HUEY: THE GOD OF RAIN AND WEATHER WHO CREATES THE SWELL OF OCEAN WAVES
Client Brief
Product Name: Huey Mobile app
Project Team: 3 members (including me)
Deadline for presentation: 3 weeks
Design Tasks: Research and cross reference existing client research for target users of the Huey app.
VALIDATE THROUGH RESEARCH, TO PROVE THAT USERS ARE WILLING PARTICIPANTS IN THE HUEY APP ACTIVITIES, WHICH AIMS TO "HARNESS THE POWER OF BEHAVIOURAL MEDICINE"
Our client was inspired to create an app which takes the participant on a journey to optimum mental health. Huey was inspired by the proven power of behavioural medicine, to imbed a measurable control over stress and anxiety. This can be achieved by engaging in activities which arrives at a 'flow state' of mind.
The Problem: Commonly, people managing a condition, like stress, anxiety or depression, do not engage with activities that are good for their mental health.
Audience | young people 16-35
Research Approach
Research apps which inspire people to get into the real world, and support people with mental health conditions
Facilitate a Design Thinking Workshop to determine who our target users are, their goals and what frustrates and motivates them.
One on One Interviews with users asking what has and hasn't helped them, and what they need help with.
Online Survey to learn of users attitudes, behaviours etc. using a combination of quantitive and qualitative questions.
HUEY'S CORE MESSAGE | FLOW STATES
Our client wants to assert the methodology of 'Flow States' in the development of her innovative app.
The term 'Flow' is derived from Mihaly Csikszentimihalyi who wrote "Flow, the Secret to Happiness".
Csikszentimihalyi defines 'Flow' as an optimal psychological state that people experience when engaged in an activity that is both appropriately challenging to one's skill level, often resulting in immersion and concentrated focus on a task. Flow is one of eight mental states that can happen during the learning process which Csikszentimihalyi outlines in his flow theory.
Competitive Analysis
We performed an evaluation of competitors by analysing app features - this comparative chart illustrated to us where there were gaps for the Huey app to fill.
Key Findings
1. Mental Health Apps: Hello Sunday Morning, Talk Life, and 7 Cups of Tea - all had forums and profile pages yet no verified personal details.
The anonymous profiles and interactions we found on some of the apps analysed had evidence of greater levels of negative communication between members. This lead us to a strategy encouraging accountability to being not only identifiable but fostering an honest commitment to staying on track with mental health.
SWAT analysis of user behaviour, app content, visual design, intuitive interactions, and Mobile app features we thought applied well to the Huey app development.
“Huey’s value is united by the shared vision of members inspiring each other to get into the mental health zone from flow states, which are particular activities they love.
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Design Thinking Workshop
OUR HUEY WORKSHOP
Huey uses were invited by our client to participate in and event structured and co-ordinated by my team. We recruited 25 participants in two separate groups of which we organised collaboratively.
To discover uncover Huey's potential, we asked 5 key questions to gain a deeper empathy for core users.
EMPATHY WITH AUDIENCE
To have empathy with our audience, we asked questions about managing stress, anxiety and depression.
What has or has not helped, what experiences were like with clinicians and therapists, sharing on social media, and the qualities of good support networks to overcome barriers and stigmas associated with mental health.
KEY INSIGHTS
1. Large desires for group activities, connecting with people and self awareness for health.
2. Common barriers for managing anxiety, stress and depression were Fear and Self Doubt
3. Many responses for and against the value of clinicians/therapists. Mostly cynicism.
4. Social media was considered too public and they found it difficult to share joy with mixed perceptions
5. Support networks fostered acceptance accountability, general kinship, no judgement
Research | Interviews and Survey
INTERVIEWS
Detailed qualitative insights into target user’s feelings about mental health, help, social media and clinicians.
Key Findings:
Offline experiences are the most powerful
Helping other, contributing to community
Online experiences can be helpful in the short-term
Status updates, photos, inspirational posts can inadvertently trigger anxiety
Trolls are a huge issue for all, particularly the younger demographic
Users tended to say that they discontinued using apps if an ongoing cost occurred.
A one-off payment was more favourable (but more testing needed)
Clinician Findings
“experiences with psychologists are mixed, and often hard to find a good psychologist. Trusting friends is better, and also community memberships.”
Survey | 38 Respondents
The survey questions were a combination of qualitative open ended and multiple choice. The questions were designed to discover pain points in the management of mental health. We also wanted to acquire an unbiased view from a wide circle. Surveys were sent though mental health organisations, Facebook Groups, Twitter tweets.
Respondents from, Our own circles, Huey group, One Wave, Workshop group, Message boards, Mental health organisations
38 Respondents
Potentially the least biased sample
Broad sample size
Sensitive Information
Allowed users to express themselves
in their own words
52% of the respondents were in the
16-35 age bracket
Empathy Maps
Our research was used As a foundation for EVALUAting THE USER PAIN POINTS FOR 2 CORE USERS:
PERSONAS | Jess and James
App Feature Priorities | MOSCOW Method
Minimum Viable Product - app feature prioritization
Invision Prototype | Iteration 1
The Huey team developed the following prototype as a structured result in direct response to our research processes in identifying our Huey user accurately. After putting this prototype design in front of people to test user reactions, we discovered major problems with the interface design. Going back to the prototype I modified the design considerably and now the Huey app in the second phase of usability testing.