Connecting college students to peer & professional mental health support through virtual groups.
Overview
Allypods is an innovative approach to supporting students with mental health concerns through Peer Support Services (PSS) and counselor group therapy in an online platform. Offering group video therapy for students to interact with like minded individuals with shared life experiences alongside professional clinicians through simple, affordable, and engaging virtual groups.
Our team of designers were tasked with the goal of setting the AllyPods website up for success by conducting a website redesign in order to launch a beta pilot to present to universities.
Team
Michael Pund, Founder
Madison Woodward-Allen, Intern
Amarachi Emezie, Psychology Intern
Hemini Naik, Psy. D.
Sebastian Sanchez
Hanz Buenaventura
Nathanael Howard
Role
UX Designer
Duration
2 Month Sprint
Client
AllyPods
Problem Statement
How can we improve user navigation and efficiency while simultaneously creating a welcoming and friendly, simple layout for any student?
Effectively tell the story of the organization and the AllyPods mission
Create a friendly and simple layout that would incite a welcoming environment for any student
Improve sign up & account function for improved user navigation efficiency
Build a group video chat function for approachable communication with licensed clinicians and peers
Project Plan
Setting goals with our client and understanding the key features needed to move AllyPods forward.
Our goal is to effectively better communicate the story and vision of AllyPods to stakeholders and its users: students and clinicians. as well as understanding the key features needed to move AllyPods forward.
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1st meeting With AllyPods, conduct secondary research, screener surveys, and interviews to learn from pre-existing user experiences.
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2nd meeting with AllyPods, synthesize research through affinity mapping to discover pain points of students, personas, begin sketching.
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Final meeting with Allypods, Finalize style guide and complete hi-fidelity prototype that addresses client needs, finalize with user testing.
Research
To understand the market of online mental health services we conducted a Competitive Analysis of the market. We wanted to take inspiration from sites with an established community base and gauge what they do well and what could be an opportunity for AllyPods.
Although the demand for online mental health support platforms is a rapidly growing field, there is still an opportunity for online peer mental health support focused on University students.
Understanding our clients pain points and discovering room for improvement through competitive analysis
Feature Inventory
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Simple visuals and consistent colors
Vertical scrolling features
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Mental health websites Offer services like:
Couples therapy
Teen Counseling
Pride Counseling
Faithful Counseling
Frontline workers & First Responders
Veterans Counseling
COVID-19
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4 methods of communication:
Messaging
Chat
Phone
Video
For weekly live sessions
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1.) Get matched with a licensed therapist
2.) Discuss user issues
3.) Once approved they are connected with the therapist. Communicate through either: Text, Phone, Video
Common key features found across platforms
Survey
We conducted an online survey of 111 students to discover what experience students are currently having with the mental health resources on their campuses and where the current state of University mental health falls short.
*We surveyed students across 4 Universities
A pre-screener survey was used to get a better sense of our upcoming interviews and to select applicable interview participants. From those surveyed:
- 70% identified as Female
- 25.8% identified as Male
- 3.2% identified as Non-binary.
With majority age ranging between 18 - 24 and even a participant up to 52 years of age.
Research and Identifying the Problem
The interviews confirmed that a service like AllyPods is something that students would want to use. Our respondents had generally positive responses, with nearly every participant being open to video chat and peer support all wanting to try this.
Based on the Affinity Map, the following pain pointes were identified with the current state of Mental health support from university campuses
*We discovered from our research that 20% are over 30 years of age (Adults going back as a graduate student or making a career transition). A pain point for Students in this demographic is that they feel like they are an ignored section of the a student demographic, and that there should services geared to support older students as well
User Personas
Based on the research findings, we created 2 personas to best represent the target user group of AllyPods.
Emily (Students)
It's about finding more information about AllyPods, how to sign up and get adequate help. How to get involved in a safe space where students can talk to other like minded peers in support groups that would work with their academic schedule and is also endorsed by the University
Brett (Universities)
Universities seeking to expand their mental health services, It's going to be about understanding how AllyPods engages with universities and then scheduling a call with a representative.
Defining these personas help inform the user stories and flow of our prototype. We wanted to make sure that we could showcase how these users could find the information they each need through the AllyPods website redesign.
Not only did we need to understand the current landscape of student mental health, but we are also tasked with redesigning the current AllyPods website. Through User testing on our clients website, we applied the same technique to cross check that our Heuristic evaluation was an accurate assessment. 3 Key Pain Points were confirmed:
Site Map
After the bulk of our research was completed, we began to design and build the site and user flow based off data from user research interviews and testing to deliver a user-centered design flow.
To confirm we were fulfilling user needs as well as staying in line with the vision and goals of our Client, the newly refined Site map was validated through multiple Treejack tests.
Original AllyPods Site Map
Redesigned and improved AllyPods Site Map
Wireframing
We began sketching wireframes that would suggest solutions to Define AllyPods purpose and service, Complete missing features of the original website, and ultimately establishing brand trustworthiness; based on results compiled from earlier research.
Sketches
Solution
Effectively communicate the vision and services AllyPods can provide Users: Students, Clinicians and Universities, in a quick and efficient manner. While making the process for signing up and receiving mental health support as seamless and easy as possible through the AllyPods website.
Low-Fidelity
Mid-Fidelity
Hi-Fidelity
Prototyping
UI Components & Style Guide
While still being somewhat similar to the original website, We used an elevated blueish-green color palette to define the visual style of AllyPods. Creating a sense of relaxation and calmness to help keep visitors focused.
Our usability tests gave us insights we had not foreseen, allowing us to make changes to deliver the best final product tailored to our users needs.
From our final meeting with our client Michael Pund (founder of AllyPods) he was not quite enthusiastic about the mid- fidelity result. after receiving feedback and discussion of the company goals we took this information and made significant changes to the visual aspects:
Reduced the excessive amount of clouds.
Reconfigured the animations and illustrations towards a simpler and friendlier aesthetic.
Reduced the amount of scroll length making it easier to navigate enhancing the visual flow.
Mid-Fidelity
Final Redesign
Final Results of AllyPods Redesign
We had gone through multiple versions of how the website should look and what to include. In our usability testing we asked participants about their perception of the website, and many were confused about the icons and images chosen. Commenting that they looked “dated” or “odd and out of place” on the website.
Although we had spent many hours and days working on these animations and special features on the site, we ultimately decided to scrap these prototypes in exchange for a less flashy, more affective illustration style that better communicated the AllyPods vision and product.
*We had some feedback of it Giving “Super Mario Vibes.”
Original
Redesign
Takeaways
