A.C.T.
Address. Challenge. Today.
A.C.T. is a mental health support application that we designed for students at the University of Toronto, allowing them to easily view, access and book personalized mental health services that are tailoring to their specific needs and preferences.
My Team
Yumeng Fan, Ivan Lou, Matthew O'Reilly abd Chiheng Zhou
This is a class group project where the five of us all took part in research, define, ideate, prototyping and usability testing.
My Contributions:
+ Led User Research
+ Led Usability Testing
+ Presented in 4 play-back presentations
+ Individually created the high fidelity prototype
Skills Developed
User Research, Affinity Diagramming, Data Analysis, Persona, Customer Journey map, Prioritize Ideas, Wireframing, Quick Prototyping, Usability Testing
HOW MIGHT WE improve the mental health supports so that our users are more successful based on their satisfaction with the counselling quality and further plans, time taken to access support, and stress level after the session?
Problem
Despite the existing demand for mental health support, U of T students faced difficulty finding, accessing and receiving timely support.
​
This results in negative impressions of the existing mental health services delivered by the University.
Goal
​
-
Address the existing knowledge gap as it pertains to the current mental health services
​
-
Provide services in a timely and accessible manner ​​
Design Process
DISCOVER
We want to learn about factors that affect U of T students' mental wellbeing, their coping strategies and most importantly, their experience with the U of T mental health support service.
​
-
We first distributed surveys that allow us to gather information from a large number of target users within a short period of time.
-
We then conducted remote semi-structured interviews that helped us to gather more in-depth qualitative information and gain a deeper understanding of our participants' attitudes.
-
Lastly, we organized all qualitative data into two affinity diagrams.
​
See the complete user research analysis report
​
Main Findings
Survey
58 Responses
A
A majority of students (47/58) experience a high level of anxiety and depression, with academic demand (50/58) and work (43/58) being the primary source of negative energy.
B
Most students (50/58) didn't try services offered by the school due to a lack of knowledge of currently available services and ways to access them.
Remote Interview
12 interviewees
C
Those who have tried the services struggled with booking the appointment and have to wait for long periods of time (2-4 weeks) to receive support.
D
Students found existing services ineffective in addressing their needs.
DEFINE
*Click to enlarge picture
In order to empathize with our target users and better understand their wants and needs,
we summarized insight gained from our research and created - Andrea the Academic.
​
So now, let me introduce you to Andrea, a 21 years-old engineering student who is currently struggling with the heavy workload and demands of her academic life.
​
*Click to enlarge picture
We also developed a user journey map for Andrea as this will help us to better understand and visualize the struggles that our users faced during their mental health support seeking journey at U of T.
​
In summary, current services are:
​
-
Hard to find
-
Have a long wait time
-
Not Effective
​
​
IDEATE
After learning about the struggles that Andrea (our target user) faced, we have proposed 3 needs statements and generates ideas that aim to address these needs.
= Preferred Ideas
Need #1:
Our user ​(Andrea) needs an easy way to access existing services ​so that she can choose personalized services that fit her needs and preferences.​
Need #2:
Our user (Andrea) needs a way to know the time slots availability​ so that she can fit the support into her busy schedule.
Need #3:
Our user (Andrea) needs a way to make appointments quickly​ and receive support from a broader range of services so that she doesn't have to suffer from long wait time.
Based on the above needs, we have brainstormed a lot of ideas,
​
BUT, how do we trade-off features, functionality, cost and impact?
We considered two criteria: feasibility (is the idea doable, how much does it cost - time and money-wise) and impact (how much will this idea help our user).
​
Then, we ranked all of our ideas according to these two criteria and put together a prioritization grid. Lastly, we eliminated ideas that are low on both ends.
Ideas with high feasibility and impact
WIREFRAME
Click to enlarge picture
TESTING + ITERATE
Though we were satisfied with our creation, we understand that any design that did not go through rounds of iteration can't call itself perfect. So, here comes the usability testing.
Conducted 6 usability tests
and 4 design reviews remotely.
​
Participants = U of T undergrad/ graduate students
and design professionales
They were asked to think-aloud and share their screen while completing 3 usability tasks.
We observed participants' behaviour and conducted a follow-up interview with them to gauge their impression of our app.
Main findings:
A
Privacy Issue:
​​
-
Participants worry about the confidentiality of the app especialy because it deals with sensitive personal information
C
Clarity issue/missing information​
​​
-
Lack of explanation for the meaning of certain services (e.g., peer support)
-
Some of the labels are confusing (e.g, notification)
-
Prompt service missing infor about service time
B
Issues with the onboarding questions:​
​​
-
Some questions are unclear
-
Participant accidentaly clicked on "skip" when they want to "continue"
-
Unclear how many questions are left
-
Lack of visuals makes the onboarding boring
-
Participants didnt want to do the onboarding questions before seeing what are offered.
See the before and after comparison​
SOLUTION
(Individual)
Let me present you to ACT,
A one-stop solution for university students,
allowing them to find, book and receive mental health services.
​
*Click to stop video
​
Match student with services that address their
needs and preferences (Personalized)
6 questions are provided to the user to record their needs and preferences, the system will then reorganize services in the order from highest matching to lowest matching.
Problems solved: ​
​​
-
"Don't know what services are offered."
-
"Don't know which service is the best for me."
​
(These two problems are the reasons why (50/58) students didn't even try the services offered at U of T )
​
Book appointment efficiently
(Accessible + Timely)
Content such as rating and review and service description is presented for each service, which allows users to make informed decisions regarding which service to attend.
​
Users can also import their calendars and make appointments that integrate seamlessly into their personal schedules.
​
Problems solved: ​
​​
-
"Don't know which service is the best for me."
-
"Booking by calling takes a long time and is inflexible."
-
"Service time conflicts with class time."
​
*Click to stop video
​
*Click to stop video
​
Effective solution
to reduce wait-time (Timely)
Other than the traditional counselling service, the app includes other supports that can be quickly accessed (e.g., peer support, online resources) and therefore have less wait time.
​
Even if the user still decided to book the service that has a longer wait-time (e.g., counselling), supplementary services that are similar to the booked service will be provided so that the user can get through partial, but instant relief while waiting for the appointment.
Problems solved: ​
​​
-
"Long wait-time." (This is the most prominent challenge for existing users)
- Improved Journey -
Remember how Andrea's previous mental health support seeking journey went?
Yeah... It was not satisfying.
Fortunately, she doesn't need to experience that anymore.
​
Let's take a look at how our app improved Andrea's support seeking journey.
LESSON
LEARNED
I learned about the value of feedback in this project. As a designer, I have spent the past 2 months thinking over my project and refining every single idea. I sometimes neglected the fact that our first-time user does not have the same level of familiarity as me: what I find straightforward might not be intuitive to them.
​
Whenever I feel satisfied with our design, I would receive feedback that tells me - okay, there's still space for improvement. Though I tend to get discouraged by these comments, now I appreciate how they allowed me to make huge improvements to our design, which will ultimately lead us step-by-step closer to something maybe still imperfect, but definitely a better and more user-friendly product.
