Flourish (meaning to grow well: to be healthy) is a mental health and wellness app focused on providing users with tangible goals, tools, and information to help them improve their mental health and wellbeing. We want our users to be able to take control of their mental health and their lives so they can not only simply survive, but flourish.
February - August 2021
CareerFoundry Student Project
Research, UX Design, UI Design
In researching the wellness market, through processes like competitive analysis, I found that there weren’t many apps for tracking goals related to mental health.
There are many apps out there like Myfitnesspal and GoogleFit that allow users to track goals related to their physical health - such as steps, calories, weight loss, etc.
There are apps that are tailored towards improving mental health, like Headspace and Calm that give users tools to help them focus on their mental health.
But, there isn’t an app out there that effectively combines the two - goal tracking with a focus on mental health.
To gather initial information - in order to empathize with the users, understand who I’m designing for, and their problems and pain points - I conducted a survey as well as interviews with 3 participants.
I synthesized the results of this research through affinity mapping and was able to pull out the key insights listed below.
Having a schedule or routine seems to positively affect mental health
Motivation is more easily achieved when tied to real world goals or consequences
There’s a lot of stigma around seeking help for mental health issues
People are motivated by seeing their progress over time.
People want breaks in their day to focus on themselves
From this preliminary research, two distinct personas emerged - each with their own unique set of motivations, problems to be solved, and pain points to be addressed.
Using these personas, I developed scenarios in which Flourish would help each persona solve their problem. I defined goals and expectations each persona would have when using Flourish and what key features would be needed for each scenario.The journey maps below show my hypotheses for how each persona would behave when interacting with Flourish.
Thinking through these user journeys allowed me to hypothesize some opportunities I could utilize to add additional value for each persona within the Flourish app.
How might we create an app that utilizes routine, education, realistic goal setting & tracking, and progress indicators to help users improve their mental health?
After conducting a task analysis I created user flows that follow each persona through completing a task that is most important to starting their individual journeys in improving their mental health.
I then began structuring the content hierarchy with the use of a sitemap. I tested my initial sitemap through a digital open card sort using Optimal Workshop. Since I was testing the first draft of my sitemap, I chose to do an open card sort so I could validate my categories as well as my content. I created 20 cards based on the content from my sitemap and had users sort them into categories in a way that made sense to them and give each category a name. 10 users ended up completing this card sort.
This card sort provided some helpful insight into how users would expect the site to be structured.
The results from the card sorting, for the most part, aligned with the groupings I had within my original sitemap. However, there were some interesting discoveries. The card sort revealed that people didn’t really know how to categorize “Quick Tools.” So, Quick Tools became its own section of the main navigation.
From here, I took the new and improved sitemap and began visualizing screens that were most important to solving my personas’ core problems.
While developing my wireframes and moving through fidelity-levels of prototyping, I wanted to focus on making the design simple, having content placement and navigation be intuitive, and adding value and ease-of-use through visuals.
Once the high-fidelity prototype was developed, it was time to test the design in action through usability testing. I created a test plan as well as a test script and conducted 6 moderated remote user tests over Zoom.
Overall, the users found the prototype intuitive and easy to use. However, there were a few pain points that were pretty common. These errors were assessed using Jakob Nielsen’s severity rating scale to help determine what errors deserved priority.
Error Rating: 4
Error Rating: 4
Error Rating: 3
Error Rating: 4
As mentioned above, users generally found the prototype intuitive and easy to use. However, there were a few pain points that were pretty common. These errors were assessed using Jakob Nielsen’s severity rating scale to help determine what errors deserved priority. I then took the users’ feedback and made revisions to my prototype in an effort to improve the experience and alleviate those pain points.
Error Rating: 4
Error Rating: 4
Error Rating: 3
Error Rating: 4
Typset in Poppins. Photos from UnSplash. Icons by The Noun Project.
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