Heal the Healers:

A web app design to support mental health for medical professionals

My Role:

  • UX Research: screener survey, user interview, market research, testing & feedback

  • UI Design: wireframe, style guide, UI iterations

  • Project Management

Time: 2.5 Weeks

Team: 3 UX Designers

Problem

Did you know depression, burnout and suicide occur at higher rates in the medical profession?

Physicians are twice as likely to suffer from depression and anxiety compared to non-physicians. However, due to the stigma of mental health issues in the medical field, medical professionals face additional barriers in addressing their own mental wellbeing needs.

Medical professionals need to a solution to attend to their mental well-being and receive support without repercussion caused by the mental health stigma in the medical field.

Solution

A web application that creates a safe space for medical professionals to discuss the “taboo” topics, foster connection, and feel seen.

We created MedSpace, a web application exclusively for medical professionals, to meet 3 major needs.

1

A community focusing on mental wellbeing exclusively for medical professionals

Community groups for posting and comments, a variety of community options based on user needs

3

An anonymous setting and a safe space to share thoughts and feelings

Anonymous identity, personalized avatars instead of real pictures, options to use tags to share relevant identity and interest information

Curated resources on mental wellbeing focusing on medical professionals

Access to content including videos and articles catered to unique mental well-being issues in the medical field

2

Background & Goals

Process

https://docur.my.canva.site

We were a team of three and took 9 key steps to complete this design sprint

There is an opportunity to provide a web app that directly serves medical professionals.

This project is about creating a web application to support Doctors Under the Radar, an organization which is committed to improve mental health of medical professionals and eliminate stigmas in the workplace. The goal of this 2.5-week UX Design sprint is to develop a prototype for a web application which focuses on increasing awareness and practices of mental well-being among medical professionals. 

This project is completed by me and two other designers, Khayla Jones and Julia Frey. I devised a game plan with a detailed timeline and task ownership to keep ourselves organized and efficient, which was well received by the team.

“In the surgical field, everyone is expected to be tough and work hard. You don’t want to appear as you are complaining.”

— Surgeon

User Interview

Talking to someone who understands is an effective way to cope with mental well-being challenges.

I had reservations about the response rate for the screener survey, given the demanding nature of medical professionals' lives. To overcome this challenge, we proactively leveraged our personal networks to arrange interviews. We were able to talk to 15 medical professionals, including:

I designed the interview guide which includes these key questions:

  1. What are your thoughts on whether people in the medical field share their mental well-being with others?

  2. Can you tell me about a difficult experience or a time when you struggled with your mental well-being?

  3. Can you tell me how you share your mental well-being/health status with family & friends?  What about with coworker or employers?

  4. What type of conditions make you feel comfortable being vulnerable and sharing your personal struggles?

  5. Do you use or know any resources for mental health? If yes, what are they and why do you find them beneficial?

Interview Takeaways

  • All participants feel comfortable sharing their struggles with mental well-being with someone but this person has to be trust-worthy and empathetic, preferably understanding the specific challenges for medical professionals.

  • There were general concerns around sharing mental well-being struggles such as burnouts with coworkers or supervisors due to a variety of reasons: unhealthy work culture, potential backlash, and appearing as incompetent and complaining.

  • Most participants prefer discussing mental-wellbeing issues in a more private setting such as a 1:1 meeting. They are open to share in a bigger, more public forum if it is anonymous.

  • All participants have their ways to manage mental well-being: talking to someone, therapy, mediation, and exercise. However, when the challenge takes place at work, most choose to push through since there is no time to process feelings.

  • Most participants pointed out the most needed change to improve their mental well-being is to have more reasonable workload and schedules.

Competitive Analysis

A plethora of mental wellbeing applications but no solution dedicated to serve medical professionals

I performed a competitor analysis to gain insights into the mental well-being application landscape. While we did not find any platform exclusively catering to medical professionals' mental well-being, we examined popular mental health applications and a resource platform/forum for medical students (based on a suggestion from one of our interviewees).

Competitor Analysis on Mental Health Applications

Competitor Analysis on Mental Health Applications and Resources for Medical Professionals

Competitive Analysis Takeaways

  • There is no mental well-being application focused on the needs of medical professionals.

  • Popular applications such as Better Help (online therapy) and Headspace (guided meditation) do a good job at meeting the users’ needs and capture large market share in their domains.

  • We noticed users ask for advice regarding mental health on Student Doctor while it is mainly an academic resources platform. One of our interviewees also shared she uses Reddit and Facebook Groups to seek advice.

