UX Strategy Report

The goal of this project was to create a wireframe for a new application that may have a potential market. I chose to create an application titled MyTherapyTeam that centered around mental health and well-being. There are three main features of this application: My Journal, My Medication, and My Team. My Journal can be used for daily entries to keep track of emotions or symptoms. My Medication can be used for daily reminders and as a tracking system. My Team is a feature that allows users to connect with and be sent messages of support from their family, friends, therapists, or other users of their choosing.

Alongside the wireframe, there was also a discussion of the five elements of user experience and how they lend themselves to the design. The five elements include strategy, scope, structure, skeleton, and surface. The strategy element was incorporated by brainstorming and designing an application that people would have a need for and want to use. There are many mental and physical health apps on the market, but this application provides three unique features all in one location. The scope addresses what features the product will have. As discussed, the MyTherapyTeam application will include three main components: My Journal, My Medication, and My Team. Each component addresses important aspects of someone’s health journey. Structure details the navigation of the product, where users can go, and how they can get there. This element is where the information architecture and interaction design are decided upon. Information architecture specifically deals with how users can move about the application. For this specific application it was important to make buttons noticeable, and page titles obvious, and to add a back button during certain processes. The goal of interaction design is to make an application that prevents users from making mistakes, makes them aware of their current interactions, and is easy to use. During certain actions, such as adding a new medication, users were given step-by-step instructions across multiple pages. At the end of the procedure, users were shown their information and asked to confirm that it was inputted currently. The skeleton is the actual wireframe and shows where certain buttons, text, or images will be placed. The skeleton included in this project starts from the homepage and walks through the steps of adding a new prescription. The surface involves the final designs of the product and what the user will visually experience. This includes color, font, images, and layout. The skeleton wireframe was used to create the surface of this application.

The overall application design was created with the end user in mind. A minimalistic layout and muted colors were chosen to reduce clutter and generate a low cognitive load that wouldn't overwhelm the user. Instead of the typical hamburger menu (a navigation element that includes three lines stacked on top of each other), this application uses a tab bar at the bottom of each page. Tab bars are used on many mobile applications and are favored over hamburger menus, they highlight important features of your application. The tab bar for this application includes icons for the three main features, a home button, and a button for the settings menu.