DYM Clinic

DYM Clinic is a privately held life-coaching and therapy business in California's San Francisco Bay Area. DYM Clinic provides personalized and collaborative care and intervention programs that meets kids where they are and helps them and their families navigate their mental and behavioral health.

Project Overview

Challenge

When my sister and I founded DYM Clinic, we chose to focus on providing life coaching with therapy to a small client base that would grow through word of mouth. There has been an increase in demand for our services and we need to build a responsive website that can help us scale and expand. We also need to create a logo with brand guidelines.

Solutions

  • Deliver a robust, responsive website to bring DYM Clinic up to par with its competitors
  • Build upon our knowledge of user needs to create an intuitive, seamless experience
  • Create a logo and brand guidelines

Outcomes

  • Became a recommended provider for a nationally recognized company with youth treatment centers across California
  • Increased clients by 10 fold and grew staff

Role

UX, UI Designer

Task

Create a logo with brand guidelines and build a responsive website

Tools

Competitor Analysis, Personas, Interviews, Variables Map, Venn Diagram, Features Matrix, Card Sorting, Site Map, Task Flow, User Flow, Wire Frames, UI Kit, Usability Testing

My Process

Empathize

>

Define

>

Ideate

>

Prototype

>

Test

Empathize

Research

Research Objectives

Through quantitative and qualitative research methods (ie market research, competitive analysis and user interviews), I set out to gain a deeper understanding of the virtual behavioral and mental health services industry.

  • Understand the market trends of the virtual behavioral and mental health industry
  • Identify DYM's competitors and evaluate strengths and weaknesses
  • Identify key user pain points and the white space for DYM in the current market

Market Research

I started with a market analysis to gain a general understanding of the virtual behavioral and mental health market.

Note: There is limited research on how people search for and find virtual behavioral and mental health services. Therefore, I decided to use research about general local business discovery since our aim is to develop a hybrid model. My assumption is that potential clients will rely upon their general business inquiry search skills when searching for mental health support (eg reading reviews, adding "near me" to their search, etc.).

Market Trends

  • Most states are experiencing severe shortages among mental health practitioners. For example, many have between 1 and 17 psychiatrists per 100,000 children
  • Nearly four in ten Americans (38%) have used telehealth services to meet with a medical or mental health professional
  • The ASPE report found that the share of Medicare visits conducted through telehealth in 2020 increased 63-fold, from approximately 840,000 in 2019 to 52.7 million
  • The Consolidated Appropriations Act of 2021 seeks to permanently eliminate geographic barriers and allowing patients in their homes to access telehealth services

Consumer Trends

  • Age and poverty level affected the likelihood of children receiving treatment for mental and behavioral health issues
  • Among high school students in 2019, more than 1 in 3 (36.7%) reported feeling sad or hopeless, and nearly 1 in 5 (18.8%) seriously considered attempting suicide
  • Younger adults were more likely to say they would use telehealth for mental health services
  • Similar percentages of Blacks, Hispanics and whites said they would use telehealth services for mental healthcare
  • Most prefer telehealth through a video format as opposed to phone calls only.
  • Close to 50% believe telehealth services can offer the same quality care as in-person services
  • Nearly 60% state that they would be open to using telehealth services for mental healthcare

Local Business Discovery

  • Studies show that between 70-80% of people research a company online before visiitng the small business or making a purchase with them
  • 97% of consumers go online to find a local service
  • Nearly 85% value online reviews as equal to personal recommendations
  • Over 60% of people using a mobile device to search are more likely to contact a local business if they have a mobile-friendly site
  • 75% of people have judged a company's credibility based on its website design

Competitor Analysis

In order to understand my competitors strengths and weaknesses, I analyzed their business architecture and environmental context. I rounded out my analysis using the Five Planes method to better understand their market positioning and online identity.

Business Capabilities

Through my assessment of competitive capabilities, I learned that some focus solely on children while others include the entire family. The organizations that also provide support to families have a higher success rate, but require a more complex structure. See below.

