitors in the space.
After doing this analysis, it became clear that a2i’s direct competitors were Facebook, Instagram, and YouTube because of similar feature offerings.
Interviews included 7 people, some a2i users and some not.
key insights
Additional key insights:
6 of 7 feel open about their mental health
5 of 7 use video content “rarely” or “never”
5 of 7 reported enjoying audio content for its convenience
100% reported enjoying written content as frequently as daily or once a week via books and articles
the problem: Juliana needs a more focused and on-the-go community experience to connect with so that she is always able to support her own mental well-being and continue to inspire others to do the same.
Before beginning the design phase, these questions were brainstormed to bring focus to the solution.
How might we…
Create an onboarding process that allows users to discover the architecture of the app and its content?
Allow users to communicate with each other in a more casual and instantaneous way?
Bring users together in a powerful and organic way?
Create a mood tracking system that adds value as opposed to just collecting data?
Create a home page format that is unique to each user and showcases unique content?
Ethics were top-of-mind throughout the design phase considering that some users could be coming to the app in a mentally compromised or vulnerable state.
For this reason, we made the following decisions:
Like and follow counts were not included as they have been linked to anxiety and depression*
To honor that users prefer not to use their digital devices when feeling down- this included ideas on encouraging users to step away when they marked a negative mood on the mood tracker rather than keeping them on the app.
design studio & hand sketches
wireframes
login
mood page
landing page
chat topics
trending page
group chat
profile
community page
Clickable prototype
usability testing (2 rounds)
We tested the following:
Whether users were able to utilize the mood tracker and follow prompts for a happy mood.
Easy navigation to content on the explore page.
Easy navigation to the a2i community page and engage in a group chat.
Ability to create and write a journal post.
Whether users could identify the mood profile, saved content, and created posts.
“Your thoughts” was changed to “Your posts” as its more conventional and in line with what users are used to on other social media platforms.
Some users were confused by what the tool tips referred to, so we made a slight change and added a pointer to reference.
Clearer copy during the onboarding process was needed to communicate to users to rank preferred content.
We added a toggle feature to the community page to help the user easily navigate to group chats or individual messages in one tap. During testing, users were confused by having individual and group chats all together.
encourage mobile use - desktop consideration
Inspiration was taken from desktop versions of Twitter and Instagram to encourage users to use the platform on their mobile devices.
Next Steps
Based on research from users:
Consider researching and testing monetization options with those struggling with mental health
Subscription/paid user option to incentivize quality content and engagement of users
Research others with this type of business model, i.e. Medium, Match.com, LinkedIn
Build out the mood tracker section of the profile page - include more statistics, details, tips
Further test the mood tracker system as a2i users increase to ensure that users benefit from the data
impact
50% more users projected
Increased usability and easier to discover platform features
Learnings
It is extremely important to return to ethical considerations throughout the UX process. Asking hard questions about how certain features and prioritization could be received by someone in a vulnerable or mentally compromised state can make or break your ideas.
Some design features might be common practice, but it does not mean they have the users’ best interests in mind.
It can be challenging to meld business goals along with user goals, as these may seem conflicting. It is important to educate and shed light on any potential issues with the business owner.