I was the main designer working on this mobile app with a team of doctors, a psychiatrist and developer. We all have worked on this project besides our full time job.
The high response rate from the therapists reflected the relevance of the topic to us. Based on these survey results and interviews, we adjusted the concept.
To deeply understand the current service landscape for mental health in Germany and to evaluate the need for our concept, I analyzed 16 service providers based on their offering, strengths and weaknesses.
There are many digital solutions trying to address the psychotherapeutic undersupply. These are mostly online therapies that serve as an addition to a face-to-face therapy or to bridge the long waiting time for a therapy spot. All digital solutions emphasize that they are not a substitute for a face-to-face therapy and that it remains essential. This means that the available digital solutions in the field of mental health care do not solve the initial problem described above. The competitor analysis confirmed the gap in the service landscape where users are supported in the actual search process to find a therapist.
In Germany, people with mental health issues need to go through a time consuming and nerve-racking process to find a therapist who matches their needs:
appointment booking only by phone making patients dependent of the different office hours therapists have
no central distribution system and waiting list in Germany
no detailed overview of therapists with their specialties
In Germany 17.8 million people suffer under mental health issues every year. Only 2.5 million people receives outpatient psychotherapy every quarter. With Tamly we want to support those who abandon the nerve-racking search or are unsuccessful.
For Digital Natives with light-medium severe mental illness who are dissatisfied with the time-consuming and nerve-racking process of finding a therapist our mobile app Tamly provides support, organization, structure and motivation during the search for a therapist:
Filter therapists based on your preference (e.g., by gender, age, specialties)
Receive push notifications if a new appointment or therapist is available
Join digital waiting lists
Book appointments online
I tried out different options for the structure and content of the screens by drawing with the hand and using the wireframing tool Whimsical.
After showing the wireframes to five users, their feedback proved the assumption that users prefer images from the therapist if possible. In addition, having an online booking system and detailed filter option seems to be most important and helpful for users.
Therapists in Germany usually do not have pictures online. In many cases a placeholder for the picture would be shown. There was no significant benefit of having pictures in the app.
Information such as age and available spots are not accessible publicly.
Using many colors could overstimulate and distract patients during the search.
We need therapists to join our app in order to provide an online booking system for appointments and digital waiting list. The acquisition of therapists could take a while. Meanwhile people are suffering during their search for therapy.
to primary color , secondary color and a color palette based on the primary color by changing the lightness value of the primary color
Postpone the online booking system, digital waiting list and extensive information such as age as a mid-term goal
Help users organize themselves by receiving a push notification as soon as a therapist is available by phone
Enable users to add notes to therapists to keep track of who they have called
Add links to alternatives (e.g., online therapy) during the waiting time for therapy
The diary study confirmed
the ease of use and structure of the app,
the app being a great relief during the search for therapy,
the importance of data protection since no personal data is required to use the app,
the need for a digital waiting list and to see the available capacity of a therapist,
the benefit to be able to take notes for each therapist, and
the reduction of organisation effort through push notification since the different availability by phone of the therapists overwhelmed users with mental health issues.
Through this diary study we also identified several issues with the current prototype such as technical issues with the push notification after a while. There were also some therapists where the availability by phone were incorrect. For the future we need to figure out how to handle incorrect data, e.g., by letting the user report those.
To test the new design and also app concept in a real setup, we conducted a diary study with five users who were looking for a psychotherapist in Leipzig. The users used the app for two months where we checked in with each of them personally and regularly. They also filled out an online survey during this period so that we can track their experience with the app over the time.
We decided to run a diary study instead of a field study due to the pandemic and mental health being a very sensitive topic. A diary study was easier to execute at that time even though a field study could have shed more light on the user experience since there might be differences to what users said and what they actually did and felt.
Incorporate the most important insights from the diary study in our MVP
Prepare all legal documents to launch the MVP in the app stores
Conduct a field study in cooperation with a psychosomatic clinic to evaluate the effectiveness of the app during the search for a therapist
Continue applying for funding
Design changes needs to be backed up with data from usability tests and studies so that developers who are not familiar with design principles accept design changes
Run early-stage user tests to evaluate the concept
Prioritization of work packages and clear distribution of responsibilities are very important due to the limited time each team member has, especially when working with doctors
Reach out on LinkedIn or via email
nhat.ha.productdesign@gmail.com
