Project Summary

Physical and mental health are equally important. But sometimes, people don't give attention to mental health disorders and this in turn gradually develops into depression and other severe mental health issues. This project dug deeper to understand the mental health of depressed patients and used design thinking principles to create a solution that helps the patient to maintain a good mental health. From the user research, we gained the insights that more than 3 million Canadians above the age of 18 years reported mental depression illness, the most common cause of mood and anxiety disorder is lack of identification in early stages due to mental health ignorance. Mental health can be affected by various reasons such as family circumstance, environment, social and societal issues. There is no proper test to identify or measure the mental health unless and until the affected person speaks out. In those cases, 9/10 persons are not aware of what they are going through and it puts them at higher risk. Our design solution should make them overcome their ignorance by early identification of mental health issues, maintain, monitor and control mental health, and provide them a safe and healthy lifestyle.

Specific Problem

The people who struggle to identify/control/monitor mental health illness but lead a normal life as others. It is important to solve the problem because it adds value and safety to their mental health, family and people around them

HMW Statement

How might we help the depressed people to identify the mental health issue at early stages and give them a healthy, happy and normal life style?

Solution

A mobile application with easy navigation provides the required options to identify, monitor, control and maintain the mental health. It provides the option to speak with experts and caregivers when the patient needs help. It guides them in handling emergency situations.

Specific User

People who are feeling depressed but not hospitalized

Methodologies

User Research Empathy Map How Might We and What If questions?Storyboards Visual Hierarchy Design thinking - 5 steps of design process Implementation of Information Architecture and Colour Theory User Flow Chart Usability Testing

Tools

Optimalworkshop.com - Card sorting Adobe Illustrator - Logo design & overview of design process Figma - High fidelity prototype

Design Process in Detail

Step 1 : Observe and Empathize

User Research

I interviewed Brenda, who is 63 years old and working as caregiver. She had gone through the mental breakdown in the year 2014 and thats when she realized her mental illness. After taking a proper treatments and medication she is now in her recovery phase.

Empathy Map

Based on the interview we build an empathy map to identify Brenda's deeper needs.

Empathy Map:

Identification of Key Insights and Deeper Needs

1. Early stage of identification is better than facing a mental breakdown in later period

2. People around the patient should be aware of mental health illness

3. The patient should able to monitor, control, and identify their mood and anxiety disorder

4. The user should feel the safety while using the design solution

5. The design solution should guide them in emergency situation

6. It should provide human interaction (i.e., experts) if the patient is in a difficult situation.

7. The design solution should be easy to access

8. It should provide right help at right time by right people

Step 3 : Build and Deliver

User flow chart

Based on our design solution, we have created the user flow chart. It explains the user interaction with the health meter app to complete the task.

Storyboard

The storyboards are used to explain the usability of mobile application with respect to patients.

Prototype

We have developed the app features from the insights collected during the user research phase and from the user's deeper needs. We iterated the prototype for several times to refine the design to satisfy the user need.

Home
Screen

Early Identification Screen

Emergency level
screen

Moderate level
screen

Healthy level
screen

Professional Chat Screen

Activity
Screen

Inspirational
Screen

Step 4 : Iterate and Improve

User testing

We did the testing and received the user feedback at the end of every step and made the changes to improve the design solutions, ideation, design layout and navigation.

Improvements

Based on the feedback for user interaction with the health meter app during the usability testing phase, we implemented some of the design principles such as,

Used optimalworkshop.com online tool to conduct the card sorting technique to identify the user navigation.
Implemented the colour theory principles to make the application visually pleasing and easy to use
Designed the app on the basis of intuitive design and abductive thinking
Maintain the consistency all over the app which improved the user's learnability, understandability, memorability, and easy of use.

New Finalized Design

We presented the finalized version of health meter app at St. Joseph Healthcare Hamilton, to our stakeholders, patient advisors and the users. The mobile application was very well accepted by everyone in the room. We observed the users satisfaction from their reviews, gestures and interaction without asking any questions.

Key Takeaways

Consistency and Cohesiveness are important when designing the wireframes. It helps users to do their task easy, less time, & improves the attractiveness of the product.
Important to understand the user's behavior, goals, needs and emotions before designing a solution.
The design solution should not make the users feel complicated and it should not make an effort to understand and remember. (i.e, information overload and poor IA)
Research and interviews questions should not be biased. Respecting the user and maintaining confidentiality is important.

Logo Design

Final Project Presentation Poster

Health Meter

Timeframe

Team Members

Industrial Collaborators