If you'd like to hear more about any projects or if you think I'd be a good fit for your team, please reach out - I am always up for a good natter!
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Encouraging positive mental health habits in children affected by the war
The war in Ukraine has impacted over 7.5 million children. Faced with trauma created by violence, displacement, and separation from their loved ones, these children may develop mental health issues, such as PTSD, depression, and anxiety.
The A Part of Me mental health charity responded to this by developing Nadiya, a therapeutic game for children and parents to play together.
Designed in collaboration with clinicians, it aims to give families the tools to strengthen their bond, navigate difficult times and feel less alone by completing proven therapeutic exercises, playfully modified for the digital world.
When I joined, an MVP had just been released and I was tasked with creating a Phase 2 proposal to increase engagement, retention and habitual stickiness.
My role: UX Consultant
Team: 6 volunteer UX Designers
Timeline: 3 hours per week from Sept 22 - Dec 23
Problem
The average app retention rate is 25.3% on day 1 and 5.7% by day 30, however Nadiya’s retention rate is much lower at 11% on day 1 and 0.9% by day 30. Users coming back to interact with the activities is essential for the therapeutic efficacy.
Furthermore, informal testing showed the game mechanic was confusing and convoluted. It involved charms, potion, plants and many layers of complexity, which could explain why 99.9% of users didn’t complete all 14 of the daily activities.
Hypothesis: By improving and simplifying the Nadiya's game mechanic, we will help our users create healthy habits and make return visits, in turn increasing the efficacy of the product.
Impact
Through strong UX process, I created a simplified game mechanic that is based on research insights and co-design workshops.
It includes clear immediate and longer term objectives, a simple reward system, push notifications, progress indicators, and education around complex emotions in a fun and engaging way.
Our process highlighted to the charity the importance of early research and understanding your users and problem spaces.
The desk research uncovered a cultural stigma around mental health, opening up conversation about how to position the product in a more culturally appropriate way.
The prototypes effectively illustrated what could be done with extra resource and the charity was excited about phase 2.
Unfortunately, the project got paused as the charity’s limited resources needed to be focused elsewhere. Whilst this was disappointing, I knew it was better than continuing without the necessary insight.
If I had continued my process, I am confident my improvements would yield strong results and have a profound impact on children suffering from trauma as a result of the war.
Challenges
Nadiya was designed and built very quickly to meet the need. This meant very little testing or research went into the app resulting in a real lack of understanding of users. This made my role as a user-centred designer much harder.
With a full time job at the BBC I was only able to spare three hours per week to volunteer on Nadiya. I changed my working pattern to ensure I could have more solid hours of focus time to really get into the challenge.
Nadiya was designed and built very quickly to meet the need. This meant very little testing or research was done resulting in a real lack of understanding of our users. This made my role as a user-centred designer much harder.
With a full time job at the BBC I was only able to spare three hours per week to volunteer on Nadiya. I changed my working pattern to ensure I could have more solid hours of focus time to really get into the challenge.
Process
With no funding to carry out user research, I conducted desk research in an attempt to fill some gaps. I reviewed scholarly articles about effective behaviour change techniques, habit forming, gamification, and cultural differences.
Conducted an in depth competitor analysis to assess how other successful mental health apps were using gamification to encourage habit forming.
Completed training to become more trauma informed and helped define some product based trauma informed principles.
Understanding
Making decisions
Ideation
Prototyping
Develop
Testing
Analysed outcomes of co-design workshops, run with children & Ukrainian families, and formed tangible insights that could be used for rapid ideation.
Created advanced animated prototypes and worked with a graphic designer to make my ideas come to life in a way that aligned with the visual language of the app.
Documented my findings and recommendations in a succinct way and presented this to senior trustees, including next steps such as testing and iteration.
Encouraging positive mental health habits in children affected by the war
App
Gamification
The war in Ukraine has impacted over 7.5 million children. Faced with trauma created by violence, displacement, and separation from their loved ones, these children may develop mental health issues, such as PTSD, depression, and anxiety.
