Thought Diary

Overview of Design Process

1. Market Analysis

2. User Research

3. People Problem Revision

4. Brainstorming & Evaluations

5. Low-Fidelity & Mid-Fidelity

6. High-Fidelity Explorations

7. User Testing

8. Iterations

9. Conclusions

Market Analysis

There are many apps that deal with mental health on the market. In looking at the competitors for Thought Diary, we only focused on apps that used cognitive behavioral therapy. For a full list of all the apps we looked into, please go here.

Examples of Competitor Apps

Key Market Findings

1. Lack of Thought Records: Most of the other apps are not just focused on the thought record process and lean toward other mental health and wellness exercises.

2. High Complexity: There are only a few apps that allow the user to go through the entire thought record process for free, but they lack simplicity and require a bit of digging to locate the tool.

3. AI Benefits: Thought Diary faces competition from newer apps that are AI-driven. The added advantage of AI allows for a more custom experience, mimicking that of talking to a therapist on chat. For instance, if a user is stuck, the app can propose alternative solutions for the user to opt into.

People Problem

Objectives:

1. Understand the user’s needs and experience with Thought Diary and how it plays a role in their current (if it exists) therapy plan.

2. Highlight current pain points of the app and identify the needs of the users to overcome such obstacles.

Methods:

1. Semi-structured interview with current users of the app

2. Aiming for five users to interview (only did 4 at the end).

Key Findings from User Interviews

Interview Questions & Detailed Results

Brainstorming

How Might We Statements

After brainstorming several HMW statements, two themes emerged. Given the various statements from users about feeling like they didn't know how to challenge their thoughts in addition to feeling like it was too much work, it made sense that "Making it easy" and "Education" were the most prominent.

Further Solutions using Affinity Diagrams

I then focused on the categories "Make it Easy" and "Education" to brainstorm even further and identified various themes from those solutions.

Impact Effort Matrix

I wanted to present solutions that could be considered by the founder of the app, so I wanted to be realistic with my direction. Knowing that he worked under a tight budget in order to ensure that the app’s primary functions were free, the solutions marked under 1 and 2 seemed the most feasible.

Low-Fidelity

In sketches, I wanted to see if there was a way to create a sense of ease by breaking the questions out into their own individual screens instead of overwhelming the user with multiple tasks at once.

Taking the Smaller Step Idea Further

One idea to make the app less overwhelming was to allow users to choose specific parts of the workflow to tackle, breaking it down into small sections by using only shortcuts. In the end, I opted to keep the Add Entry options with the shortcuts because having the user choose rather than being guided risked exhausting them with decision making.

Mid-Fidelity Explorations

User Flow

There are four primary sections that exemplify the workflow, all of which exist in Add Entry, which is what the majority of the users pick when they open Thought Diary.

Approaches to Solutions

Section B: Smaller Steps and Simplification

1. Decrease Number of Decisions

2. Tackling Easier Tasks First

Section C: Explorations of Education

1. Informing Users about Distortions

Smaller steps and simplification

1. Section B: Decrease Number of Decisions

From the beginning, the user is faced with too many choices on the Mood selection screen. I chose to have the user go directly to the second screen just like the Mood Shortcut after selection. The idea was to reduce the number of decisions per screen in order to reduce cognitive load. When I showed this to Eddie Liu, the founder of Thought Diary, he indicated that this was likely the direction to go in.

Eddie Liu, the Founder of Thought Diary, indicated that this was the likely direction:

"We tested having two buttons vs one button and it turns out, people completed more entries when using the Continue button [one button]! Interested to test just having it automatically move forward when pressing the smiley face."

2. Section B: Tackling Easier Tasks First

Selecting an option is easier than free-form writing. To help conserve their energy for the rest of the workflow, I explored moving the Emotion Selection after the Mood Selection so that the user could feel like they're accomplishing more sooner.

Eddie confirmed this approach in previous tests they had done:

"We tested several different orders of Mood, Emotions, and Details and found that users liked it more under the order you proposed! They were retained at a higher level and completed more entries."

Exploring Education

1. Section C: Informing Users about Distortions

Users indicated that they weren't fully confident about understanding their distortions. to decrease confusion and lack of confidence, I wanted to find a way to educate users about them as they simultaneously made the selections.

What is the sweet spot for presenting information on distortions? Cards!

I further explored placing the descriptions of the distortions into cards, which combined the idea of having more information with the ease of a menu selection. Since this meant that users would have to scroll a great deal more, I went with a filtering option of C5.

When establishing habits, aim for consistency over perfection

In general, people struggle with the same distortions. When establishing habits, consistency is paramount, and any kind of friction gets in the way of people achieving this. I decided to prioritize ease by having them land on a list of their most frequently selected distortions first.

High-Fidelity

Visually, I aimed to make the screens less overwhelming. Changes were made to the FAB opening up to for the Add Entry button and Shortcut in order to create more hierarchy. The mood selection was to a vertical arrangement to accommodate their labels for clarity.

User Testing

Questions and Findings for User Test

What would happen if the flow was still too difficult for users in their emotionally low state? Might it be possible that there could be an opt-in to continue to give users a better sense of control for when they can end it sooner without feeling bad?

But where should that opt-in occur?

Key Findings:

1. Risk of drop-off occurs from distortion onward

2. There's a fear of doing CBT wrong

3. The last portion (Alternative Thought) still feels redundant

4. Challenging Your Thought is still difficult because it requires critical thinking

5. The rating screen is seen as unnecessary

What's Hard?

Despite breaking out the questions and making the instructions clearer, the temptation to drop off occurs from distortion onward. Can prepping users by setting expectations and giving them the option to continue at a certain point mitigate this?

Fear of Doing it Wrong

The goal of CBT is to find a more balanced perspective, not necessarily to just have positive thoughts. There is a risk that this isn't clear for users and understanding the goals of CBT may alleviate some of the pressure to do things "correctly."

Continuation of Confusion

Users were still struggling to understand the point of the last screen; reframing the thought into a new perspective, also known as "Alternative thought." They also didn't care for the rating screen at the end, which collected data that they didn't care for and could potentially be counter-productive if no progress was made.

Iterating from Feedback

Beyond some additional visual changes for better hierarchy and clarity, I explored three different approaches to address the issues that the user testing uncovered.

Approaches to Solutions

• Education

• Reducing Redundancy

• Incorporating an Opt-in

Education (Staggered)

To educate and set expectations for CBT, might it be possible to have the user complete "levels" where each time they go in, they're educated further and they progress into the more taxing part of the user flow? The only downside to this would be the complexity required on the development end.

Opt-in to Distortion (Selected Solution)

I explored an opt-in to continue right before distortion that would outline what the user would be tackling to set expectations in each section. Experienced users can select to not see those screens again. This was my solution as it was the simplest and covered both educating and setting expectations.

Prototype

Conclusion

What I Learned

Part of the challenge for Thought Diary is related to what happens when you transition from an analog Thought Record done with a therapist to an app. Understanding that habits are built on consistency driven by ease and small wins were key to figuring out whether to compromise thoroughness over ease at certain points.

What I Would've Done Differently

One thing I would've done differently was to have focused less on the structural changes of the workflow in the beginning and more on the content. Where those friction points occurred and whether or not users had appropriate expectations would've lead to structural changes. There's a possibility that I could've arrived at my solutions sooner.

What is Success?

If launched, success is measured by whether or not users feel in control of their experience enough that the option to pause or the inability to continue the workflow doesn't make them feel guilty

Final Thoughts

Given the limited number of users interviewed, the proposed solution would benefit from further testing and refinement.