The Village
2024
Context
As a group of 5, we partnered with Sun Life Financial for our Global Business and Digital Arts capstone where we were tasked to design a solution to help close the gender gap in mental health care.
Role
Design Intern —
Product Marketing Manager
Methods & Tools
Figma, Secondary Research
Practices
User Research, Competitive Analysis, UX & UI Design, Prototyping
Discovery
Defining the problem
Since 2012, there has been a significant increase in mental health disorders, particularly among women. The link between substance abuse disorder (SUD) and anxiety disorders presents numerous challenges to Canada's healthcare system due to their interconnected nature and the existing inequalities and stigmas surrounding them.
❗ Women tend to increase their rate of consumption of alcohol, cocaine, and opioids more rapidly than men
❗ Women experiencing discrimination have higher depressive symptoms and higher odds of SUD
❗ Stigma, financial constraints, and limited social support hinder access to essential resources
⚠️ Roadblock (already?): Because the focus was on mental health and addiction, sensitive topics involving vulnerable populations, we were unable to conduct direct interviews with individuals. This limitation stemmed from ethical considerations and university guidelines. As a result, we relied heavily on secondary research.
Our Vision
Offer women battling substance use disorder personalized and accessible care throughout every step of their recovery journey
Ideation
User journey map
2024
Prototyping
We moved on to create prototypes for our minimum viable product, a mobile app that provides a holistic solution for pregnant and parenting women struggling with substance use disorder. It offers a personalized care journey, adapting to users' daily emotional needs through tailored prompts and questions, with anonymous peer support groups to create an open and safe space.
Key Improvements
🛡️ Role of Moderator: Clarify the moderator's role for transparency and user trust
🔒 Privacy: Introduced a privacy policy walkthrough, opt-in/out options, and an anonymity feature for users
📱 Simpler App Navigation: Enhanced the information architecture for seamless navigation
🥼 Treatment Method: Integrated Internet-Based Cognitive Behavioural Therapy methods based on peer-reviewed research
Platform walkthrough
2024
Reflection
Be creative and use the resources you have to create something great
We were design students, not mental health experts. Due to the university's restriction on student research with vulnerable populations and sensitive topics, we were not able to consult people with substance use disorder to conduct primary research for our project, so we had to find work-arounds to get the information we needed. We heavily leaned into peer-reviewed literature and studies already conducted in this space to synthesize findings and mark the gaps.
Have data to back up all design decisions
Working with Sun Life Financial, we had to have data and solid positioning for all our design decisions in our project reviews and pitches to convince them why our idea would work for them and their customers, producing money and value. This experience showed me firsthand how crucial it is to have thorough research to back all design decisions to gain stakeholder buy-in.
