Unveiled barriers to therapy seeking within the military community. Used these insights to redesign the Star Behavioral Health Providers -
a complex platform to train mental healthcare providers and facilitate connections between military families.
Empowering Military Mental Health Support Utilization:
Redesigning Star Behavioral Health Providers
🏛️ ORGANIZATION
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Military Family Research Institute
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Star Behavioral Health Providers
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Center of Deployment Pschology
👩🏻💻 ROLE
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Founding UX Design Researcher
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May '23 - January '24
📝 METHODOLOGIES
01. Heuristic Evaluation
02. Interviews and Task Analysis
03. Information Architecture
04. Sketching and Low-fi Wireframes
05. Task-based Usability Testing
👥 User Landscape: Who Engages with SBHP?
The users of SBHP can be categorized into three main groups:
Primary Users - Patients
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Active duty military personnel, veterans, and their families.
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They primarily utilize the resource hub and the patient-side portal.
Secondary Users - Providers
These users engage with the platform to register for training programs and list themselves in the provider registry.
Mediating Users - SBHP Staff
These users act as intermediaries, assisting both patients and providers with queries, scheduling, provider matching, and resolving issues.
For the scope of this project, the focus was on the primary user group - military connected personnel and their families - the patients.
🤔 Establishing Context: What is SBHP?
SBHP is a B2B2C web enterprise platform designed to address the unique mental health needs of the military community. It serves as a crucial bridge between military-connected individuals and specialized mental health providers. The platform operates on 4 key pillars:
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Resource Hub: Central information center for both providers and patients/users.
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Provider Training: Tiered training program for health professionals on military-specific treatments.
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Provider Registry: Searchable online directory where trained providers can list their services.
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Find a Provider: User portal for searching and connecting with health providers.
SBHP currently uses a single-entry point design for all users, which, while comprehensive, presents navigation challenges and potentially impacts the overall user experience for different user groups.
🔍 Key Insights: Understanding Perspectives of Military Personnel
01. Barrier to Mental Health Support Utilization: Military Culture's Impact
Stigma: There's a strong stigma associated with seeking mental health support, especially for those in protector roles.
Reframing the Narrative:
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Shift from "seeking help" to "seeking support"
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Emphasize that seeking support is a courageous act
Messaging: Use alternative language that highlights the benefits of expert support rather than implying weakness.
❓The Problem: Complex Navigation and High Drop-Out Rate
Apart from the complete redesign task, SBHP faced a critical challenge with its complex navigation and low user retention, evidenced by a concerning 49.2% drop-out rate of patients while looking for a Provider. To address this efficiently, I implemented a two-pronged approach:
01. Heuristic Evaluation Uncovering Key Usability Issues
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Complex Information Architecture: Convoluted structure impeding user navigation.
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Lack of User Feedback: Minimal progress indicators in multi-step processes.
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Overwhelming Text Content: Text-heavy pages violating minimalist design principles.
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Inconsistent Terminology: Varying language across pages causing confusion.
02. User Interviews + Think-aloud Task Analysis
To complement the heuristic evaluation and uncover deeper insights, I conducted 16 in-depth interviews with SBHP staff. Due to privacy constraints, direct patient interviews were not possible.
Aim of Semi-structured
Interviews
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Understand the perspectives of SBHP staff while interacting with patients, gaining insight into patient mental models.
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Uncover barriers to mental health support or therapy-seeking in military-connected individuals.
Think-aloud Task Analysis component in Interviews
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Participants shared their screens to demonstrate how they use the SBHP site when assisting patients in finding providers.
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Explained their decision-making process for navigating the site and selecting providers.
Combining traditional interview techniques with task analysis provided valuable insights into both the staff's workflow and the challenges faced by the primary user group seeking mental health support.
02. Mental Model of Patients: Establishing Trust
Military experiences create unique mental health needs that require specialized understanding:
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Provider Credibility: Highlight that providers are trained in evidence-based methods specific to military needs.
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Visibility: Make existing testimonials more prominent on the platform. Reinforce trust at every stage in the process.
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Hierarchical Influence: Leverage testimonials from higher-ranking personnel to encourage support-seeking behavior.
