Tools
Figma & Shopify
Mimente Activo
Mimente Activo is a mental health service where coaches guide you through a therapy session while you engage in an exercise of your choice, either remotely or in person.
Role
Design Consultant
Client
Project Type
Human Centered Design & UX/UI Design
Tools
Figma
Timeframe
12 weeks
.png)
Design Problem
Mimente, an online therapy service based in Mexico, identified a unique opportunity to provide Latin Americans in the US with therapists who share a cultural background and language as their patients.
Mimente asked us to design a mental health service for members of the Latine community in the United States to aid them in expanding to US markets.
Background Research
Legal Research
Research on Cultural Space
Language
Family Values
Machismo
We started off by researching the legality of providing therapy based in Mexico to patients based in the United States. Mimente could provide telehealth services NOT based out of California if:
The therapist holds a California license that is current and active and they follow standards for telehealth outlined here.
OR
If they are a California associate with a current and active registration and are permitted to practice out of state by their supervisor.
Coaching, on the other hand, is not regulated.
The language used within the Latine community to refer to mental health is strongly stigmatized to the point that it’s acting as a barrier to accessing care.
Parents want their children to be healthy, but because of the stigma surrounding mental health, they prefer more “natural” methods of wellness.
Many latino men expressed feelings of internalized masculinity and struggles grappling with their emotions due to societal and familial expectations to be self-reliant.
Empathy Interviews
After doing background research on the problem space, we conducted 10 empathy interviews with people who identify as one or more of the following: Latino/a/e, people who use mental health services, and people who work in mental health services.
Hover over each key concept to see an example of some of the quotes that confirmed themes we identified in our literature review.
Personas
We created a family of personas after identifying family as central to Latin Culture and attitudes towards mental health. We identified that gender and generation were huge factors in someone’s attitude towards therapy.
Laura is a mother who moved to the US in her late 20s. She speaks English and Spanish, but only speaks the latter in her household. She grew up in a tight-knit community where mental health was never discussed and heavily stigmatized.
Her views on mental health are complex. She is skeptical of therapy; she doesn’t know much about mental health and how it’s perceived in the US. She associates therapy with severe mental distress, and does not know the difference between psychologists and psychiatrists. She is cautious about mental health services prescribing medication for emotional issues, which she is strongly against. Although she has reservations about therapy, she acknowledges its potential benefits for her children and tries to be open to it because she wants the best for her kids.
Early Prototyping
After doing some large scale brainstorming we prototyped a design for each of our personas.
Hover on each prototype to understand how it connects each persona with mental healthcare.
Sherpa Onboarding
For Mother
Mimente Activo
For Son
Find a Therapist
For Daughter
Laura is skeptical of therapy and believes that it is not for her. She would never pay to go to therapy, but could potentially be open to her children seeing one if they really needed it.
By making Mimente’s app, Sherapa, free and public, it could act as an entry point for people who are reluctant to the idea of full on therapy. Rather then giving clients access to Sherpa after they start using Mimente, we believe you should use it as a pathway which leads people to Mimente services. Sherpa acts as a lower stakes, less intimidating aid for metal health. The app could have Mimente “ads”/promotions for users who are not currently seeing a Mimente therapist
Miguel is uncomfortable with the idea of going to therapy but knows he could benefit from talking to someone about his feelings.
Mimente Activo allows a coach to accompany you while doing a form of exercise of your choosing while guiding you through a therapy session at the same time! This product attempts to make therapy less intimidating by building on a tool people already use to take care of their mental and physical health, exercise. It also builds on the connection between the well-being of the mind and body that our interviewees expressed as a strong latine value.
.jpg)
Maria is open to therapy and feels she would benefit from it, but can’t afford the long process it takes to find a therapist.
Inspired by Hinge, a dating app for those who want to seek a serious relationship, this function serves as an easier and less overwhelming way to look at potential therapists. Some therapy
searching websites give you too much information, so with this “Hinge” format, we’re showing an easier way to access and reach out to therapists.
Extreme User
Through our interviews we identified men as our extreme user, they were the least familiar with mental health services and most reluctant to try them. After being asked how they work through their emotions, many men said that physical exercise was a huge outlet to process and work through their issues.
By designing for a user that experiences extreme barriers to mental healthcare we were able to design the most innovative solution, creating a product that considers users at all different levels of comfort with therapy.
We asked ourselves, how can we rebrand therapy to make it less intimidating for men?
ACTIVO
Mimente Activo attempts to make therapy less foreign and intimidating by building on a tool that lots of people already use to care for their mental and physical health: Exercise! The product also connects the well-being of the mind and body, a strong value within Latin Culture that our interviewees expressed.
Our app facilitates the coach-user interaction and allows users to track both their physical and mental health progress.
Testing and Iteration
We did multiple rounds of testing to reach the final product above.
Hover over each test to see what iteration it led us to.
Coach or Therapist?
Matching With a Therapist
Remote or In-person?
%20(2)_edited_jp.jpg)
We asked 5 people if they preferred the term coach or therapist in the context of this product.
All preferred coaching.
_edited.jpg)
We asked 4 people if they would prefer swiping through therapists or taking a quiz for matches.
All preferred getting matched with 3-5 therapists.
%20(1)_edited_jp.jpg)
