Helply Case Study
It’s 2020. You’ve been doing your best to stay home and stay safe during the global pandemic. All the uncertainty has been weighing down on you even as you cut down on your social media use and news intake. A friend suggests talking to a professional, but you aren’t sure. Therapy is something for other people with real problems. Besides, what would your family think? It’s just not what you’re looking for…right?
Mental Health has been stigmatized for years, which can lead to people feeling too much shame to even reach out for help. Although the stigma is decreasing with each new generation, there are still people who need help finding help.
Meet Helply, the stigma-free tool that helps you find help for mental wellness.
Mindfulness and meditation apps have been vastly popular as the world faces uncertainty and unrest. However, while these products provide a very important function, they can’t substitute for a healthy relationship with a therapist. Helply is a platform designed to help connect people to therapists while eliminating the existing stigmas surrounding mental health. We want to go further than isolated self care by building real connections between people, accessible to anyone, anywhere.
Helply is based on the idea that mental wellness is for everyone, and anyone should be able to find the exact help they need. In order to break through stigma and fear, we created a specific brand identity for Helply and tested our designs throughout the process to keep our user’s needs at the heart of the project. By marrying our approachable, friendly, and trustworthy brand identity to clean, human centered design, we have created a new space for people to be able to find the help they need perhaps for the first time.
Let’s talk process.
My role consisted of gathering initial primary and secondary research, forming relationships with potential users in order to implement designs that would meet their needs, and forming a visual design and brand identity that would invite users and eliminate stigma. This project wouldn’t lead to a fully formed product, but it served as a beginning to a solution for the problem. I was the sole designer working on Helply, from research to information architecture to visual design. I wouldn’t have made it this far without the help of my mentor, Osama Ghazal.
But enough about me.
The Challenge
To create a platform that sidesteps stigma and shame and empowers people to find the help they need.
The U̶s̶e̶r̶s̶ People
Initial research consisted of learning about stigma in mental health through academic journals as well as primary research conducted through a survey with over 30 participants (quantitative) and 5 in-depth interviews (qualitative).
Data points from this research were mapped using an affinity diagram, which was then used to create a basis for our Personas. The rest of the design process was based on meeting the needs of our personas.
Using the pain points of our personas, we were able to come up with an overarching problem statement:
How might we connect people to resources in order to help them maintain a mentally healthy lifestyle without fear of judgement?
Ideation
How might we build a clear process that keeps users engaged?
Our first step towards visual design flowed right from the qualitative data gained during our first phase of the design process. Red routes were sketched out and presented to users in our guerilla testing rounds. Plenty of opportunities for improvement and correction were already presenting themselves.
Feedback from the tests led to the first iterative changes made to the design, including bringing the navigation from the bottom to the top of the screen. Replacing the unclear iconography with labelled navigation tabs helped our users to find their way around the product with ease.
Design
How might we connect people to professionals and resources?
After testing our sketches, user flows were tweaked and the sitemap was updated. These changes paved the way to the first wireframes of the product.
The wireframes reflected the feedback gained during the Usability Guerilla Testing, and showed a very different layout than the original sketches. Our personas continued to influence the structure and flow of the experience.
Brand Identity
The design is coming together, but it is only solving half of our problem. We still need to find a way for Helply to overcome stigma and invite users to a friendly experience. We created a Brand Identity that centered around approachable, trustworthy, and accessible design. Every component was considered for its effect on the user experience, from font families to iconography.
UX Branding
The high fidelity screens were put together by combining the design and the branding. The first version was unsuccessful. Color and typography were clunkily applied to the wireframes, and some colors weren’t contrasted enough for accessibility; however, when I let the design and the brand identity influence and change each other, it clicked. The second version of high fidelity design was much more successful and held true to our Persona’s needs.
Prototype
The screens were put into a prototype and tested with users. Feedback from testing helped us iterate on opportunities for improvement.
You can access the first Prototype here.
Let’s Iterate!
The Sessions detail page contains all the specifics of your session as well as the payment information form. This made for a very cluttered screen that left users overwhelmed, and in some tests led to a roadblock.
The page was split into two separate screens: Session details and Payment details. This minimized the amount of cognitive load on the user, and allowed for a smoother, more intuitive experience.
Prototype v2
After the second round of usability testing and iterations, the prototype was split into client facing and therapist facing versions of Helply.
The Future
Lessons Learned
Maintaining the same test subjects throughout the process helped us build a relationship with our users that helped to inform a deeper emotional component with Helply. Although, new users were introduced at each phase of testing in order to keep fresh perspectives throughout.
Well researched design and curated branding shouldn’t be forced together copy/paste style. Rather, the design and the styling should influence and develop each other into a more cohesive version of itself.
Future Iterations
How might we continue to give our users more information and control over their own experience?
Helply is not a finished platform, and the prototype has many dormant features that require further design and testing.
Next Steps
- Adding a private, secure messaging interface to build a sense of trust and protection.
- Formalizing the process of writing reviews for therapists to give users more information and control
- Finalizing the details with a fully designed hamburger menu to provide access to information, help, and settings
Research is needed for therapists as users. Qualitative research from professional counselors and therapists would provide a much needed perspective on the nature of the mental wellness industry.