The A Part of Me mental health charity responded to this by developing Nadiya, a therapeutic game for children and parents to play together.
Designed in collaboration with clinicians, it aims to give families the tools to strengthen their bond, navigate difficult times and feel less alone by completing proven therapeutic exercises, playfully modified for the digital world.
When I joined, an MVP had just been released and I was tasked with creating a Phase 2 proposal to increase engagement, retention and habitual stickiness.
My role: Lead UX Designer
Team: UX, Product, Engineering, Research, Editorial & Data
Timeline: Q2 2023 - Q1 2024
When I joined an MVP app had just been released however the data showed it was not performing well
Problem
The average app retention rate is 25.3% on day 1 and 5.7% by day 30, however Nadiya’s retention rate is much lower at 11% on day 1 and 0.9% by day 30. Users coming back to interact with the activities is essential for the therapeutic efficacy.
Furthermore, informal testing showed the game mechanic was confusing and convoluted. It involved charms, potion, plants and many layers of complexity, which could explain why 99.9% of users didn’t complete all 14 of the daily activities.
Hypothesis: By improving and simplifying the Nadiya's game mechanic, we will help our users create healthy habits and make return visits, in turn increasing the efficacy of the product.
Challenges
Nadiya was designed and built very quickly to meet the need. This meant very little testing or research was done resulting in a real lack of understanding of our users. This made my role as a user-centred designer much harder.
With a full time job at the BBC I was only able to spare three hours per week to volunteer on Nadiya. I changed my working pattern to ensure I could have more solid hours of focus time to really get into the challenge.
My calendar did not afford me a lot of uninterrupted concentration time to volunteer on Nadiya
Process
With no funding to carry out user research, I conducted desk research in an attempt to fill some gaps. I reviewed scholarly articles about effective behaviour change techniques, habit forming, gamification, and cultural differences.
Conducted an in depth competitor analysis to assess how other successful mental health apps were using gamification for habit forming.
Completed training to become more trauma informed and helped define product based trauma informed principles.
My research highlighted behaviour change techniques I should include to increase engagement e.g reminders
Analysed outcomes of co-design workshops, run with children & Ukrainian families and formed tangible insights that could be used for rapid ideation.
Created advanced animated prototypes and worked with a graphic designer to make my ideas come to life in a way that aligned with the visual language of the app.
Documented my findings and recommendations in a succinct way and presented this to senior trustees, including next steps such as testing and iteration.
I worked with a graphic designer to create a progress map and new characters such as the Anger Spirit
Impact
Through strong UX process, I created a simplified game mechanic that is based on research insights and co-design workshops.
It includes clear immediate and longer term objectives, a simple reward system, push notifications, progress indicators, and education around complex emotions in a fun and engaging way.
Our process highlighted to the charity the importance of early research and understanding your users and problem spaces.
The desk research uncovered a cultural stigma around mental health, opening up conversation about how to position the product in a more culturally appropriate way.
The prototypes effectively illustrated what could be done with extra resource and the charity was excited about phase 2.
Unfortunately, the project got paused as the charity’s limited resources needed to be focused elsewhere. Whilst this was disappointing, I knew it was better than continuing without the necessary insight.
If I had continued my process, I am confident my improvements would yield strong results and have a profound impact on children suffering from trauma as a result of the war.
This project highlighted that the UX process is rarely linear and taught me to stay flexible and reactive
Let's chat
Made by Sara Lowry using Framer
If you'd like to hear more about any project or if you think I'd be a good fit for your team, please reach out - I am always up for a good natter!
More projects
Design system
End-to-end
Web
Responsive design
App & Web
Personalisation
App
Gamification
When I joined an MVP app had just been released however the data showed it was not performing well
My calendar did not afford me a lot of uninterrupted concentration time to volunteer on Nadiya
My research highlighted behaviour change techniques I should include to increase engagement e.g reminders
I worked with a graphic designer to create a progress map and new characters such as the Anger Spirit
This project highlighted that the UX process is rarely linear and taught me to stay flexible and reactive