Value Streams

I assessed the business value streams to figure out how competitors deliver value to their stakeholders. I learned from the initial login it only takes on average fives steps for a client to meet with a provider.

Organizational Alignment

In the tele-therapy space, there are a number of stakeholders involved at various degrees of distance from the company. This helped me to understand the ecosystem DYM would need to effectively manage.

Informational Concepts

Assessing the common terminology used across the industry provides DYM with an easier entrance. Below is a partial information map for one of the competitors


The terms above can also be visualized in a diagram which highlights the relationships between the concepts outlined.

Environmental Analysis

My environmental analysis highlighted the importance of going virtual. It is not enough though to just go virtual, the most successful competitors focus on inclusivity and affordability.

After gaining this insight into the companies, I was able to use the five planes of UX experience to research their websites and understand why and how their websites were structured the way they were.  

SWOT


Opportunities for tele-health services exist for those who remain agile and adapt and respond to the shifting user needs. DYM is uniquely positioned to deliver more services through a hybrid and affordable model.

Provisional Personas

Based on DYM's target market and my initial research findings, I created three provisional personas. This helped me identify people who might be ideal interview subjects and consider how I might frame my interview questions.

Nancy & Drew

Ruth

Jeanine

Generation X (45-64 yrs); Parents

Baby Boomer (56-76 yrs); Grandparent

Millenial (32-44 yrs); Single Parent

Goals

Goals

Goals

Wants outside help for teen

Wants to find a service to recommend

Find a service that fits schedule

Wants to learn more about life coaching

Prefers in-person sessions

Prefers hybrid approach

Interested in tele health

Establish more calmness in life

Find support that compliments therapy

Pain Points

Pain Points

Pain Points

No references for life coaching

No decision making authority

Busy schedule / in-person sessions are not always possible

Limited time for self care

Limited experience navigating digital experiences

Work related pressures affect familial relationships

Interviews

To better understand the pain points and goals of those who use virtual behavioral health services and to test a few of my assumptions, I developed a script and conducted user interviews with participants who fell within my provisional personas. I recruited my interviewees through social media. My interviews were semi-structured with open-ended questions. During the interviews, I recorded the audio and took notes.

Interview Goals

  • Identify key user pain points and user journeys
  • Understand the white space for DYM in the current market

Hypothesis

  • Users heavily rely on recommendations and reviews.
  • Users prefer the flexibility of a hybrid approach over purely remote or in-person.
  • Users prefer to research primarily on their mobile devices.

Notable Interview Quotes

"Wow! They look like they know their stuff, but it's a little too much for me. I'm confused and I'm only on the home page."

.          .          .

"I feel stressed when I think about this and I don't need it to add anything else. I just need it to get me what I want."

.          .          .

"This seems more affordable and I like the fact that it's discrete and I can have her (daughter) go to therapy without people noticing she's leaving the house, asking where she's going. It can just be her in her room."

.          .          .

"I prefer to research with my computer because it makes things more manageable."

.          .          .

Takeaways

Pain Points

Strong Trends

Surprises

Insights

Clients find it frustrating when they have to weed through a bunch of information to find what they are looking for.

Users appreciate the ease of booking informational reservations

Users prefer to research on a computer. They don't like navigating a small screen and want side by side comparisons.

Clients expect a high level of convenience and personalization in their research experience.

Many users are reminded of the stress of their situation when browsing a site and need help staying regulated in order to make the best selection for them.

Users appreciate features that allow them to drill down quickly as they browse and search.

Some clients prefer to book informational interviews first without doing any research online first.

Clients want to see a provider's values show up across all points of connection.

Variables Map

I transcribed the interviews and formatted the responses in an interview synthesis table, which allowed me to more easily see my notes for each user's responses side-by-side. I flagged repeating or conflicting themes or patterns and included them in a variables map, which can be found below.

Note: The displayed variable map is a partial copy.

User Personas

Irene is the target persona that emerged from my research findings. Irene has her plate full with family and professional obligations, and time is in short supply for her. While Irene enjoys the benefits that come from reading the latest findings on behavioral health and the internet mom space, she most values an experience for her family that leaves room for all of her obligations.

