A Secure Social Media Platform Designed for Doctors Under the Radar, a Start-Up Focused on Mental Health.
Context
Doctors Under the Radar is a startup founded by a physician who, facing personal mental health challenges, recognized the need for a safe online community.
Our cross-functional team, consisting of a UX/UI Design Lead, a Project Planner, and a Design Consultant, took on the challenge of designing a web application from scratch for 'Doctors Under the Radar.' The team was provided with the company's website to gain context on the business.
The team was instructed to think: Reddit + Discord + Meetups for mental health
My Role
UX/UI Design Lead for the 'Healers' web application.
Responsibilities:
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Conducted client, secondary, business, and user research.
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Executed competitive analysis, Surveys, and team coordination.
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Led ideation, wireframing, and guided mid-fidelity prototype development.
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Owned high-fidelity prototype creation.
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Managed two rounds of usability testing and design iteration.
Timeframe
2 - Week Agile Sprint
1-2 - Weeks: Research to Mid-Fidelity Prototype +
1.5 - Weeks: Design System to High-Fidelity Prototype
Challenge
The mental health of female physicians is critically impacted by unique challenges and societal stigmas within the medical community, leading to a pressing need for a dedicated and secure online platform.
Goal
Design a web application influenced by Reddit + Discord + Meetups for mental health. A secure online space that meets client objectives that:
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Build Communities
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Promote Research
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Creative Expression
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Advance Care
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Allocate Access
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Decrease Liability
Result
Delivered a high-fidelity prototype with a 100% task success rate and received a 5 out of 5 ease-of-use rating from five participants. This achievement was backed up by thorough research and data within a 3.5-week timeframe.
Discovery
Client
Doctors Under the Radar was founded by Dr. Quidest Sheriff, affectionately known as 'Dr. Kiki.' Dr. Kiki faced severe mental health issues firsthand and went years without receiving proper care despite her profound medical knowledge and background. Learning from her own experience as a practicing physician who has personally grappled with mental health challenges, Dr. Kiki aims to:
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Primarily facilitate connections among female physicians, providing them with a network of support.
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Connect female physicians to mental health professionals who understand their unique circumstances.
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Mitigate barriers and stigmas surrounding mental health and encourage learning.
Why Female Physicians?
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Undisclosed Depression: 98% of female physicians with major depressive disorder don't disclose it.
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Heightened Mental Health Challenges: More pronounced issues like depression, suicidal ideation, and sleep disorders in female physicians compared to male counterparts.
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Suicide Rate Discrepancy: Suicidal deaths among female physicians are 250-400% higher than women in other professions.
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Moral Pressure and Fear of Judgment: Women face intense pressure to be morally correct, fear criticism, and loss of credibility.
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Consequences of Non-Disclosure: Less likely to seek help, more prone to bottling up emotions leading to burnout, depression, and suicidal thoughts.
Business Goals
Doctors Under the Radar aims to empower and enlighten physician support systems nationwide. Their goal is to enhance transparency and awareness of physician suicide and mental health challenges within the medical profession. Specific business goals:
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Build Communities: Bring together like-minded women, in a safe and nurturing social environment.
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Creative Expression: Encourage collaboration and deep connection through sharing art and musical experiences.
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Promote Research: Destigmatize mental health issues by promoting effective and viable research.
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Advance Care: Offer resources to female physicians regarding mental health allowing them to initiate, investigate, and encourage help-seeking.
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Allocate access: Grant access to mental health professionals dedicated to helping Female physicians.
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Decrease liability: Decrease repercussions for female physicians reporting their circumstances.
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Timeframe: 2 - weeks time constraint
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Target User Pool: No Access to Female Physicians
Project Constraints
Due to the limited two-week timeframe and lack of access to female physicians, I collaborated with the project planner to strategically interview 12 proxy users who were female healthcare workers. These individuals represented our target user group. This approach enabled us to gain valuable insights from users with relevant expertise and experience.
Solution 💡
User Research
Surveys
41
Survey Responses
Before initiating the interview process, I gathered 41 survey responses from healthcare professionals representing diverse backgrounds. This provided the team with crucial data on a range of topics, including how these professional's work impacts their mental well-being and the lack of safe space.
Interviews
10
Questions
12
Interviewees
15
Minutes
Empathizing with Female Healthcare Workers
Female healthcare workers shoulder a multitude of challenges in their crucial roles. They often encounter situations involving verbal abuse by patients and family, which can be emotionally and mentally draining. Another significant hurdle is the persistent issue of low staffing levels, which can lead to overwork and burnout. The scarcity of protective gear during COVID-19 further compounded these challenges, putting healthcare workers at risk. Beyond the physical strains, the emotional toll of witnessing the struggles of terminally ill patients, especially children, can be profound.
"dealing with other human's emotions... you're dealing with people when they're at their sickest... I don't want to take that home with me."
- RN Richmond, VA
"We experience abuse by patients and their family members... it's difficult seeing your patients go through hard times."
- RN Washington, DC
"It's scary to see people talking like five minutes ago and then they turn blue."
- RN Sydney, Australia
Competitive Analysis
I analyzed various social platforms and specialized mental health services, comparing general platforms (Facebook groups, LinkedIn groups, Reddit, Discord, Quora) with mental health-focused ones (Ginger, Headspace) and in-person meetups. This comprehensive approach helped identify a gap: the need for a niche social platform tailored for female healthcare workers that offered the following features in a centralized platform:
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Locality
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Anonymity
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Encourages help-seeking
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Access to mental health professionals
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Focus on Learning
Design
Sketching
I involved the team in a Crazy 8s exercise in developing ideas for what our platform could look like. This exercise encouraged rapid ideation, democratized the generation of ideas, and sparked creativity. After the session, I incorporated all the new ideas into one comprehensive sketch of the homepage with features like:
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Live mental health professional chat
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Groups section
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Job title display
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Location filter
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Invite friends
Wireframing
The team collaborated on Figma to discuss the structure of our key pages. I took the lead in rapid wireframing, quickly turning our ideas into tangible digital wireframes. These included the home page/discover feed, groups page, anonymous group chat, and facilities page.