Instead of competing against the plethora applications on therapy and meditation, we believed we should bring unique value to our users. Based on our research, medical professionals need catered solution for their mental-welling due to:

  • Demanding nature of medical work with long hours, intense workload, and low tolerance for mistakes

  • Emotional exhaustion from constantly handling high-stress and even life-and-death situations

  • Compounded mental-health stigma - As medical professionals who are expected to save others, their own mental health issues are often deprioritized or seen as a threat to their professional competence

Limitation

An application cannot solve the fundamental issues with the medical system.

We acknowledged that the fundamental solution to enhancing mental well-being for medical professionals likely necessitates a comprehensive overhaul of the existing medical system. Nonetheless, we believed there were still opportunities for us to develop a solution that supports medical professionals in managing their mental health and fostering a resilient mindset.

Design Direction & Design Studio

MedSpace Sitemap

Site Map

Design Studio Ideas & Team Feedback

We focused on 4 major features: communities, direct messages, mental-health videos, and resources

I created user flows to outline how users will complete these 3 actions: sign up, join a community, and message other users.

How might we fill the gaps between available solutions and the mental well-being needs of medical professionals?

Based on our research, we believed it is important to provide a platform for medical professionals to:

  • Have a venue to safely share their thoughts and feelings

  • Seek advice and support from other medical professionals who may have similar challenges

  • Have conversations with a broader community on mental health and raise awareness

  • Find resources catered to medical professionals

With these ideas in mind, I facilitated a design studio session among the team to generate ideas. We created paper sketches and uploaded them to Miro and gave feedback to each other.

Once we aligned on the features we want to include on MedSpace, I created a sitemap to outline the high-level information architecture:

  • Communities: Medical professionals can explore and join different groups that they feel related to. Within each community, they can create posts and comment. 

  • BreakRoom: This virtual space for direct message and live chats mimics the break room in real life where medical professionals can take a break and chat with their fellow practitioners.

  • MedTalk: TedTalk quality videos exclusive on MedSpace. Here, experts talk about all things related to mental wellbeing for medical professionals.

  • Resources: Curated content and resources for medical professionals.

User Flow

Style Guide

We used blue to invoke the feeling of calm and used orange as highlights to sprinkle moments of positivity and energy.

We chose the colors and typography based on research on color theory and accessibility.

Since medical professionals prefer to be anonymous to feel safe online, instead of using real names and photos, they can create a user name and choose an avatar to represent themselves. The cartoon avatar also serves as a tool to make MedSpace more personable and friendly.

“I would use this app if it exists! I love that it is simple and straight to the point!”

— Physician Assistant

User Testing

Both testing participants thought the features offered by MedSpace were useful and were excited about its potentials!

Round 1 | Low-Fidelity Wireframes

Objective: Collect feedback on features and layout before moving to higher fidelity

User: Occupation Therapist (Participated in User Interview)

While we had very limited time to develop the wireframes, I believed it was important to collect user feedback before moving to hi-fi design. Luckily, I was able to work with an interview participant which allowed me to get direct feedback from a medical professional. I showed the wireframes to the user and asked her some questions to see if the features are clear and useful and if the design is user friendly.

Round 2 | High-Fidelity Prototype

Objective: Collect feedback on the high-fidelity prototype and identify next steps

User: Physician Assistant

Julia and I facilitated the usability test in Figma. The user was able to navigate MedSpace and understand how to use the different features. We identified some improvement areas based on her reactions and feedback. A few things to update:

  1. Add an “About Us” section to explain our mission and values

  2. Add more options for mental well-being issues during profile setup 

  3. Add “Location” as another category for users to browse communities

Overall, this user was excited about MedSpace and said, “I would use this app if it exists! I love that it is simple and straight to the point!”

Wireframes & Prototype

Check out the final wireframes and prototype of MedSpace!

  • MedSpace Home

  • My Communities

  • Community Posts

  • BreakRoom Messages

MedSpace New User Onboarding

MedSpace Main Screens

Reflection

What went well:

  • Khayla, Julia and I leveraged each other’s strengths and collaborated effectively. We provided each other constructive feedback and built upon each other’s work.

  • We made research-based design decisions with the obsession of providing the best possible experience for medical professionals.

What I learnt and what I wish I had done differently:

  • Asking good questions is difficult! I realized some of our interview questions were overly focused on our hypothesis, potentially introducing bias. Moving forward, I will continue to work on designing user interviews that yield valuable insights centered around the problem we aim to solve, while maintaining a holistic understanding of our users.

  • Take time to prioritize the type of device with which to start the product design. While we jumped into developing a web app solution due to the project requirement, in retrospect, we could have considered starting with the mobile version to cater to busy medical professionals who may prefer the on-the-go accessibility.