Timeline
January - March 2025
12 weeks
Role
UX Researcher, UX Designer, UI Designer
Team
Methods
Competitor Analysis, Survey
Goal
Supporting Humber Students Mental Wellbeing with CIHW
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Many students at Humber Polytechnic face challenges with their mental health and wellness, often unaware of the support services available on campus. In response, the Centre for Innovation in Health & Wellness (CIHW) approached us to research and design an application that could help students.
Research Questions ​​
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What are the current limitations and challenges that students face when dealing with mental health?
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How efficiently are the current apps meeting the needs of students?
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What are the current methods students use to cope with mental health challenges?
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How can these methods be incorporated into an app?
Research
Analyzing the Competitors
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A SWOT Analysis and Heuristic Evaluation was conducted between the top 4 Mental Wellness apps in the current market. From this preliminary research, we were able to identify their main strengths and weaknesses.
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Structure / Layout
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Navigation
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Language Options
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Features
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Marketing
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Accessibility
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Visuals (UI)
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Personalization ​
Our Criteria
Key Findings
Strengths
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Large content libraries with meditation and wellness tools
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Personalization options to tailor user experience
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Affirmations to educate the user on Mental Health
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Streaks to keep users motivated
Weaknesses​
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Limited features without paying a premium
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Lacking a "fun" element to keep users engaged
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Overwhelming content for new users
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Lack of community elements
Discovery
Understanding the Students
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To stay focused on our target audience, we developed a persona that captures their key demographics, behaviours, pain points, and needs.
We then conducted a survey with 130 participants of Humber to gather feedback on the existing mental wellness apps, aiming to identify the most valued features for our proposed app. This allowed us to gain insights into participants’ needs concerning a wellness app.
Discovery
What the Data Shows​
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Data Analysis Report
Design
Sketching: Designing the Interface
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We then began to brainstorm what each interface would display. We decided on 10 main user flows that would guide us through the sketching process.
User Flows
1. Onboarding
2. Homepage
3. Library
4. Explore
5. Community
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6. Guided Meditation
7. Quests & Games
8. User Profile
9. Widgets + Notifications​
10. Settings
Design
Wireframes: From Paper to Digital
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The next step was recreating our initial sketches into low-fidelity wireframes using Figma. Here we conducted early usability testing that allowed us to quickly identify and resolve usability issues before progressing to high-fidelity designs.
Design
Bringing it All to Life: Style Tile & Mid-Fidelity Mockups
To add visual appeal to our design, a style tile was created to get a better look and feel for what the interface would look like.
Introducing
Prototype
Walkthrough
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Onboarding Process
Detailed View
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Key Screens
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Guided Meditation
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Quests & Games
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Notifications & Widgets
Conclusion
Why does this matter?
Value for Humber Students
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Reduced stress and anxiety
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Increased self-awareness and emotional resilience
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Convenient and easier access support
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Reduces the stigma surrounding mental health
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Gives Humber students a safe & trustworthy way to connect & get support!
Value for CIHW/ Humber
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Enhanced student support ecosystem
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Improved reputation
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Valuable research and evaluation tool
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Generate more visibility to the resources Humber has to offer
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Reflecting Back
Key Takeaways
Overall, I enjoyed working through this project with my fellow team members, along with collaborating with a real-life client. I'm really proud of the final outcome, but if I were to approach it again, here are the key takeaways:
​Follow the data, not our own opinions: ​ Keeping our personal bias out of the app also proved to be a challenge. Due to the fact that we are students ourselves, we had some personal feelings about features that we felt should be included However, we kept circulating back to the data to remind ourselves of the features that students really want & need.
Always keep the business in mind: Effective UX requires balancing user needs with clients' goals and project constraints. Understanding the client’s vision while grounding decisions in user research ensures the final design is both functional and feasible.
Next Steps
If MindfulU was approved to be developed, the next steps would involve conducting additional usability testing on the mockups, iterating based on feedback, and continuing to involve stakeholders to ensure alignment and success.
Thanks for reading!
Check out other work below
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