2% of kids with a mental health condition receive evidence-based care for it
The Project
Our new client—a child psychologist, researcher, and entrepreneur-by-necessity—was walking us through the current state of child mental health, and I couldn’t believe what I was hearing: “About 2% of children with a mental health condition receive evidence-based care.” Between lack of screening, abysmal access, and outdated training, child mental health is truly in crisis.
Our client wanted to tackle this ambitious problem. In order to have an impact with a lean MVP, we would need to wade into medical privacy rules, ethical responsibilities, and the bridging of experience across disparate technical systems. Needless to say, I was excited.
My Role: As the design lead, I provided experience strategy guidance; collaborated with and oversaw a visual designer; partnered closely with strategy, insights, and development; and provided UX production work.
Skills Used: Design strategy, information architecture, wireframing, process flows, rapid prototyping
Duration: 6 months
Consent, Privacy, and So Many Process Flows
Parents’ rights to access their children’s medical information are generally simple for young children but can be quite complicated for teens. We knew we needed to give teens the option of privacy to protect their rights and to get honest responses to share with their doctors.
We went through multiple rounds of process flows, first with simple boxes and arrows and then with wireframes. To keep development complexity down, I leaned heavily on modularity to ensure as many pieces as possible were reusable across audience types.
Please Assess Responsibly
“When you design the ship you also design the shipwreck” is never truer than in child mental health. We felt that responsibility in several areas: How would the interface handle parents who didn’t recognize their child’s gender identity? How do we inform without giving the illusion of a diagnosis? What if we provide too much information in the absence of a supportive, knowledgeable human expert? What if we don’t provide enough?
Ultimately, these questions came down to testing, expert input, and a careful rollout. For MVP, I also focused on simplifying workflows to reduce the risk of unforeseen consequences.
The Good, the Bad, the iFrame
A crucial piece of the experience—the assessment—was built on a 3rd-party survey platform. The survey logic was extremely complex and couldn’t be rebuilt before MVP launch.
At the same time, we were asking for deeply personal information, so trust was at a premium. It couldn’t just be secure; it had to feel secure as well.
I knew this was a key place to focus our limited resources. Instead of linking out and back, we used an iframe to bring the assessment within the experience. To ensure it was seamless, I coordinated a visual designer, our development team, and the survey vendor to precisely match the site’s look and feel.