CONVO
Life Questions
Meet the Team
From left to right: Qien(Ester) Lin, Theresa Tran, Patrick Mao (Project Lead), Jennifer Li, Valerie Yuryk
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Huge thanks to:
Design for America Internal Team: Andrew Le, Claire Kantner, Joseph Azizeh, Cara Pangelinan, Arsh Saroya
Community Partner: Forefront​ (Suicide prevention)
Mentors: Richelle Dumond, Scott Tsukamaki, Joe Sparano,
Artefact (design company)
Design Process
Followed the National Design for America design guide for tackling complex social challenges.
Understand
Identify
Immerse
Reframe
Create
Ideate
Build
Test
Purpose
(Identify)
How might we facilitate more open and meaningful conversations between individuals experiencing depression or suicidal thoughts and their family and friends?
Problem Area
Depression & Suicide
User Group
Supporters of those afflicted with depression and/or suicidal thoughts
Research
(Immerse)
Overview
Secondary Research
Suicide Statistics
Existing Treatments/Preventions
Primary Research
Community Partner
Survey
Interviews with attempt survivors and loss survivors
User Interview
Key Findings
Those battling depression and suicidal thoughts are self-isolating.
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Emotional support is key to overcoming depression.
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It is difficult for those with depression to reach out to others.
Family and friends often want to help, but don't know how.
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Reframe
Reevaluating the direction of our project
How might we develop or modify current urban infrastructure to encourage more open and positive engagements to improve mental health among Seattleites?
Original Topic
Through our research, no clear connection between public infrastructure and mental health was found. Moving forward, we did not have supporting evidence or a base surrounding the original topic.
Research
We had a key meeting with Forefront, deep into our project. From that meeting, along with previous research, a key part in depression and suicide that surfaced is the level of communication. An angle we then discussed was to focus on the supporters, and how to increase that communication.
Mentoring
From many rounds of discussion and analyzing our research, we decided to reframe our project around supporters, and focus on aiding supporters in beginning conversations with those they care about.
New Direction
Prototyping
(Build)
Ideation
After multiple rounds of ideation with feedback from mentors and DFA leadership, we settled on dinner-table type cards.​
Other highlighted possibilities include a public park, a group event and smartphone apps.
Ideation
Design Principles
Open / Freeform
Open-ended:
allows for discussion
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Versatile: allows those from different backgrounds to interact
Insight
Allows for the supporter to learn more about the afflicted individual
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Helps the supporter gauge where the individual is at
Actionable
Leads to the next level of action or care
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Approachable
Makes the first step to conversation easier
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Break stigma about discussion depression
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Prototypes
After multiple rounds of ideation with feedback from mentors and DFA leadership, we settled on dinner-table type cards.​
Other highlighted possibilities include a public park, a group event, and smartphone apps.
Lo-fidelity
Sticky Notes
Lo-fidelity
Paper
Hi-fidelity
Cardstock
Usability Testing
(Test)
Overview
We conducted user testing with two groups: Forefront (suicide prevention) and Peer Health Educators (counseling center).
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Both parties during the Forefront test have relevant life experiences: one lost her son to suicide, and the other has battled depression before.
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For the Peer Health test, one was a professional counselor and one was a psychology student.
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We received valuable feedback regarding the wording of the questions, and format of the conversation cards.
Usability Testing
Challenges & Constraints
For Design for America, we had a deadline for the final exhibition. This made it difficult to spend sufficient time conducting user research and reaching out to more professionals in the field.
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We also had minimal funding to develop our project.
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Throughout the project, we had many different opinions that often conflicted, but always led to engaging in valuable discussions and unique ideas.
Final Presentation