BuddySystem: Tackling the Mental Health of College Students

Overview

My team in SMAD 317 was tasked with going through the entire UX process, from interviews to high-fidelity prototypes, with our chosen app idea. BuddySystem is an app targeted towards college students and provides opportunities to connect with others and access to other mental health resources/solutions.

The Process

1

Discover

User Research, Problem Statement, Competitive Analysis, User Interviews, Personas, User Journey Maps

2

Ideate

Design Requirements, NUF Testing, Low-Fidelity Prototype

3

Test + Outcome

Usability Testing, Design Recommendation, Conclusion

The Problem

Our team aimed to create a mobile app, BuddySystem, that aids students in their mental health journey with an emphasis on creating connections and support. 

As college students ourselves, we experienced this firsthand and also noticed the need for virtual mental health aid. While there are many apps already that are targeted towards mental health issues, there isn’t an app that is well-rounded and focused on college students. 

We then came up with our problem statement: College students who struggle with mental health need to have an easily accessible way to take care of their mental health, especially during the middle of the semester, because there’s been a rise in mental health problems and there need to be solutions, taking in account the entire college experience.

User Interviews

After synthesizing data gathered from user interviews, we used a closed sorting method with the following categories that describe our user behaviors:

• Frustrations in their mental health journey and in their daily lives 

• Stressors that cause low mental health 

• Coping mechanisms, either positive or negative 

• Insightful findings that include users’ own thoughts on the topic, or other important information that pertained to their experience 

• Symptoms that they felt, whether it be physical or mental

Many users faced similar frustrations such as the lack academic motivation, burnout, and anxiety.

Reviewing our findings helped us understand what solutions needed to be implemented into our app

Primary Persona

Jack Stevens

“I know I can do the work properly, so why do I keep doubting myself all the time?”

Demographics:

Age: 22

Occupation: University Student

Family: Single

Location: Orlando, FL

Goals:

  • Keep up with schoolwork

  • Get marketing degree

  • Stay optimistic

Frustrations:

  • Lack of academic motivation

  • Procrastination

  • Doubting ability to finish assignments

Needs:

  • To be calm in stressful situations

  • A service to help with motivation

  • A solution for his inability to focus

High-Fidelity Prototype

Example Task: Creating a Profile

Usability Testing Highlights

Interesting Qualitative Findings:

Min Marquez: Min enjoyed the application and it functions. However, they did notice that user input was lacking when trying to create a profile, and also wanted to see more options during the screening survey. Overall, Min didn’t have many issues with the tasks besides wanting to see more options and fine tuning the design.

Caitlyn Lewellen: Caitlyn easily navigated through the tasks and only got confused when setting a timeless schedule because she was instructed incorrectly on what to write. She like the app idea and felt that it catered towards her needs as a college student.

Thanks for reading!