Empathy Map

Finding the right behavioral health service for your family can be highly emotional. Those I interviewed expressed a range of feelings from anxiety and desperation to relief because they finally decided to take action. There was a strong desire to feel confident about finding the right support for their families.



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This empathy map informed the final portion of my "How Might We" (HMW) statement below:

"How might we build online content that enables Irene to quickly find and select support while feeling confident about her selection?"

Define

Project Goals

In order to define my project goal, I assessed the intersection of goals between DYM, its users and technical requirements.  

Defining and Prioritizing Features

The below features matrix utilized my research and project goal to prioritize what is an immediate must have and what can come later.

Note: The displayed features matrix is a partial copy and are ranked in order of priority.

Card Sorting

Next, I conducted moderated online open card sorting. I had participants complete the exercise while on a video call. The only survey enabled me to survey a large number of participants. In total, I surveyed 20 participants via (Optimal Sort). The similarity matrix below shows the results of the online sort and provides a quick visual read into how participants grouped cards together more frequently.

Site Map

The card sorting exercise above combined with my competitive research on web design informed my initial site map below.

Ideate

Task Flows

My initial site design required too many steps to complete a task. In the below example, it would require a client to take eight steps just to sign up for a newsletter. As a result, I reduced the number of steps required for all tasks across the site.

User Flow

Using my simplified task flow, I built user flows for two most common paths I expect users to take: 1) research to learn more, and 2) sign up for a session. There are still quite a bit of steps involved, but this user journey highlighted where I have opportunities to create more engaging content along the journey.

Sketches & Wireframes

After choosing the one that best fit Irene's goals and needs, I worked on digital versions of some of the key pages to solidify the layout of the website. I also worked on responsive versions to ensure the layout would work across different devices.

New Branding

Using the brand attributes (elementary, youthful, caring, and nurturing), I developed a mood board to set the branding direction. I leveraged a branding company to create a logo and provided key insights from my research that informed the final design below.

Style Tile

After the completion of the logo design, I created a style tile for DYM's new branding that included the color palette, typography, imager, and the logo.

UI Design

I translated DYM's branding direction onto the wireframes to create the below UI designs for a computer, tablet and mobile phone.

Computer

Tablet

Mobile Phone

Prototype & Testing

Using the pages I designed in Figma, I build a high-fidelity, limited functionality prototype for usability testing in order to observe how users interact with the site and identify where improvements could be made.

Testing the Design

12 participants were asked to walk through the prototype. I asked each participant to complete three tasks according to the information in three scenarios I provided. I conducted a moderated, remote, and think aloud usability test with participants.

Priority Tasks:

  • Go to the about page and sign up for a free informational call
  • Subscribe to the family newsletter and contact site admin using the online form to cancel your subscription to the educator newsletter 

You can see my full testing plan here.

Affinity Map

I created an affinity map to summarize patterns across the different participants' experiences and inform the next iteration of the prototype.

Pain Points

Insights

Design Recommendations

Beginning of journey doesn't
have a call to action

Many expressed confusion on how to sign up for the free informaitonal call

Provide more call to actions

The design appeals more to younger kids and needs to be engaging for entire families.

The age ranges that DYM services were not clear to all users

Include photos of kids of all ages and explain ages serviced through DYM

Priority Revisions

Using what I learned from the usability testing, I made revisions to my design and created the final prototype.

Conclusion

In the end, organizing the structure and content of DYM's site similarly to other tele-health organizations proved to be the best way to enable Irene to quickly find and connect with support.

Testing revealed that users expect certain conventions in terms of categorization and labelling, and when the information architecture departs from that, it can cause confusion and impede users' ability to successfully navigate.
‍
DYM's new site is rooted in research, grounded in empathy, and tested to ensure the experience of finding behavioral health services is smooth and easy.

Upon publishing the website, a nationally recognized treatment center with branches around California contacted us and DYM became a recommended provider for clients exiting their program. We also began working with a network of medical doctors who refer patients and their families to DYM.

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