SORMI - Helping students improve 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 user’s well-being and it is a safe space for students to find communities and support systems.

The Problem

3/4 of Canadian college students reported experiencing negative mental health while studying in the 2021-2022 school year. In fact, 45.5% of them are unaware or have low awareness of how to find mental health support.

According to McGill and the Canadian Alliance of Student Associations

Brief Introduction to MindFulU

  • My Role for MindFulU

    Lead UX/UI Designer

  • Project Details

    MindFulU is a mood-tracking app created for students by students with the mission to make mental health a proactive process and help to destigmatize mental health.

  • Team

    Rachel In, Krishna Solanki, Wasif Zulkernine, Andy Lee, Naim Lim, Nicole In, Judy Kong

  • What I did

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

    User Flows, UI Design, Prototyping

A timeline of when I joined MindfulU vs SORMI’s creation. Two ideas were explored at two different times but were solving the same “How Might We” problem.

Our Design question

How might we help UofT students who are struggling with mental health issues so they can find help easily and more accessibly?

TL;DR

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

  • The app was designed, and programmed and is on TestFlight.

  • We realized that the concept and the app weren’t sticking with students.

Prototype of MindFulU

This is the prototype of MindFulU’s mood tracking feature that was created on Figma.

Key Takeaways and Reflections

  • 1. I designed the UI of the app and we won an award but we realized that the concept was not sticking with people

    MindFulU was the initial concept but it was important to start rethinking the design question.

  • 2. I joined the team late and realized that MindFulU was created with a solution in mind

    When I joined the team late, I learned that some of the research was conducted incorrectly.

  • 3. I went back to the problem and from MindFulU, I recommended a different concept: SORMI

    I conducted the research and with a more human-centred approach, I suggested SORMI.

Rethinking the Design Question

How might we help UofT students who are struggling with mental health issues so they can find help easily and more accessibly?

  1. EMPATHIZE

Empathize

Define

Prototype

Ideate

Surveys

As an initial research method, I created a survey for quantitative data. to gather the target audience, students at the University of Toronto struggling with mental health, and understand their needs, perspectives and experiences. I conducted the survey with 46 participants using Google Forms (software to create surveys and forms). All the participants were students at the University of Toronto. The participants were not informed what the survey was for, it was only briefly explained to avoid biased answers. I attempted to make the survey questions as pertinent as possible.

These are the few questions I asked and the results.

User Interviews

From the 46 surveyees, I selected 5 participants who fit our target audience and conducted in-depth interviews on Zoom with each of them. Each interview lasted approximately 30-45 minutes.

These are the few questions I asked our interviewees:

  1. In the survey, you indicated that you felt _____ way, can you please elaborate on what and why you felt this way?

  2. When do you feel that you struggle the most?

  3. When you feel this way, do you do anything about it?

    • If yes, what do you do and does it help?

    • If not, then what do you do?

  4. Have you sought help?

    • If yes, what resources have you used and did they help? Did you use any resources that didn’t work out for you?

    • If not, was there a reason?

  5. What are some things that you think would help with your well-being?

2. DEFINE

Empathize

Define

Prototype

Ideate

Affinity Mapping

I used this technique to identify patterns and themes from the interviews. I grouped the consistent data by topic and this allowed me to better see connections and relationships. I colour-coded the sticky notes with each participant so that it is more clear to understand.

A few insights from the interviews and survey:

  • Students are overwhelmed and can’t seem to be motivated

  • Students tend to go through their issues alone

  • Having a support system helps but not everyone has that

  • Most students aren’t aware when their mental health is declining

  • Journalling and exercises helped their well-being

  • Majority of participants did not seek professional help

Isolation

Motivation

Support System

Awareness

Coping Mechanisms

Dialogue

Personas

I created two personas: Leah Rivera and Alex Liu. This technique allowed me to see from the users’ perspective. It also helped me gain a deeper understanding of their experience and created designs that are tailored to their specific needs. Personas also help designers to stay focused on the users throughout the design process, ensuring that the final product is user-centred and meets the needs of the intended audience.

Risks and Concerns

  • Forum can’t become a cancel/exposing culture

    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.

3. IDEATE

Empathize

Define

Prototype

Ideate

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.

Sketching Wireframes

I sketched out a few concepts using the research insights and user flows. Here is an example of the wireframes created for them.

I also used user flows to understand how the users would interact with the product. Here are a few examples for the main tasks in the product.

User Flows

Use case 1: A user first signs up or logs in (the introduction).

Use case 2: The user enters the homepage, scrolls through the feed, and interacts with the posts.

Use case 3: The user wants to create a post and use the survey to track their well-being.

4. Prototype

Empathize

Define

Prototype

Ideate

Prototype of SORMI

This is the prototype of SORMI that was created on Figma.

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.