Gingko
Project Overview
While students at the University of Toronto constantly suffer from mental health challenges, resources and support are often deemed as insufficient or inaccessible. As a student UX design team here, we recognized this mismatch and conducted a series of UX research to identify and consolidate students’ needs in accessing mental health support. Inspired by our analysis, we proposed Gingko, named after the therapeutic plant, as a new platform aside from Acorn and Quercus, which foster students’ academic growth, to alleviate the challenges our peers confront.
Team
Yumeng Fan
Xin(Jaya) Hu
Ivan Lou
Matt O’Reilly
Chiheng(Yvonne) Zhou
Responsibilities
- Oversaw research instrument creation.
- Planned and led 4 user interviews and 1 usability test.
- Conceptualized design solutions tailoring to research findings.
- Translated mid-fidelity prototype into high-fidelity mockups.
Tools
Balsamiq (Prototype, wireframes)
Figma, Sketch (Visual design)
Zoom (User interviews and usability testing)
Design Process
Identify & Define
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To identify the challenges that our fellow UofT students experience with accessing mental health services, we planned and conducted 58 online surveys and 12 interviews. We then created affinity maps to consolidate the existing pain points.
Affinity Map
Key Insights
Insufficient outreach and consolidation
- Common explanations include having limited knowledge about what resources
Lack of timely support
- Participants complained about the extreme length of wait time which ranged from 2 to 4 weeks to 9 months.
Lack of personalized aid
Defining User Needs
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To better empathize with and understand students’ experience, needs, and goals seeking mental health support, we created Andrea the academic. We then re-envisioned the journey through which Andrea will be accessing mental health support resources at UofT.
GOALS
+ Receive personalized support with specific suggestions tailored to her situation over general advice
+ More compassionate people and supporters who understand/share empathy with her problem/situation
+ Receive support in her preferred language
+ Access to mental health support in a timely manner
+ An easy way to navigate through available resources
+ Counsellors/supporters that she can connect with
BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH
Andrea is an undergraduate student studying Engineering at the University of Toronto. She is ambitious about her future and is now dealing with the heavy workload and demands of her academic and professional life, as well as increased associated stress and anxiety.
She feels comfortable taking to others and also thinks it’s necessary to seek mental health support when needed. When under stress, she usually talks with her friends, but finds that doesn’t always provide the help she needs.
Andrea worries about reaching out for mental health support because she’s concerned that she is going to receive comments from the counsellor that won’t help her specific situation. She needs help with self and emotional management as well as a way to provide balance to her stress and anxiety levels.
FRUSTRATIONS
+ Has limited knowledge about mental health services available to her as a student or how to access them
+ Experience with counseling is negative due to quick turnaround and generic advice
+ Tried Medeo but wasn’t aware that you have to call the clinic to get access to the app
+ Once able to find available mental health support services, is forced to suffer longer due to long wait times (sometimes up to 2-4 weeks)
TECHNICAL SKILLS
PERSONALITY
Insufficient outreach and consolidation
More efficient access to all existing services and resources.
Lack of timely support
A way to identify and book readily accessible resources that are compatible with her schedule.
Lack of personalized aid
More intuitive searching process to identify the optimal resource tailoring to her individual needs.
Ideate
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Aiming to realize the user journey we had envisioned, we illustrated, compiled, and distilled all our ideas. We then prioritized our ideas based on feasibility and impact.
Efficient access to all existing resources.
Intuitive booking process of readily accessible resources.
Intuitive searching process for the optimal resource.
Prototype
Key Feature Highlights
Integrated Resources
Timely Support
Persona-
lized Aid
Mid-Fidelity Prototype
Evaluate & Iterate
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After the initial formative evaluation and revisions, we conducted 6 usability tests to evaluate the validity of our solutions and the user flow, as well as to open up space for direct user insights and suggestions.
Approach
Observation, Remote Interviews
Key Insights
Clarity
- Participants wished to see more descriptive information regarding services.
Visual clues and guidance
- One participant accidentally clicked “skip” when they wanted to click “continue.”
- Service time and availability info were hard to find.
Iterating & Creating High-fidelity Mockups
With user feedback and insights in mind, I adapted our mid-fidelity prototype into high-fidelity mockups to demonstrate two major user tasks using Gingko. These include onboarding and booking recommended and personalized mental health services.
Key Lessons Learned
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