Design for Kats

Research: Understanding the Space

When understanding the problem space, competitors came in many different forms. The service she 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, and how they weren’t suitable for her situation. 

Competitive Analysis

Competitors included different coaching platforms that are meant to host a wide range of clients and programs, apps that helped users track and achieve their goals, and mental health apps designed to use therapeutic practices like DBT or BATD to help users achieve improved mental health outcomes as a supplement to therapy. 

I learned that some of these competitors used methods like prompts to make frequent entries and practice skills to be used in conjunction with treatment from a trained professional to maximize outcomes. The significant efficacy in using those apps was affirming and insightful.

Some competitors like platforms that host courses for coaches boasted of comprehensive tools to cover a range of needs. Their site organization was inspiring, but their reported lack of customizability in the platform was a warning to keep in mind.

Secondary Research

There was also, of course, a great need to validate the use of apps in aiding mental wellness and self improvement. I reviewed a sample of the literature on mobile apps as a way to deliver therapeutic treatment, and was surprised to find experimental studies have validated that using specific apps built to deliver therapeutic tools and practices lead to lower levels of depression over time. 

Semi Structured Interview with Coach

I Interviewed two different kinds of personas: The coach and the client. I would be the first to admit I am unfamiliar with personal coaching, so I needed to better understand the process of personal coaching and how progress and success is measured and what clients get out of the service. Having a semi structured interview with the coach helped me understand her pain points, what tools she used, what strengths she drew upon, her process and thinking behind the way she structures her services with the client. I was able to understand what she would like to improve and the blockers that stand in the way of her making these improvements (share findings?)

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 

I thought that I needed to map out the user journey throughout the coaching practice in order to better understand how both client and coach interact with each other. However, as I started mapping it out, I realized my real intention was to capture the different touch points between the client and coach that were required to adequately share information

Touch Points Map

Client Interviews

Interviewing users was also a necessary consideration, in order to understand their experience and what their needs might be, and how Crown Therapy is capturing and accommodating their needs. 

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. Interviewing past users helped me understand what the process was like, where there may be pain points and how to optimize its benefits. 

Being able to speak with users uncovered crucial information about the user persona and the opportunities for Crown Therapy. A significant portion of the client base were Nigerians. I was able to learn how Nigerians valued a space to identify and discuss their feelings without judgment, and build a practice of being more aware of themselves and their feelings. I learned about their environment’s attitude to emotions and mental health, which directed me to better understand how stigma surrounding mental health and lack of institutions for mental health have led to negative outcomes. The clients commonly cited the benefit of having resources from the coaching sessions to refer back to as guides after their coaching journey had completed. They mentioned that having guides helped them adjust their outlook and their behaviors in response to conflict in their lives. 

“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”

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

Because of this information, I was able to develop insights that brought me to a solution that steps out of the conventions of identifying user needs. Based on the repeated expression of referring back to the materials and the emphasis on the learnings as a guide, as well as a demonstrated need for objective guidance on dealing with interpersonal conflict. I surmised that an app that hosts the material would be a good way to keep these guides ‘alive’ and encourage more active engagement outside of coaching sessions. 

After better understanding the client perspective, I needed to synthesize these findings with the other important persona, the coach. Being able to interview them again after getting a clearer picture of what coaching looked like and the client’s perspectives, I was able to identify goals on the business side, and how that may impact the user experience. After having a greater understanding of the coaching process as a whole I was better equipped to know what to investigate on the coach’s side

The end goal of this solution 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. This draws upon the secondary research I found that using apps that mimic therapeutic methods in conjunction with therapy strengthened their tool arsenal and led to better outcomes. This solution was also influenced by hearing the stories of how past clients refer back to the tools that they learned with Crown Therapy to stay focused on their goals and remain cognizant of their growth. One of the coach’s concerns during sessions was being able to encourage an internal process in on the client end and better support their progress in self mastery.

User Personas

When interviewing past clients, as well as participant who had experiences in similar therapy or coaching, I noticed early on that two distinct archetypes emerged based on their background and their relationship to coaching or therapy. Developing distinct personas based on difference in background anchored me as I explored ideation to solve for their needs

Ideation

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.

Wireframes

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.

Bringing them to mid fidelity helped me focus on how to organize the steps, using the application map and user flows as a map or instruction guide. I was able to decide how I wanted to fit all of the content without worrying about the style.

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. Developing a style guide and the bare bones of a design system was a crucial step in order to make implementation possible so that I’m not slowed down by making style decisions at every step of the way. 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. 

Usability Testing

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.

Revisions

Conclusion

Because I worked with a specialized coaching service and a unique audience, I was pushed me 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 the 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 Directions

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.