UXL BLUEPRINT DESIGNATHON - NOVEMBER 2023

Promoting mental health awareness and providing accessible support for university students

TIMELINE

48 Hours

TYPE

UXL Design

Competition

TOOLS

Figma

Pen & Paper

TEAM

Solo

0 → 1 Designer

Overview

While advancements in technology had opened new doors for addressing mental health challenges, the COVID-19 pandemic saw a rapid decline in mental health & underscored the importance of accessible mental health resources. Additionally, the stigma around seeking help also remains a significant barrier, making it clear that innovative, inclusive solutions are more necessary than ever. Mindscape is a mobile app I created for the Blueprint Designathon, which is a tech-driven solution that connects students to mental health support and increases mental health awareness.



🏆 This project earned me 3rd place as a solo participant among numerous teams

THE CHALLENGE

HMW leverage technology to promote mental health awareness and provide accessible support for students in need?

RESEARCH AND EMPATHISE

Understanding the mental health struggles of university students

To understand the needs of students, I conducted 4 interviews, sent out a survey (primary research) and analyzed online reports, articles, and forums (secondary research). These insights gathered helped define the problem space and empathize with the target users; university students aged 18-24

Academic pressure & financial stress is consistently stated as the top factors negatively impacting the mental health of university students.


SOURCE: SURVEY

"I feel too overwhelmed during times of mental distress, often don't know how to deal with it and feel hesitant to reach out for help"


SOURCE: USER INTERVIEW

The majority of students are comfortable using smartphones and digital tools for everyday tasks.


Students indicated that they would prefer using their phones for initial help-seeking, as it feels less intimidating and is easier to access.

With the research data, I created an empathy map to capture what students think, feel, say, and do within the context of mental health

DEFINE GOALS

How can student pain points convert to actionable design goals that improve mental well-being and ease access to professional help?

User Pain points

  1. Lack Awareness and Education

Design Goals (High-Low priority)

Help students gain a better understanding of mental health issues and healthy coping & prevention strategies tailored to their situation using a conversational LLM AI Bot trained on a database of commonly faced issues by university students

Help students track their mental health daily to increase self-awareness and support ongoing improvement.

  1. Stigma around mental health

Combat stigma by providing an easy to access mental health resources and promoting introspection via a mobile app while strictly maintaining confidentiality

  1. Require Professional Support

Creating a way for students to connect with professional help easily

IDEATION

User Flow for mobile app: Mindscape

WIREFRAMING

A breif look at the Mid-Fidelity Wireframes

DESIGN GUIDE

Establishing a visual identity

FINAL SOLUTION

Onboarding screens

The onboarding is designed to be integrated with the respective universitys official student email ID and other details using SSO

Screens displaying log in page followed by sign up page

FINAL SOLUTION

Home page


The home page is divided into 2 sections:

  • Daily check in & progress tracker which is updated after daily check in is completed and reflects the students overall mental health

  • Resources section for access to articles podcasts and videos for mental health awareness and self-help

FINAL SOLUTION

Daily check in Feature with Mindbot

Mind bot is a conversational LLM AI that uses conversation to recommend resources, advice and helps to log a students mental health status. If found insightful the user is able to save a resource using the bookmark icon and accessible through the main menu.

FINAL SOLUTION

Professional help

Linked to the specific universitys pre existing counsillors, when in need of help nothing can replace real proffesional help. To combat the stigma attatched to mental health and make help more accesible this allows the user to be able to book a meeting with a professional councillor in 3 ways :

  • Instant live chat during business hours

  • Scheduling a virtual meeting

  • Scheduling an in person meeting

FINAL SOLUTION

Profile section and accessibility

The profile section includes 2 key features

  • account details; includes personal information associated with the student account eg. email ID student number etc

  • Insights section; for ensuring transparency is maintained with respect to insight data gathered via MindBot


The accesibilty section embedded within the home page exists to account for users with all types of cultural / phyical abilities to ensure equitable and accessible design is maintained

FINAL SOLUTION

Measuring KPI's


If the project launched, it’d be key to collect and analyze metrics to measure the apps impact.  I use Google’s HEART framework to measure KPI’s and direct future iterations and tests.


Retention
Signaled by an increase in active users and growth in repeat ratio; measured by attrition rate and daily active users (DAUs).



Engagement


Signaled by time spent on the app and use of events page; measured by open rate and avg session length.