A mobile app for supporting +60y individuals in accessing Mental Health Resources.
Solo student project
User research, sketching, wireframing, prototyping, user testing and visual design
November 2023 - December 2023 (4 weeks)
Figma, G Suite, WhatsApp
I remember to this day the day my grandpa discovered he was suffering from depression. He was so worried about the diagnosis that when the doctor told him he was having depression and could take meds for that, he called me smiling and saying it was "just depression" and it was treatable. I have taken care of my mental health for almost 12 years now; it has always been an essential part of me, and I'm thankful that I had the resources to start. However, I know that not everyone has the resources or even knows what mental health is, especially the elderly ones. My grandpa could have had an earlier diagnosis if he had the resources - and that's what motivated me to do this project, so thinking about my relatives, especially him, and their struggles in accessing these resources, I wanted to explore more on this topic, understanding their pains and how do they actually access these resources.
During the Desk Research, I wanted to understand the relationship between mental health and +60y individuals.
REFERENCES: Frontiers in Psychology, Harvard Business Review & James Clear.
During the benchmark preparation, I faced trouble finding applications made for my target group - there are a lot of mental health applications available, but most of them lack accessibility and are targeting younger people. For that, I compared 3 applications I found by searching on Google, looking for applications related to my problem statement: Sanvello, Wysa and MindMate.
Opportunity: A user-friendly mobile application for +60y individuals, focusing on simple and intuitive design with features like larger fonts, clear icons, and voice commands. Collaboration with mental health professionals to incorporate evidence-based material could further enhance the app's value.
A User Survey was conducted through Google Forms with +60y individuals, having 17 answers.
An important insight from here is that even though there are a lot of tracking apps available in the market, only 20% use or have used them, leading to my curiosity about the reason behind it.
I interviewed four individuals who previously participated in the User Surveys through video calls on WhatsApp. Their ages are 62, 65, 76 and 80 years old.
The main insight was that they say they don't have support with mental health problems, dealing with it on their own and that they think their difficulty with technology is their fault.
After conducting an Affinity Mapping and grouping data into themes, I discovered the following insights:
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Marta is in search of a mental health app that is easy to use and has reliable resources and literature. She often finds it challenging to use technology and prefers an app that she can use without requiring assistance from her kids, who live far away.
Exploring the Insights found and thinking about "How Might We's" related to that. The one I have chosen to focus on is this:HMW create a seamless and +60y-friendly experience that users can use without needing to ask for external help to access information on mental health and that they feel supported by it?
With easy-to-navigate menus, a user-friendly design, intuitive features, and minimal need for technical knowledge or assistance.
Features I would like to add: Homepage, Search Topics, Videos, Articles, Settings, Contact with Professionals, SOS Assistance, Mood Check-In.
As I wanted the app's primary goal to be for the user to be able to access mental health resources, I started thinking about a flow for accessing resources based on their mood track.
After completing the components, the next step was to replace the mid-fidelity wireframe with the final components that already had the overall style applied - some extra ideas appeared during this phase as well.
See the Prototype here.
This project was challenging in different aspects: