Overview
Pride Counseling is a therapy service focused on serving the LGBTQ+ community through specialized counselors, virtual meetings, messaging, and other tools. As a former user of Pride Counseling, I became very familiar with the app and, naturally, noticed opportunities for improvements in terms of user experience and interface.
As an exercise, I decided to redesign the interface for the Pride Counseling app to be more modern and pleasurable to use. To do this, I started by analyzing the current interface (below) to highlight improvement opportunities.
Findings
The first thing I noticed was the aging interface. Since users tend to respond better to experiences that are aesthetically pleasing and easy to use, I knew I had to steer closer to a minimalist design.
Second, I noticed the app didn't do a great job of showing all the tools available to the user. Things like Groupinars (essentially support groups) and patient resources were nested in places the user wouldn't necessarily look unless they were curiously clicking in the app. As a former user, I only clicked into Messaging and was hardly aware of these resources.
Third, I noticed how the app didn't seem to complement the therapy experience directly. Therefore, I thought it would be good to showcase your therapist's recommendations, have reminders for medications and upcoming sessions, as well as a thoughtful note-taking experience.
The Result
To address these problems, I started by creating a dedicated Home screen. Here, the user could get an overview of their action items, reminders, and upcoming seminars from their therapist. Pride Counseling resources are showcased instead of being hidden away.
Instead of a Nav bar at the bottom of the interface taking up space, I opted for a drawer navigation menu behind the Pride Counseling Logo. I felt like the user should be focused on the task at hand instead of having navigation items constantly screaming for attention. Having the drawer navigation also allowed for more real estate for navigation items.
For the journaling section, I made it easy for users to review their most recent entries and see trends in their writing. I also added a persistent compose button in the lower right corner to quickly begin a new entry.
UI illustrations sourced from Icons8 at icons8.com.
