CASE STUDY OCT 2020 - JAN 2021
Reflect
Mobile app that serves as a supplementary tool to in-person cognitive therapy for therapists and their clients with anxiety disorders.
Context
Cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT), an effective evidence-based psychotherapy, is a highly structured and goal-oriented approach to treat people with anxiety disorders. The crucial aspect of CBT revolves around specific therapeutic activities or “homework” that are given to the patient by the therapist to be completed in between sessions, which can help patients educate themselves, modify their thinking, and collect their thoughts. Homework compliance is correlated with short-term and long-term improvement of symptoms in anxiety disorders. Negatively affecting around 40 million people in the U.S. annually, anxiety disorders are the most common mental illness in this country.
Challenge
Homework non-compliance is one of the top cited reasons for CBT failure and is a persistent problem in clinical practice. The most common internal and external barriers that stand in the way of homework compliance are the following:
1) Lack of motivation to change the situation when experiencing negative feelings
2) Inability to identify automatic thoughts
3) Need to see immediate results
4) Lack of instruction
Research
Interviews and Journal Studies
In order to understand this domain in more depth, I interviewed therapists to gain insight on how homework is assigned and the difficulties they have with patients not keeping up with the homework. I also looked into various journal studies to further my knowledge on the different types of anxiety disorders as well, CBT treatment, and the implications of digitizing this process. I also learned that health tech apps are required to maintain privacy standards and compliance in securing personal data.
Competitive Feature Analysis
I studied competitors in this space of mental health apps and conducted a feature comparison analysis to identify any gaps and to help shape my product with meaningful features that will benefit the users.
Research Analysis
Meet the Users
Based on the user research, I created user personas to get a defined idea of who I am designing for.
User Journey Maps
The user journey maps provided insight into areas of opportunity. With these ideas in mind, I brainstormed how each area could be addressed through features in the app. The following are features that would be crucial to integrate based on the research and analysis.
FEATURES
Positive reinforcement
Reminders
View progress
Incremental smaller goals
Guided activities
Educate on the importance of homework
Interaction Design
Information Architecture
Low Fidelity Wireframes
Final Design
Easy Homework Flow
The user can immediately view their assigned homework and with one click, they are directed to the guided activities.
View Your Progress
Keep track of your daily emotion tracking to determine patterns automatic thoughts and to see improvement.
Track Your Emotions
Tracking emotions daily helps identify patterns in anxiety and creates a discipline.
Guided Activities
The struggle to recall how to do an activity is gone with the step by step guidance that Reflect provides.
Educate on the Importance
Educating users on the importance and details about this domain is essential for them to believe in the practice.
Motivating Messages
Providing positive reinforcement throughout the app boosts the user to complete the homework.
Reminders
Reminders will keep users accountable and on track with their homework.
