Designing & Develop a Safe Emotional Experience for a Mental Health Platform

Project Owner

Listens

Research & Analytics

Brand & Experience

Business & Operation Optimization

Overview

The project marked the development of Listens from a validated concept into a minimum viable product (MVP), guided by prior user research and strategic insight. Listens was designed to provide a safe, non-clinical emotional support space by connecting two user roles Storyteller and Listener through an end-to-end chat experience. Collaborative work across design and technology teams ensured that each feature, from onboarding and matchmaking to session flow and feedback, reflected the intended emotional depth and psychological safety.

Objectives

Build and test the MVP of Listens based on insights from prior user research
Design user journeys and flows that support role-based interaction (Listener & Storyteller)
Conduct usability testing to evaluate user experience and feature alignment
Support internal training and user onboarding through emotional readiness materials

Impact

Created a role-based onboarding and user journey that increased clarity and emotional safety during interactions.
Developed an end-to-end chat experience that supported users before, during, and after storytelling sessions.
Improved usability and emotional alignment by testing with 5 representative users, resulting in refined flows and more intuitive session closure.
Launched an in-platform Active Listening training, setting a standard for ethical and empathetic engagement among Listeners.

Approach

Translated prior emotional / behavioral research into actionable design features such as user profiling, matchmaking flows, and emotional preparation touchpoints.
Built a prototype journey rooted in both emotional design and functional UX for two distinct user types.
Conduct usability testing to evaluate user experience and feature alignment.
Prioritized inclusivity, ethical communication, and emotional flow as guiding principles throughout the platform’s design.

Process

Insight Translation: Mapped behavioral personas into distinct role-based user flows (Storyteller & Listener).
Wireframing & Prototyping: Created low-to-high fidelity flows with emotional alignment touchpoints, producing a clickable prototype.
Usability Testing: Ran 5 sessions with representative users to identify UX frictions and emotional dissonance, and applied those findings to improve onboarding and session closure.
Program Design: Co-created an Active Listening training module delivered to Listeners to ensure communication standards, ethics, and support readiness.
Iteration: Based on qualitative data, iterated UI and interaction patterns to refine clarity, safety, and ease of use.