Mindler - increasing use of app exercises during psychological treatment
UX, UI
Mindler is Sweden’s largest digital psychology provider, where patients mix video calls with a psychologist and iCBT (Internet Cognitive Behavioural Therapy) programs in the app during their treatment. In the past, iCBT programs were only verbally recommended by psychologists to patients in video meetings, making it difficult for patient’s to find and complete the correct iCBT program.
The ask: increase iCBT program usage by giving patients a clear list of assigned programs from their psychologist.
My role: Lead designer in entire design process, from discovery to implementation in both the psychologist workspace, Mindler Care, and our patient-facing app.
The team: 2 product designers, product manager, 2 psychologists, 2 content writers and 3 developers.
Defining needs of psychologists in assigning programs to patients
The project affected 2 of our products: assigning programs from the psychologist’s workspace, Mindler Care, and how these assigned programs display for patients in the app. I began by discussing with 2 psychologists to understand their key needs for assigning iCBT programs.
As a psychologist, I would like to:
Assign iCBT programs that patients can easily view in the app.
View order in which I have assigned programs to patients.
View patient progress in all assigned programs and even which programs they explore on their own.
Clearly view patients most recent progress before next meeting.
Wireframes to explore how psychologists might find, select, and send programs to patients
During the discovery phase of the project, I used rapid wireframing to identify different ways in which the assign feature could be implemented. Exploring a range of complexities in scope, from reusing components currently within Mindler Care to introducing new selection methods.
Areas of interest for initial sketching:
Identify where assignment action most intuitive for psychologists.
Hierarchy of displaying iCBT content types - Treatment, Programs, Stand-alone programs.
Multi-selection UX.
Preview of program content during selection.
Patient progress.
Workshares with stakeholders to define future vision vs. MVP release
In order to build a sustainable MVP release of the feature, the discovery phase of the project included a wide range of explorations of what treatment with iCBT programs could be at Mindler in the future. Wireframes as a tool to define core needs of the feature vs. nice to have functionalities for the future.
This co-creation period of the project helped us better understand the needs of psychologists, iterating the design to align on key requirements.
Sample workshare amongst stakeholders, iterating on 3 tracks to align on core vs. future functionalities
Final Design - Limiting scope by focusing on core functionality of multi-select assigning & a simple list view
The first release of assigning iCBT introduced a new modal with a 3 column layout to separate full treatments from their individual programs and allow previewing program content. Introducing a preview of each program as psychologists select programs solved a major pain point of psychologists lack of familiarity of all iCBT programs, empowering them to feel confident in assigning patients the correct program.
The patient assignment list shows the order in which psychologist’s have assigned programs, recent patient progress reinforced by status dots and blue highlight in the list item. This helps psychologists see which programs patients have been worked on since the last meeting, even if the progress was made out of the original assignment order.
To give psychologists more visual cues of which programs they might want to discuss with patients, a progress bar and checkmark icon help quickly communicate patient progress. The checkmark icon color indicates if program completely since last meeting or a past completion.
Exploring how assigned iCBT programs appear to patients in the app
After defining the UX of how psychologists assign programs, we explored how these programs would appear to patients. We focused on clearly presenting assigned iCBT programs to avoid overwhelming patients, especially when multiple programs are assigned at once.
How might we statements to help discovery phase of the project:
How might we bring clarity to which program to read next?
How might we nudge users to complete iCBT programs between video calls?
How might we educate users of reading pace?
How might we allow user to quickly access latest iCBT program?
Past design: emphasized patient discovery of iCBT programs and list of progress but lacked functionality to view programs recommended by their psychologist.
Refining the hierarchy of assigned programs & enabling users to quickly return to recent activity
Exploring ways in which we can chunk information on the page and discussing with stakeholders how the design might impact the workflow between psychologists and patients.
Iterations compared UX of assigned programs:
Grouped by patient progress, “To Do” vs. “Completed” sections.
Simple list view where completions sort to bottom of list.
Numbered list according to order of assignment by psychologist.
Timeline graphic to imply order of completion & communicate progress made.
Crash testing possible solutions in new user flow to compare design routes
After initial sketches and several stakeholder workshares I tested the design in our new user flow. Testing how users exploring iCBT before first meeting would affect receiving their first assignment from a psychologist, where we can nudge users to complete programs and how we might insure order of list view is same as psychologists view in Mindler Care.
Sample wireframe flow, testing first assignment vs. users deeper into treatment with many iCBT program assignments.
Final Design - A new “To do” list for patients’ iCBT assignments
A card on the app’s homepage when a patient is assigned new program from their psychologist.
New “To do” tab in the iCBT page, making clear to users all recommended programs from their psychologist.
Timeline design displays the patient’s assignment list, showing programs in the order assigned by their psychologist and providing an overview of which programs are new, in progress or completed.
Nudge user to complete readings via orange label and status dot when assignments not started, a progress bar and play icon for easy continuation where they left off and a timestamp showing when each program was assigned.
Timeline states
RIP certain features that were cut for scope reasons. Ex. “Continue where you left off” card at top of page.
97.7% of psychologists responded in a survey that assign feature was very useful
“More patients do their homework and appreciate not having to search for the program they should work with or read the wrong program.”
“Love the function, makes it easier for both the patient and the psychologist. Less time is spent guiding the patient in the app.”
“A fantastic function that has greatly facilitated my work and I feel that my patients become more motivated.”
Final thoughts & personal learnings
Some of my biggest learnings during the project include:
Knowledge sharing & anchoring decisions in cross-departmental group of psychologists, content writers, product manager, developers and designers allowed for more sound decision making based on group understanding of iCBT pain points & opportunities.
More leverage when cross departmental co-creators. From creating a more sound design solution approved by wider group to promoting adoption of assign iCBT feature. Simultaneous projects supporting same goal helps increase probability of desired change — Ex. Who owns educating psychologists of new feature?
Investing time in longer projects pays off in the end. Looking at the bigger picture & giving us time for research, exploring a new behavior of assigning iCBT & defining first iteration to meet needs of psychologists & patients.