Teens Navigating the Talk

Teens Navigating the Talk

Dr. Riana Anderson, founder and CEO of RACE Space Inc., came to me with a vision for how to help teens and youth of color talk about, cope with, and confront racism. Together we formed the foundations of a mental health app driven by years of her and her team’s clinical research. The main goal of my work was to allow RACE Space Inc. to have productive conversations with financial backers and software developers in order to further bring this app to life. Teens Navigating the Talk is currently in the process of being launched on the App Store.

CLIENT

RACE Space Inc.

MY ROLE

Research

Product Design

DURATION

5 months

Jan 2023 - June 2023

THE TEAM

Just me!

Balsamiq

Figma

Zoom

TOOLS

THE PROBLEM…

In today's society, young adolescents of color often encounter racial discrimination of many different forms. If youth are not properly prepared for this type of negativity, they can internalize this racial stress, leading to increased levels of stress and possibly adoption of unhealthy coping behaviors.

THE GOAL…

Teens Navigating the Talk aims to serve as mental health tool that youth of color and use to learn about various forms of racial discrimination and how best to address and cope with them. Through clinically-supported educational content and additional mental health resources, this app acts as a socializing agent promoting better life for adolescents of color.

BENCHMARKING…

Before diving into sketching and mapping out this platform, I wanted to understand if there are other platforms that are aiming to accomplish similar goals and how they go about this. My competitive analysis led me to examine many different mental health apps such as Headspace and Calm. I also ended up looking at educational platforms targeting kids or younger individuals, including Khan Academy and BrainPop to see how their design approaches differ from older audiences.

VALUE PROPOSITION AND USE CASES…

Dr. Riana Anderson and I worked together to craft a value proposition for Teens Navigating the Talk, one that allows the platform to stand out amongst the existing landscape and persuade users and stakeholders to engage.

“Teens Navigating the Talk is an educational web-based platform that acts as a socializing agent for young adolescents to learn about racial discrimination and healthy coping behaviors, in order to help prevent them from internalizing the stress.”

We then proceeded to define primary use cases that outline to stakeholders how the app is envisioned to be used by its users.

  1. As a high schooler who has just faced intense online racial discrimination, I want to feel supported by a platform that can swiftly guide me to the necessary attention for my immediate health and well being.

  2. As a victim of continuous racial bullying at school, I want to learn about coping skills I can use to healthily deal with frustration in uncomfortable settings.

  3. As a young adolescent who is curious about a slur that I heard a classmate use towards me at school, I want to learn about other forms of racial discrimination in a constructive way so as to prepare for me for possible future incidents.

  4. As one of the only black students in a predominantly white area, I want to hear from other kids my age who share my experiences so as to feel like I’m not alone. 

  5. As a teen who was just racially targeted, I want to access a support tool that helps me ground myself through breathing exercises so that I can regulate my emotions and reactions on my own.

  6. As a middle schooler who has just faced an incident of racial discrimination, I want to be able to access professional mental help resources so as to centralize my tool of support in one digital environment.

LOW-FIDELITY WIREFRAMES…

I wanted to start by providing my client with two options for the landing page. I decided to start here because this dictates how the rest of the app will unfold. The two options are shown below:

Once my client chose the option on the left, I began building out an initial draft of the other screens of the app. Below are iterations of the registration process composed of a onboarding video, user survey, wellness pretest, and problem definition via chat bot.

HIGH-FIDELITY WIREFRAMES…

Due to time constraints, I focused high fidelity efforts on wireframes that communicate the main functionality and mission of the app. The style for these frames were developed according to a style guide for the app, developed by a product manager brought onto the team later on.

High-fidelity wireframes for first time users

High-fidelity wireframes for a returning user experiencing a stressful interaction

IMPACT…

My work was passed along to a software development team that has since been building the app for launch on the app store. My designs were also later used in focus groups with youth of color, which I had the opportunity to observe and help lead. The high-fidelity wireframes I created were shown to elicit feedback on app journey and assess impressions from youth. I synthesized the findings from this focus group by thematic analysis and reported major themes to the Product Manager.

TAKEAWAYS…

This experience taught me about the unpredictable nature of app development. One of the key challenges was the frequent switching of software development teams by the CEO, which allowed me to practice clearly and effectively communicating the app concept to each new team. We also faced rapidly changing deadlines and periods where the CEO was unavailable which showed me the importance of working efficiently and maximizing productivity whenever I had the opportunity to collaborate with the CEO. Overall, this experience honed my adaptability and reinforced the need for clear communication and efficient time management in the notoriously fast-paced environment of app development.