Overview

Marvin, a startup under Harvard Innovation Labs, was founded to reimagine the one-size-fits-all approach to telemental health care. After (5) 1:1 interviews with target customers, a competitive review, and a literature review I was able to identify best practices and peer-reviewed research on guidance for the subject area.

In collaboration with a PM, I redesigned the complete patient journey, aligning to business goals, tech requirements and user needs.

Problem

The existing process to schedule was time consuming and cumbersome - with patients emailing back and forth with Marvin staff to coordinate their sessions. Once scheduled, joining and completing sessions was described as "uncomfortable," "confusing," and "stressful."

The existing process to schedule was time consuming and cumbersome - with patients emailing back and forth with Marvin staff to coordinate their sessions. Once scheduled, joining and completing sessions was described as "uncomfortable," "confusing," and "stressful."

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Solution

Marvin's redesigned experience offers more intuitive interactions and allows for more flexibility and support for those accessing care, and reduces time to perform common tasks.

Part 1: literature review

I dedicated around a week to this part. Not a whole lot of time, but I worked efficiently and diligently, reading peer-reviewed literature, articles from organizations such as The American Psychiatric Association, and other online sources like UX Collective. What I wanted to learn:

• What are the best practices for design in the telemental health space?
• What are the known gaps?
• What are the current design patterns for 1:1 video calls with a client and therapist?
• What do users want and need?

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Part 2: competitor review

I worked with the PM to define a short list of competitors; both direct (TalkSpace, Teladoc, Betterhelp, and Zoom) and indirect (Psychology Today and Alcoholics Anonymous). I scoped my review to the following criteria:

• What are common, thereby “expected” video features? What stands out?
• What are their strengths and weaknesses (referencing learnings from my earlier literature review and knowledge of design best practices)

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Part 3: talking to (patient) users

I created a quick research plan to define recruitment, scope and interview questions. In the end I was able to meet with 5 people for semi-structured interviews, where I learned:

• People want to feel prepared for appointments.
• Abruptly joining a video call was stressful, especially if they didn't know what to expect / anything about their therapist in advance.
• People have busy lives, so the booking process needs to be efficient. Takes them too much time to find and book a slot that fits with their schedule? Flow abandoned. 
• People are often on the go and love the flexibility this type of care allows.
• To ensure they wouldn't forget about the appointment, some manually set up appointment reminders in their calendar. 
• Some went a step further and scheduled a "transition period" to help move from "work brain" to "getting help." When probing, I learned folks used a variety of activities that helped them in this "transition."

A simple and efficient scheduling flow.

I designed a new scheduling flow to differentiate Marvin from the current landscape, while following best practices in design and health care.

A simple process to find and select a therapist

This new flow allowed patients to find therapists and learn more about them. I was unable to include more advanced search and filter options due to limited tech resources and time for this MVP.

More comfortable video interactions

I worked on micro and macro interactions to create a more mindful and seamless transition into a video session for patients.