💡 Re-designing SBHP: Low Fidelity Wireframes for Quick Feedback
Note: Some information has been modified or removed for privacy reasons. The content shown is placeholder content. While the original deliverables were low-fidelity sketches, they have been upgraded to mid-fidelity for better understanding.
While the entire SBHP platform was redesigned, this showcase focuses on the "Find a Provider" flow. This critical pathway enables patients (military-connected personnel and their families) to search for a provider and schedule an appointment efficiently.
✅ Dedicated Page and Immediate Results
Before
Proposed Design
A
5 mandatory steps with multiple sub-steps for results
Immediate results based on 3 essential fields, all on one page.
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Mandatory selection of rarely-used options (e.g., in-person vs. telehealth)
Optional advanced filters accessible via links, streamlining the initial search process.
C
Excessive text of low importance, making the process appear lengthy and complex.
Concise information with additional details available, wherever required and relevant, through hover-over info icons.
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Interviews revealed that users often prefer a mental health provider of the same gender, as it makes them feel more comfortable sharing their feelings. To address this, we added a gender preference option at the beginning of the search flow.
03. Streamlining UX: Less is More
Users face a conflicting mental model: recognizing their need for mental health support while fearing the act of seeking help. This conflict makes them particularly susceptible to dropping out when encountering:
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Lengthy or complex processes,
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Unclear language or jargon,
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Minor inconveniences, confusion or frustration.
To reduce dropout rates and prevent second thoughts during the 'Find a Provider' process:
Minimize Steps and Provide Clear Feedback
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Create a more direct path from need recognition to provider selection
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Offer visible progress or status indicators throughout the process.
Simplify - Experience and Language
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Add, remove, or modify current flow or features for added convenience
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Avoid jargons and use straightforward language that resonates with military culture
✅ Displaying Just the Right Information
Before
The redesign offers a condensed view with essential information, allowing users to quickly skim results without checking individual details.
Unlike the current site, users can modify inputs and filter their search on the same page, eliminating the need to backtrack.
The new "Add to list" feature addresses the user need, identified in interviews, for printing a list of shortlisted providers for reference and comparison.
Proposed Design
✅ Comparing Made Easy
Current Workaround: Interviews revealed that users typically print detailed cards of individual providers for comparison before making an appointment, thereby increasing drop-out rates.
Compare List Feature: Users can perform a side-by-side comparisons of all providers they have added to their list. This eliminates the need for printing, making it easier to evaluate their options directly on the platform.
💁🏻♀️ User - Tested, User - Approved: Task-based Usability Testing
Comprehensive task-based usability testing was conducted with 16 participants, including SBHP staff and health providers, followed by additional tests with primary users. Participants were given 2 of 3 context-based scenarios and realistic tasks based on their role, including finding a provider, registering for training, and locating specific information. Moderated online sessions employed the think-aloud protocol.
Metrics
Before
After Redesign
Improvement
Task Completion Time
4.5 minutes
2.1 minutes
53.33% decrease
User Satisfaction
6.5/10
9.6/10
47.69% increase
Error Rate
18%
4%
77.78% decrease
The testing achieved a overall positive feedback. Minor refinements were implemented based on participant suggestions to further enhance the UX.
✅ Reinforcing Trust at Every Stage Possible
Before
Interviews revealed that patients often worry whether providers are adequately trained to understand their unique needs. This data was not easily accessible.
The redesigned interface displays training tiers using stars in the condensed view, while the detailed view offers a comprehensive description of experience and trainings. This transparency helps build confidence in the provider's ability to address military-specific mental health concerns.
After
☄️ Impact: Empowering Military Mental Health Support Utilization
The redesign of the SBHP platform has achieved significant positive outcomes:
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Stakeholder Satisfaction: All key stakeholders, including the MFRI, SBHP, and CDP teams, expressed satisfaction with the designs, rationale, and testing results.
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Design Adoption: The new designs are now being used as guiding principles for the front-end development of the new site, ensuring a consistent and user-friendly experience. Design recommendations for UX copy and accessibility have also been taken into consideration.
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Quantifiable Improvements: Testing revealed a 96% success rate among users, with notable improvements.
These improvements demonstrate the redesign's potential to significantly enhance military personnel's access to and utilization of mental health support services via the SBHP platform.