Discover Timeline
Carousel
Write post
Timeline
Anonymous Group Chat
Group name
Chats
Write to chat
Groups Page
Search by group
Group containers
Facilities Page
Facilitiy image & info
Posts related to facility
Mid-Fidelity Prototype
Reflection
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Client Advocacy: I emphasized the client's needs and goals throughout the design process.
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Team Direction: I guided the team to focus on the following:
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Locality
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Anonymity
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Help-seeking behavior
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Access to mental health professionals
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Challenges Faced:
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Difficulties in aligning the team with broader client and business goals:
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Promoting research and learning
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Addressing user privacy concerns
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The team's focus was on mastering auto layout, which impacted project progress in other critical areas.
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Usability Testing
3
Participants
10
Tasks
66.7%
Success Rate
1.3 out of 5
Ease of Use
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User Navigation Challenges:
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Difficulty in locating top-right icons.
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Distracted by the color blue.
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Feedback indicating non-interactive interface: "It looks like a picture."
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Usability Feedback:
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Low usability score: 1.3 out of 5.
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Design Strategy:
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The decision to create a new design system for the high-fidelity prototype.
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Focus on enhancing user experience.
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Alignment with client and business goals.
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High-Fidelity Prototype
01
Discover Timeline
The Discover Timeline offers users an immediate overview of current activities, encompassing "Groups You Should Join" and "Active Group Chats Right Now." This feature empowers users to post events and announcements and promote their groups in a public forum, providing them with immediate access to a broad audience.
Join Groups Feature: Addressing the client's business goal of allowing users to build communities and creative expression.
Learn feature: New feature, previously unavailable in the mid-fidelity design, addressing the client's business goal of encouraging learning and promoting research.
Licensed Therapist: Addressing client's business goal of allocating access, decreasing liability, and providing advanced care.
02
Build Communities
Join a safe and nurturing social environment that connects like-minded women in healthcare. Participate in interest groups with the option to express yourself anonymously, free of judgment. Harness the power of creative expression through art and music to build bridges, inspire collaborative endeavors, and enrich shared experiences.
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Focus on Locality & Learning
Join local groups and search by facilities, a feature designed with travel nurses in mind. Find a group that truly resonates with you. Utilize the 'learn' feature to foster a more informed, supportive, and stigma-free environment, encouraging help-seeking, reducing liability, and promoting research.
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Emphasis on Advancing Care & Data Privacy
Enjoy access to advanced care on a platform that prioritizes your privacy and data security, featuring a password-protected lock screen. Chat 24/7 with dedicated licensed professionals and join groups supervised by certified mental health experts. Interact with our specially programmed Healers AI Chatbot, designed to efficiently answer your questions while ensuring your privacy is never compromised.
Usability Testing
5
Participants
10
Tasks
100%
Success Rate
5 out of 5
Ease of Use
*Task Prompts shortened for scan-ability*
Room for Improvement
Despite positive feedback on the prototype user experience, further refinements are identified for the high-fidelity prototype.
Difficulty Locating 'Licensed Professional' Button:
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Replace the button with an AI chatbot to allocate access to a wealth of information related to mental health and female healthcare workers.
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Add a dedicated section for selecting licensed therapists, inspired by BetterHelp, to further emphasize and prioritize the client's mission to advance care.
Platform Overcrowding:
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Remove or declutter groups on the platform.
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Introducing set rules and requirements for group membership, and engagement levels.
Improvements:
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Add a message icon to the top right of the navigation bar for better access.
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Create multiple pathways for users to access research articles in the upcoming design iteration for enhanced information accessibility.
What I learned
During this project, I faced several challenges, ranging from having to strategically use a proxy user group to experiencing difficulties in aligning the team’s priorities with the client's objectives. I learned the importance of creative solutions when facing project constraints such as tight deadlines and lack of resources. Additionally, I understood the significance of effective communication as a project leader, as well as the limitations of my original role as the research lead. This wasn't a project where I was initially chosen for a leadership position; rather, I had to step into that role to ensure the project's success. One of the key challenges was dealing with differences in direction, such as the desire to adhere to the client's brand colors and identity versus my teammates' preference for a more creative approach, including choosing their favorite colors. Through this project, I learned a lot about the kind of designer I aspire to be. I am a designer who appreciates creativity but prioritizes mastering the fundamentals of UX principles. Creativity, in my view, should be used sparingly and strategically.
Next Steps
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Refine the Prototype: Implement design improvements based on usability feedback, focusing on user experience and navigation issues.
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Broader Usability Testing: Conduct additional testing with a wider and more representative user base, including female physicians.
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Incorporate Expanded Feedback: Use insights from the broader testing to further refine the design, particularly addressing platform overcrowding and user interface issues.
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Pilot Launch and Evaluation: Initiate a pilot launch to gather real-world feedback and make necessary adjustments.
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Marketing and Outreach: Develop a strategy to promote the platform to the target audience and engage with relevant professional bodies.
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Continuous Improvement and Impact Assessment: Regularly update the application based on user feedback and assess its impact on the user base.
Design System
In order to fit Doctors Under the Radar’s already established brand identity, I created a design system to maintain consistency in the client's brand's visual and functional identity. It involved creating a comprehensive guide that included color schemes, typography, layout principles, component styles. This ensured that regardless of who is working on the brand - whether it's designers or developers- everyone has a clear set of rules to follow.
