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REACH

An app for relatives of people with eating disorders

Background

Reach was created during a social impact Design Sprint together with three other designers as part of a UX Design Production course.

Problem

The number of people suffering from eating disorders is increasing and the problem has become even more common at a younger age.
Being close to someone with an eating disorder can be challenging and difficult and we believe that today’s existing support systems could be improved.

Solution

We believe that making help more informative, interactive, and accessible for close relatives would lead the relatives to act more efficiently when tackling the problem. Reach is an interactive mobile app helping relatives of people with eating disorders.

Research and hypothesis

OUR HYPOTHESIS
Making help more informative,
interactive and accessible for close relatives would lead the relatives to act more efficiently and correctly when tackling the problem of eating disorders.

TARGET USER
Our target user is a person who is related to someone who is suffering from an eating disorder and who is in need of help coping with the situation.

SURVEY
Even though we could not make any general assumptions from our small survey (7 answers), we became curious why it is so that people do not seek any help in their situation. This finding was worrying.

INSIGHTS

  • Many people affected with eating disorders need help to get the courage to tell someone about their problem.

  • Many have difficulty identifying the problem are are often in need of a company during the treatment.

  • The current support system often involves long queues and is difficult to access. This is very problematic as it is important to catch the problem at an early stage.

  • It is often the relatives who can catch early signs of eating disorders. And if they act effectively, they can hopefully help the victim get help at an early stage.

  • Many people do not know about the existence of existing support systems for relatives. The relatives feel often worried, anxious, and sad and believe that it is complicated to get help.

USER NEEDS

  • To feel understood

  • Concrete tips on how to handle the situation

  • Tangible support & encouragement

Prototype development

SKETCHING SOLUTION
All of us did plenty of sketches on the possible solution. When I first laid my eyes on the art gallery, I noticed that we all sketched different parts of the project (podcasts, diary, info). All parts seemed relevant, which made the whole decision phase a bit frustrating since we wanted to treat all aspects of the prototype. Therefore, we did a post-it voting which made it clearer which functions were the most essential and made a base for our storyboard.

STORYBOARD
Creating a big storyboard with all the essential functions helped
us to uncover the most important steps to develop for our MVP. It
also revealed that we should not spend too much time designing
for the opening scene of our storyboard, but rather on the ways
to provide concrete information help.

Core features

We identified 3 core features that we wanted to focus on developing in order to satisfy the users’ needs. 

DO’S AND DONT’S
This feature would provide a“first aid kit” for the relative on how to communicate with a person affected by eating disorders.

SHARED PODCASTS
This feature would gather interesting podcasts, related to the specific situation the relative is in to help the user understand and feel understood.

RIGHT WAY TO HELP
This feature would provide a location-relevant contact list of organizations and institutions based on the type of problems the relative might face: psychological, economic, social...

User testing

We tested our prototype digitally with six informants from our target group and produced a Score Board of our most important insights and emerging patterns. Before the test, we also wrote 5 yes/no questions seeking to prove or disprove our ground hypothesis based on the user testing. My role was to test the prototype with our informants. Afterward, I summed up the most important insights from the test in a Scoreboard table.

“The relative doesn’t want to hear about good weather when he is at his lowest”

“Wow! Lovely colors.”

“The profile signals gamification which I don’t think fits well with the idea of combating eating disorders”

“Good orientation, I quickly understood where to click and what to do”

Result

Our hypothesis proved to be right and the product seemed to match our testers’ needs. However, feelings of shame made the recruiting informants to be a particularly challenging task. To get more data we could formulate our requests more clearly, use better communication channels, or approach more people. Results from testing show that we would need to reconsider, redesign, and test: an easier menu, and adaptable content, allowing for anonymous users as well as helping the users identify the specific eating disorder in question. Despite these improvement points, we believe that our product matches our user needs well and as an MVP it is ready to be developed further. Our users wanted a place where they could be understood, safe, informed, and supported. All of those feelings were expressed by our test participants.

My role

research, user testing, content writing, prototying, interaction design

Methods

desk research, survey, expert interviews, sketching, storyboards, score board

Tools

InVision Studio, InDeisgn, MIRO, Google forms

Duration

3 weeks

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