Research: Understanding the Therapy in the Digital Space

Competitors came in many different forms. The service CTA was providing was personal coaching, but it was also a therapeutic approach, using methods imbued with spiritual wellness. I looked at what else has been done for mental wellbeing in the digital space to see what was working, how they aligned with Crown Therapy’s needs, as well as shortcomings of these digital spaces.

Coach Interview

Coach needs

• A seamless way for clients to schedule appointments 
• A centralized way for clients to keep track of the materials they send, and a centralized platform for users to upload their work and materials 

Touch Points Map

Points of interaction between client and coach to understand potential improvements for communication

Client Interviews 

I was able to virtually interview 4 past clients of Crown Therapy, as well as 2 other people who had used therapy or coaching sessions before.

“When I want to do something, I’m reminded just from their sessions that ‘no this is not a part of my beliefs right now’ so what I’ve learned has been impacting my life ever since”

Past client, 40

While users tended to enjoy having platforms that are integrated into things they use everyday, like gmail or WhatsApp, people also cited difficulties in going back to the stored information, and some cited a desire for a centralized way to share information.

“It would be great if my therapist had an app where I could refer to the teachings easily”

Past client, 32

I sorted the past client’s experience by affinity. The selected themes below were the most crucial for me to understand essential user needs:

The solution to these problems would be to create a system where it is easy for clients to return back to the mindset they were in and the skills that they developed during the formative coaching sessions. Even after the coaching sessions were over, they could upkeep their practice and build upon the positive changes that they made and refer back to the guides that they used during coaching.

User Personas: Who will use this?

I noticed early on that two distinct archetypes emerged based on their background and their relationship to coaching or therapy. Developing two personas with distinct backgrounds anchored me as I explored ideation to solve for their needs.

Ideating to Illustrate Solutions

Having all of this information, goals, and pain points gave me a scope of the things that needed new solutions, and who would be impacted by these solutions. I focused on the themes that seemed like they would be the most beneficial to optimize, like scheduling meetings, and then sharing materials. The best way for me to approach this was to simply list the features that would be needed, flesh out the steps required to fully use these features, and then map them on to a matrix to best estimate their complexity of implementation.

Map and User Flows

Once I understood the scope on an abstract level, I organized these features on my version of an application map, including the hierarchy, organization and the process of tasks. This helped me visualize the information architecture and understand the scope of the screens I would need to represent in these initial stages. 

Understanding the hierarchy of pages needed for scheduling an appointment was the foundation that allowed me to further break down the steps required for user flows. I focused on tasks that I believed would be commonly utilized for this platform.

Designing

Wireframing

When designing, I built upon the vision board that Crown Therapy had developed. Using this moodboard developed by the coach, I hoped to convey the values of the brand, how it emphasizes a connection to the earth and is also a visually beautiful experience to navigate, while still being a usable and helpful platform. Sketching out screens in low fidelity helped me focus on how to divide the screens and understand how to fit in the features.

Designing for high fidelity and implementing the goals from the mood board was a big jump from mid fidelity and I appreciated the creative freedom I had in the undertaking. I gained practical experience in knowing how constraining my decision to the design systems enabled me to take more risks creatively that remain clear and usable. 

High Fidelity Mockups

Usability Testing to Validate Ease, Clarity and Heuristics

When conducting usability testing, I wanted to validate that tasks were straightforward to accomplish, and that there weren’t other crucial features that were included. I wanted to see if users could imagine getting meaningful use out of this product, and if it would be a useful resource to return to and encourage more practice of self reflection and self mastery.

Findings

• Users want notes to have privacy than other sections
• Some elements would help the interface feel like a consistent experience

Revisions

Conclusion

Because I worked with a specialized coaching service and a unique audience, I was pushed to think beyond the goals of multiple personas and consider the future goals for a rapidly growing business. I had the intention of transforming the business and I believe that this solution extends the transformative impact that Crown Therapy’s holistic guidance has on its clients.

The crucial strength was to do thorough background research into what’s being done in the field. Because of this, I discovered tools and opportunities that I wouldn’t have otherwise. Finding published evidence of mental health apps as an effective supplementary tool was affirming when considering real benefit and usability. Being able to contextualize competitors’ models into the unique experience of Crown Therapy’s clients app lead to not simply solving the problem of the current experience, but to optimizing Crown Therapy’s unique benefit to its audience.

Future Questions

I would love to further validate the efficacy of this app, and be able to test for outcomes in satisfaction, especially after the coaching is done. I would love to do more user testing for this app, and if clients had feedback more targeted to using an app for mental health

If I had more time and resources, I would’ve done more research into supporting mental wellness among Nigerians, and understand if there is more that can be done to administer culturally competent and accessible tools for emotional regulation. It would be worthwhile to better understand the way Nigerians understand wellbeing through spirituality and how to utilize that framework in an app to support behavior.

I would also be interested in creating a feature that delivers prompt and encourages to upkeep their practice of identifying their strengths, values and emotions and how that influences their behavior and the choices they’d like to make in life. This would require working more closely with the coach to develop prompts that are in line with the way she teaches so that they are familiar to the user. 

I would build out more features on the admin side so that they can depend more fully on this system to administer coaching, like admin dashboard to manage all appointments and clients from one place, but not after coaching is completed. Clients would be able to further secure their confidentiality by using a passcode to access their information

All of this is to say that this project allowed me to solve the problems in a way that is consistent with the needs of the user as well as integrate the strengths on the competitors in the context of the specific service to maximize the benefit for its users.