Scope

The Department of Veterans Affairs’ National Center for PTSD wanted to investigate areas of design improvement for the app to increase user engagement and usefulness.

2.5 Weeks

3-person team

Constraints

While the client’s current Mood Coach app had been live for some time, they had no data or analytics collected, and no database of users which we could access. The Mood Coach app utilizes Behavioral Activation, a researched-based therapeutic technique, and that element of the app could not be altered.

Primary Skills Used

User Research

User Interviews

Data Synthesis

Usability Testing

Prototyping

Problem

The VA knew by the number of downloads that the Mood Coach app was under-utilized. The foundation of the Mood Coach app was built and informed by psychologists and integrates an empirically supported therapeutic approach for depression called Behavioral Activation. The app is designed to help users boost their mood through participation in positive activities.

Given the integrity of the Mood Coach app, the VA wanted to increase user engagement and usefulness.

My Process

As the only team member with a Master’s in Social Work, I led the education and research phase. It was critical that the team understood depression and how it affects people living with it. We needed to understand the user and how the Mood Coach app fit into their lives in order to effectively create change that would meet our client’s needs of increased user engagement and usefulness. We also needed to get the app in front of users for usability testing so we could narrow in on the issues.

1.

Evaluation

The existing app quickly failed a heuristic evaluation assessing usability. it would have been easy to assume this was the reason for low engagement, but there was still so much we didn’t know about the user.
2.

Educate ourselves

We had a lot to learn about depression, its effects, available treatments, and the Mood Coach app’s therapeutic technique.
3.

User interviews

We conducted several rounds of interviews with people who live with depression, focusing on outcomes and solutions that help them cope through depressive times.
4.

Analyze findings

Through empathy mapping, developing a persona, and conducting affinity diagrams we were able to analyze and synthesize the raw qualitative data into usable data and insights.
5.

User's problem & solution

Living with depression causes lack of motivation and creates difficulty with productivity and performing daily tasks. The solution is to provide methods for motivation, accountability, and community within the app.
6.

Usability testing

The Mood Coach app already provides methods for motivation and accountability, which according to our research would prove its usefulness to the user. But why was the app’s engagement so low? We hoped this would be answered with usability testing of the app.
7.

Usability test findings

The information we learned through the usability tests can be categorized into four main issues blocking user engagement: the plan, values, onboarding, and general usability.
8.

Redesign

Much of our redesign was made with paper prototypes, which allowed us to make quick iterations. We had every design decision validated by returning to our user for usability testing.
9.

Wireframes & Mockup

We made a high fidelity mock up using Sketch, and an interactive prototype using InVision, and finished with a final usability test session to confirm our design made Mood Coach more engaging and useful to the user.

Solution

Our goal was to redesign the app while maintaining its integrity, proving usefulness to the user, and increasing engagement. Through user research we learned that the app, in its current state, should be successful at proving usefulness to the user. So it was now our job to figure out the cause for low user engagement. After conducting usability testing we learned that four main issues stood in the way of user engagement: the plan, values, onboarding, and general usability. Our re-design tackled each of these issues to increase user engagement.

UX Researcher & Designer

(and I coded this here website)

Mood Coach

Mood Coach

- Mobile app redesign -

Scope

The Department of Veterans Affairs’ National Center for PTSD wanted to investigate areas of design improvement for the app to increase user engagement and usefulness.

2.5 Weeks

3-person team

Constraints

Primary Skills Used

User Research

User Interviews

Data Synthesis

Usability Testing

Prototyping

Problem

Affinity map (left), Empathy map (right).

Affinity mapping interview data.

User empathy map with interview insights

My Process

Venn diagram (left), Persona (right).

1.

Evaluation

The existing app quickly failed a heuristic evaluation assessing usability. it would have been easy to assume this was the reason for low engagement, but there was still so much we didn’t know about the user.

2.

Educate ourselves

We had a lot to learn about depression, its effects, available treatments, and the Mood Coach app’s therapeutic technique.

3.

User interviews

We conducted several rounds of interviews with people who live with depression, focusing on outcomes and solutions that help them cope through depressive times.

4.

Analyze findings

Through empathy mapping, developing a persona, and conducting affinity diagrams we were able to analyze and synthesize the raw qualitative data into usable data and insights.

5.

User's problem & solution

Living with depression causes lack of motivation and creates difficulty with productivity and performing daily tasks. The solution is to provide methods for motivation, accountability, and community within the app.

6.

Usability testing

The Mood Coach app already provides methods for motivation and accountability, which according to our research would prove its usefulness to the user. But why was the app’s engagement so low? We hoped this would be answered with usability testing of the app.

7.

Usability test findings

The information we learned through the usability tests can be categorized into four main issues blocking user engagement: the plan, values, onboarding, and general usability.

8.

Redesign

Much of our redesign was made with paper prototypes, which allowed us to make quick iterations. We had every design decision validated by returning to our user for usability testing.

9.

Wireframes & Mockup

We made a high fidelity mock up using Sketch, and an interactive prototype using InVision, and finished with a final usability test session to confirm our design made Mood Coach more engaging and useful to the user.

Four main issues standing in the way of user engagement.

Solution

Biggest challenge #1: Making the onboarding process clear, simple, and engaging. Now when the user is done with onboarding they will have already taken initial small steps to set up a plan with one value and one activity.

Biggest challenge #2: Clarifying the purpose and relationship of values and activities. We created a visual cue, positioning “activities” inside the “values” wheel, so users would understand the relationship between the two terms.

Video of user flow with InVision made prototype.