TalkSpace - Support for Loved Ones with Anxiety

Imagine watching someone you love struggle with anxiety, feeling helpless because you don’t know how to support them or understand what they’re going through. What if there were a way to bridge that gap and empower you to be a source of comfort and strength?

Tools - Figma, FigJam, Google Docs, Trello

Skills - User Personas, Storyboarding, Competitive Analysis, Wireframing, Hi-Fi Prototyping, Design Reviews, Stakeholder Feedback

My Role - Worked with my team to brainstorm ideas and collaborate on the initial research. Led the design process, turning interview findings and user journeys into wireframes and high-fidelity prototypes.

Team Members- 6 UX Designers

Project Timeline- January 2024 - March 2024

Introduction - This open-ended project was completed under the guidance of Professor Baltaxe-Admony in the User Experience for Interactive Media course. As we learned about design, research, brainstorming, ideation, and created a fully designed solution to meet real-world user needs found in our user research.

What did our users say?

This project began with a feeling: the desire to help, but without knowing how.

“I sat next to someone I loved who was having a panic attack…and I wasn’t scared of them, I was scared of saying the wrong thing”

“I sat there wishing I understood what they were feeling, because guessing felt like the worst thing I could do.”

CHALLENGE

According to the National Health Institute, there are over 10,000 mental health and wellness apps. Still, they mainly focus on self-help for the person experiencing anxiety, not on educating or empowering their support network.

How might we create a digital experience that helps people understand, empathize with, and effectively support loved ones living with anxiety?

PRIMARY RESEARCH

User interviews with individuals who support loved ones with anxiety.

Competitive analysis of existing wellness and support apps.

Surveys to gather broader insights into user behaviors and pain points.

Goal: Understand the emotional and practical challenges faced by supporters (friends, partners, family).

  • Identify gaps in existing mental health tools.

  • Explore how digital design can facilitate empathy and communication.

AFFINITY MAPPING

I revisited all the data and organized it into meaningful groups based on themes.

USER PERSONA

I created two user personas to gain a deeper understanding of the different types of caregivers and to ensure the design addressed a broader range of needs, motivations, and challenges.

BRAINSTORMING SOLUTIONS

Using these five refined questions, I began developing potential solutions centered around caregiver education, real-time guidance, emotional support, and community-building, ultimately shaping the direction of the app's core features.

  • What are ways they can take care of themselves during challenges with their loved ones that may leave them hopeless or stuck?

  • How can this large demographic support one another?

  • Most mental health resources focus on diagnosed individuals, often leaving their loved ones without guidance.

  • How can loved ones interact with their mentally ill family member in a non-triggering and supportive way?

USER JOURNEY

I created a user journey to understand caregivers’ motivations, frustrations, and emotional needs as they support someone experiencing mental health challenges.

STORYBOARDING

To capture key moments in caregivers’ experiences and visualize how they might interact with a mental-health support app, I created several storyboards and selected the most representative one to highlight in the case study.

01.

Bringing ideas to life

02.

Resource Library

The Resource Library brings everything you need into one place, eliminating the need to search multiple websites for reliable mental health information. It provides trusted articles that explain anxiety, mental health concepts, and actionable strategies for supporting loved ones.

03.

Specialized Articles

Specialized articles are the heart of this app, giving you expert-backed insights and practical strategies to support your loved ones.

Ask and Assist Chat

This chat feature combines a Resource Navigator, Instant Answers, and Ask & Assist Chat to provide a strong support experience. It helps users with actionable advice about mental health resources like therapists and hotlines, delivers immediate, evidence-based responses to pressing questions about anxiety and coping strategies, and offers personalized guidance for supporting loved ones.

Turning research into design ideas

Project Goals and Learnings

Learnings:

  • Learned about “Trauma-informed design” and how I can apply those concepts here.

  • Acknowledging that users may have diverse and sensitive experiences, and designing with compassion.

  • Gained insights into creating a user journey map, storyboard, empathy mapping and following a design system,

Future Goals:

  • Test Talkspace with a wider range of people.

  • Develop/add more features to the app that help loved ones once more educated on the topic of mental health.