UX Research
Product Design
1 UX Researcher
1 Visual Designer
Counselling Division, University of Maryland and CommunicateHealth
Redesigned the current website and added a companion application
Nearly 73% reported moderate or serious psychological distress, and the rates are even more sizeable for students of color and LGBTQIA+.
In partnership with CommunicateHealth, UMD wants to create a tool for students to access credible mental health support and resources when they are on and off campus.
Talking about mental health openly is not easy for many. We interviewed 6 UMD students from different races, ethnicities and sexual orientations. We also looked at other prominent US universities and how they handle mental health on campus.
-> Isolation and lack of community support.
-> Hopelessness
-> Cultural shock
-> Financial constraints
-> Stigma
-> Discrimination
Every Terp felt the wrath of COVID-19 on their mental health, but students of color and LGBTQIA+ suffer far too many additional challenges and barriers.
We let the “How might we” questions help us think about innovative solution concepts, using Crazy8.
What we improved
Students no longer had to visit a bunch of pages to look for important contacts and information.
What we improved
Clearly highlighted what sessions exists, explained and showed booking options right there.
What we improved
We saw that international students, people of color and LGBTQ had much more difficulty with access to resources, so we dedicated an area to them.
What we designed
We wanted a mobile app to seamlessly sync with the resources and track moods.
What we designed
Daily mood check-in questionnaire (mood monitoring)
What we designed
An Explore page (refreshed on basis of daily mood inputs) + local search
We planned to rigorously test our products out with strong quantifiable metrics
-> Initial impressions and usability for short term
-> Adoption rate and rise/fall in people receiving mental healthcare in long term
-> Create a multi-platform experience with these two tools, and many more!
-> Facilitate digital group therapy in a more intuitive way.
-> Develop more relevant mental health-related tracking features in the app, using semi-automated tracking and integrations.
