I interviewed a 20-year-old university student who has struggled with anxiety, eating disorders and depression from the age of 15. Quite a lot of her anxiety is based on self-image. Her anxiety levels rise when she has a great deal of work on or when she is attending any social function.
From the results of the whole group’s interviews, I found that organising work is a struggle and if work increases in difficulty, they procrastinate. Writing things down can help them figure out solutions.
I found that some people do not find meditation useful. So, for the people that don’t, Labiba found that having a therapist there helping her to breathe, not being dramatic, being comforting is useful.
From this information, I created a wireframe which consists of filling in your own schedule based on a template and booking a session with a counsellor or tutor to discuss a problem you are facing. When developing my work further I hope to include an online journal space for people to let go of their problems through writing, which was found in Labiba’s interview to relieve stress.
From the user interviews, organising work was a challenge. The desktop sketches were not practical as proved from the user testing.
The space was not used appropriately. The content of the menu could have been displayed on the top of the home page.
The schedule was well laid out. Clear call to action components with the plus, however, no design decision to make it clear to the user, that it has gone ahead, for example, a minus.
The list of mental health and work related issues would not appear in the drop down side menu.
The home page would have information on it, not an illustration. Shown in both sketches and wireframes produced for the user testing.
I drew some sketches for the responsive design platform, which was a phone. These sketches were created in response to the problems from my website wireframes. I understand that with the website design, I wasn’t going to include a menu. However, when working with a smaller space a menu was required.
The spacing would have to be dealt with in a linear fashion.
The book now feature was in the menu, not the list of mental health problems, much clearer layout.
Book now feature had the influence from the Apple calender, with the shortened version of the days of the week above.
Have one of the dates highlighted, so the user can identify that there is a call to action button available.
Have the set of times shown straight away, this will allow the user undertand what it is they need to do.
There are too many buttons too close together. This can be quite confusing for the user. The user is more inclined to make mistakes as the buttons are so close to each other.
There is too much information which is also repeated. Potentially change it to a drop-down bar, so the user can view it if they wish to.
The first key feature within my prototype is the work schedule. I learnt that the participant really struggled organising their work and tended to procrastinate a lot. This meant that they were really behind in their work, which resulted in them having some work anxiety. This page flow is designed to easily add events into a schedule in order for the user to be organised and stress free. They can accept or decline events taht they have been invited to. They can download or print off the schedule once completed so they can do what they please afterwards. This page flow I found difficult in terms of laying out content with the space provided. I have a slightly different design on the desktop compared to the version on the phone. I could expand out the schedule in the desktop as I had the space to work with.
The second key feature is the booking page. This page is designed so it is easy for the user to guide themselves through. It is a quick and efficient process, eliminating any unnecessary stages. The date is highlighted once you arrive at the page to suggest to the user that there is a clear call to action. One thing I found from my groups and my interviews is that people hate the process of getting a counsellor. They suggest that it is too long and when they are in the wrong state of mind they cannot be bothered to follow through. Hence why this path flow would be very convenient for them. One thing I struggled with when converting my desktop design onto an phone was working with space. Luckily with this path flow it was pretty straightforward.
