SORMI - Helping students manage their well-being

SORMI is an anonymous chat forum for students to receive and give support to other students. It has journalling features to manage the student's well-being and creates a safe space for students to find communities and support systems.

Introduction

  • My Role & Team

    • Lead UI/UX Designer

    • End-to-end design for a mood-tracking app on a cross-functional team with 2 engineers and 2 PMs and 1 UX Researcher.

  • My Contributions & Impact

    • As the only UI/UX Designer, I delivered 2 end-to-end concept designs that won second place at Rotman Commerce’s “Launch Your Big Idea” and received funding.

My Role & Team

  • Lead UI/UX Designer

  • Cross-functional team with 2 engineers and 2 PMs and 1 UX Researcher.

Role, Contribution & Impact

My Contributions

  • As the only UI/UX Designer, I delivered 2 end-to-end designs.

  • Conducted screening surveys and user interviews.

  • Used research methods such as personas, affinity mapping, storyboards and jobs to be done.

  • Created two clickable designs for usability testing

Impact/Outcome

  • Won second place at Rotman Commerce’s “Launch Your Big Idea” and received funding.

HMW…

How might we help UofT students who are struggling with mental health issues so they can improve their well-being?

User Problem

TOP 5 Insights from research

  1. Students are encountering challenges such as feelings of being overwhelmed and difficulty in maintaining motivation.

  2. Students often go through their issues alone rather than seeking professional help.

  3. Having a support system is beneficial, but not all students have one.

  4. Many students are not always aware of the early signs of deteriorating mental health.

  5. Journaling and engaging in exercises were effective ways to cope with the challenges students face.

Methods

RESEARCH - INSIGHT INTO THE PROBLEM

Personas -

I created two personas Leah and Alex.

  1. Leah Rivera: TLDR about Leah what does she want? - I would add an actual photo

  2. Alex Liu: TLDR about Alex what does he want?

Grace’s Q: How did the persona help the team focus on people needs? What was the impact of this work? Did this align the team on who you’re building for?

UNDERSTANDING & ALIGNING WHO OUR USERS ARE

Storyboard

I used storyboards to fully understand the user’s journey and experience with SORMI. This step-by-step format aided me in mapping out the user’s journey and identifying potential pain points or areas for improvement.

BEING IN THE SHOES OF OUR USERS

Jobs to be done

As a college student,

I want to ______

so that

I can _______

  • Increase motivation at school

  • Reduce stress

KEY OUTCOMES

Prototype

THE END-TO-END EXPERIENCE

Home

Our MVP version of the app only had a mood tracking feature

didn’t test well

participants said ““

changed it into more of a Q&A feature

ITERATIONS FROM MVP

Crafting your Journal

People wanted to add stickies to show their mood, color code etc.

ITERATIONS FROM MVP

Composing Posts

People were confused… etc.

USABILITY TESTING

Risks & Mitgations

  • Forum can’t become a cancel/exposing culture

    Mitigation: For instance, students may want to complain about a professor and “name-drop” (This isn’t healthy, a bot will identify this and flag it).

  • What happens if a post is too personal and traumatic and ends up affecting other students mental health?

    A bot will identify the content of the post and flag it with a trigger warning.

  • SORMI is a place where students are vulnerable and try to find supportive groups, what if someone takes advantage of this and harms the users?

    There will be a reporting system and the user would have to change their username every month or so to remain anonymous.

Key Takeaways and Reflections

  • SORMI is still an ongoing project but based on usability testings, this concept targeted the correct audience more.

  • In the future, we will add features where you can find resources and events at UofT that promote mental health management.

  • From the users' needs, there will be more updates and features such as communities.