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Sunshine

Tools used:
Figma, Miro, Justinmind,Canva

Feeling overwhelmed? Sunshine is your pocket-sized wellness garden. Unwind with calming meditations, write your heart out with guided journaling, and gain new perspectives with curated podcasts. Need a hand? We match you with the perfect psychologist based on your journey. ✨ Shine brighter with Sunshine - your personalized path to mental well-being. ☀️

01. Project Overview

Role:

  • Lead UX Researcher

  • UX Designer

Team:

  • 1 Researcher

  • 3 Designers

Timeline:

  • Feb 2022 to Sep 2022

Project Type:

  • 1 Researcher

  • 3 Designers

1. Problem

  • Mental health struggles are common, but getting help can be tough: expensive care, overwhelming options, and stigma all create barriers.

2. My Responsibilities

  • Led UX for Sunshine, a mental wellness app:

  • Uncovered User Needs: Conducted research (interviews & surveys) with 50 participants to understand their needs and challenges.

  • Designed & Iterated: Created and refined wireframes/prototypes based on usability testing.

  • Seamless Experience: Collaborated with developers to ensure a smooth user experience.

  • Concept to Launch: Owned the UX journey, focusing on user needs and a positive app experience from start to finish.

3. Goal

  • Sunshine aims to be the accessible, personalized mental wellness companion for everyone.

  • We empower individuals to manage their mental health proactively through engaging self-care tools and resources.

  • By demystifying and normalizing mental health conversations, we strive to create a supportive community where everyone feels empowered to flourish.

4.Target Audience:

  • Designed for people managing depression, stress, and anxiety, Sunshine is a mobile app that empowers users to take charge of their mental well-being through accessible, personalized tools and resources

02. Understanding the User!

Pain Points:

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Persona: Sara Gilmore

After conducting 60-minute interviews and surveys with 50 individuals, we created a persona named Sarah. She embodies the challenges our target audience faces, like managing anxiety while juggling a busy schedule and lacking access to affordable therapy. Sarah guides our design choices, ensuring features like our personalized meditation sessions and therapy recommendations truly address their needs and expectations. With this persona, we ensure Sunshine isn't just an app, but a relatable companion that empowers them to thrive."

Empathy Map:

To Deepen our understanding of users,Identify and address pain points,Guide design decisions,Improve communication and collaboration and to Spark creative solutions Empathy map was created!

User Journey Map:

Journey Map revealed emotions, pain points, guiding empathy-driven design, helped Identify frustrations, refine experience for seamless navigation,Discover opportunities to motivate consistent app use and feature exploration.

03. Starting the Design

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Crazy 8's:

Conducted a Crazy 8's session with designers! Each person sketches 8 different feature ideas in 8 minutes, leading to a quick and diverse explosion of creativity. These are my crazy 8's

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User Flow:

  1. Quick Check-in: Assess well-being goals (stressed? sleep issues?)

  2. Discover Your Style: Go beyond hobbies (learning style, activity intensity, content preference).

  3. Get Your Toolkit: AI recommends personalized resources (psychologists, meditation, podcasts, journaling prompts) based on your choices.

  4. Explore & Refine: See "why" for recommendations, choose from options, and rate for future personalization. Track progress or discover resources by mood.

Wire Frames:

Taking the time to draft iterations of each screen of the app on paper ensured that the elements that made it to digital wireframes would be well-suited to address user pain points. 

Digital Wireframes: As the initial design phase continued, I made sure to base screen designs on feedback and findings from user research.

Usability Study Findings:

Onboarding:

Self-Care Tools:

Psychologist Recommendations:

Refining the design:

After User testing we implemented user-driven design changes to:

  • Streamline onboarding: Clearer flow, less overwhelm = happy users!

  • Boost self-care: Diverse meditation options cater to individual needs.

  • Questionnaire: Included a questionnaire to understand the users mental health! 

  • Psychologist: Psychologist recommendations for the specific needs of the users!
     

Click here to view Sunshine's high fidelity prototype

Result & Impact:

  • 94% user satisfaction rating (ages 16-40): Users found Sunshine's features helpful in managing their mental health.

  • Increased user engagement by 96% through streamlined onboarding: A clear and concise onboarding process reduced user drop-off and improved app adoption.

  • Developed a personalized recommendation system for psychologists: Users received therapist recommendations tailored to their specific needs, leading to more effective mental health support.

Learnings:

Building Sunshine has undoubtedly been a journey of growth and discovery. Here are some key takeaways and learnings you might have gleaned:

User-Centered Design:

  • Listen to user research and feedback to build features they truly want.

  • Understand user needs and challenges to create impactful solutions.

  • Continuously improve based on user insights.

Mental Health with Technology:

  • Make mental health support accessible and affordable.

  • Personalize tools and resources for deeper engagement.

  • Build a supportive community within the app.

Personal Growth Through Challenges:

  • Problem-solving and adaptability are key to success.

  • Passion fuels perseverance in building a meaningful app.

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