Making Therapy More Accessible With An Easier Way To Find Therapists
Mobile UI/UX Design | UX Research | Branding
I designed an app that allows users to find therapists easily and efficiently.
Scope
This was an open-ended, passion project where I needed to solve a real-life problem I’m passionate about.
My Role
Solo designer responsible for research, design, prototyping, and testing.
UI/UX Designer
UX Researcher
Brand Designer
Timeline
7-month independent end-to-end student project.
Tools
Figma, Procreate, Miro, Zoom, Google Suite
Challenge
Make the journey to finding a therapist less painful for people who need it.
Solution
Raft is a mobile app that enables users to find a therapist without many of the obstacles that are normally involved in the process, shame, insurance, or scheduling.
User fills out an intake survey, listing their needs and preferences around therapy.
User reviews a specialized list of therapist options.
User books appointments and enters payment information for preferred therapist choice.
1 in 5 people have some mental health illness, but only 44% of them get the help they need.
WHY IS IT SO HARD TO FIND A THERAPIST?
My Process
Finding a therapist is frustrating and difficult for many people, and the task is often avoided.
Research shows users are often met with these 3 Pain Points:
Cost & Resources
Stigma & Shame
Lack of Availability & Knowledge
But I needed to understand, why those obstacles stopped people from getting care.
My goals of interviewed 7 therapy seekers:
Past experiences in searching for therapy
Motivations to go to therapy
Goals when searching for a therapist
I found 4 main trends from these interviews
1. Negative Trigger Puts Users in Crisis Mode
Most seekers only start looking with intent after an overwhelming negative trigger.
2. Heavy Emotions Are Prevalent
Users feel vulnerable, isolated, and hopeless while looking for a therapist.
3. Nobody Really Knows What Makes A Good Therapist
Therapist specialties and demographics were voiced as the most important factors when searching, but good therapists were indescribable.
4. Switching Therapists Is Still Difficult
Switching therapists was still painful.
Since therapy was such a broad topic, I decided to focus on two primary user groups that were challenged by the task of finding a therapist, newcomers and therapist-switchers.
Motivations
Feels lost, isolated, and sad
Wants to talk to someone
Can’t talk with family or friends out of fear of judgment
Goals
To find someone to talk to
Pay for sessions in any way possible to get help
Have a stable, long-term connection with the therapist
Pain Points
Doesn’t know where to start
Only knows the bare minimum about therapy
Discouraged by waitlists
Feels like calling a therapist is a “big step” that needs to be overcome
Motivations
Knows the benefits of therapy
Frustrated because their previous therapist can’t support them any longer
Goals
To work through past traumas and current stress
Pay for sessions through insurance
Have a stable, long-term connection with the therapist
Find someone that “just clicks”
Pain Points
Feels pain again when recounting their history with a new therapist
Finding a therapist is a game of trial and error that takes a lot of effort
Only sees limited options available
Knows likes and dislikes in specialties and techniques, but also knows it will come down to compatibility with the new therapist
How Might We…
Reduce the feelings of isolation during the search process?
Encourage the search for therapy before a breaking point?
Reduce the number of attempts to find a match?
Reframe searching as a good thing?
Help seekers understand what they’re looking for?
After lots of brainstorming, I had three main ideas of how to answer those questions.
1. Mental Health Social Media
This idea was designed to reduce feelings of isolation by making users feel more connected. However, it relied heavily on changing the user’s natural habits. Sharing is still hard for many at this stage.
I didn’t go with this option.
2. Gamification For Therapy
Make a game out of finding a therapist or mental health wellness.
This could encourage users to search before they hit their breaking point or reframe the search as a good thing. There would be weekly challenges or points given for actions made towards improving mental health. However, this was broadening the scope to all of mental health rather than just therapy.
I didn’t go with this option to focus the scope on finding a therapist.
3. Match With A Therapist
Creating a matching system that takes the pressure of finding the perfect therapist off the user.
It can reduce feelings of isolation by showing users that someone is helping them find a therapist. It can reduce the number of attempts to find the right fit by using data to match users to a therapist. Lastly, it can help users understand what they are looking for by using the information they input and producing a customized list of therapist to meet their needs.
We have a winner! I chose this option.
Moving forward with my most viable solution, I started to design and test the “match with a therapist” idea.
It was difficult to get in-depth feedback at this stage.
My sketches were missing content, images, and detail. This was a learning curve for me, but I continued to iterate my sketches, and later wireframes, at higher fidelity levels to get a better sense of the usability of the app.
Test Findings
Users wanted specific questions in the intake survey.
Users didn’t understand certain options or language used in the flow.
Users were quick to go through the process.
I decided the app needed to feel like a real product, so I moved on to branding.
During the user interviews, a quote that really struck me was “I was really just looking for a life raft.” This idea of being in crisis mode and looking for any sort of help was a concept that many seekers could relate to; the brand, raft, was born.
Brand Mission
Provide a welcoming sense of relief and support on the journey to a better you.
Brand Attributes
Approachable
Calming
Effortless
Supportive
Using the brand and style guide elements, I created a high-fidelity mockup.
UI Design Highlights
Water-inspired illustrations to soothe users
Calming, yet vibrant, colors that ease the users and provide a sense of hope
High contrast colors that make it easy to read, but that doesn’t overwhelm the user
Icons and typeface that create an approachable brand personality
Through usability testing, I found that my solution was a success overall; users were more confident finding a therapist.
Test Objectives
Usability
Can users complete the survey process?
Can users go from a “therapist match” to “scheduling an appointment”?
Can users book an appointment?
Impressions
How do users respond to the options given in the survey?
How do participants respond to the therapist matches?
Test Results
I received a lot of helpful feedback from this first round of testing, so I synthesized the research, prioritized feedback, iterated designs, and tested again.
There were still a few features that confused users, so I iterated and tested again.
Before
What Changed?
Divided buttons into two individual tasks.
Added list of specialties that tied back to intake survey.
Added a "Top Match" indicator.
After
How Did It Help?
Encouraged users to book right away.
Fewer knowledge gaps.
More confident users.
Less confusion about how to book.
Before
What Changed?
Instead of having the payment step of booking an appointment in one flow, I divided the prototype into two different payment flows (insurance vs. out-of-pocket).
Adjusted copy to match the appropriate flow.
After
How Did It Help?
No more hang-ups with payments during the “booking an appointment” flow.
Before
What Changed?
Removed the account creation requirement.
Added the option to "proceed as a guest" when asked for a password.
After
How Did It Help?
It didn't! — Lost trust and a sense of security in the app without the account creation step
I would leave this out of future iterations.
Looking back, Raft helped address user concerns!
Top Results From Raft
Increased confidence in a therapist selection.
Reduced number of therapists looked at before finding the right one.
Increased understanding of which therapists were right for a user.
Constraints to Consider with Next Steps
Creating an alogrithm to match user needs with therapist specialities.
Getting enough therapist on the platform to support demand for care.
Taking to engineering team to get into a development timeline.
Final thoughts
Getting the authentic feelings and perspectives of users during a test was difficult considering users are typically more panicked and vulnerable when actually looking for a therapist. Given more time and resources, I would love to iterate more on the user experience of this project to explore the emotional element.
Lastly, this is a user and therapist network, so this design does only focus on the user side.