CAPSChat
Problem Statement
The Counseling and Psychological Services department (CAPS) at U of M often lacks the capacity to deal with the caseloads of tens of thousands of students, and students often have to wait up to 8 months for an appointment. In order to deal with more spontaneous mental health needs of university students and employees, some sort of hotline should be created and employed.
How can I create an interface that encourages efficiency of use (due to the urgency of the needs of the user), according to the 10 basic heuristics of of UX/UI design, as well as concepts such as Miller's Law and the Law of Proximity and Similarity?
Central Question
Tools
-
Figma
-
This was my first academic exercise in creating a mockup for a digital interface. Thus, there was a lot of trial and error in organizing the elements of the interface. Eventually, I was told by a peer to utilize the grid feature on Figma, which is a tool that's come in handy when working on other projects.
-
I also learned the value of imitating design trends, according to heuristic #4 (consistency and standards). Many mobile apps provided to University of Michigan students follow the same trends, and I tried to follow them when designing this mockup. For example, in the University of Michigan App, there's a dark blue toolbar, with grey icons, with selected icons highlighted in a yellow. In order to increase user familiarity, I followed the same pattern in the toolbar of the CAPSChat interface (see right).
Lessons Learned
Michigan
CAPSChat
