Developing a Mental Health and Wellness App for College Students
Mental health is a critical concern for college students, yet many struggle to access the resources they need. This case study outlines the research conducted to inform the development of an app that connects UC San Diego students with on-campus mental health and wellness resources.
Role
UX Research Intern
Jr. Product Manager
Timeline
July 2023 - March 2024
Methods
Generative research
Workshops
In-depth interviews
Surveys
Service blueprint
Tools
Qualtrics
Figma
Miro
Airtable
BACKGROUND AND CHALLENGE
Between 2020 and 2023, UC San Diego’s Student Health Services reported a sharp increase in mental health-related incidents, highlighting the growing need for accessible and engaging support resources. However, barriers such as stigma, lack of awareness, and difficulty navigating existing resources prevented many students from seeking help.
Research Goal: To understand student needs, identify pain points, and design an accessible, user-friendly digital solution that enhances mental health and wellness engagement.
MY ROLE
As a UX research intern, I played a key role in the discovery phase of the project. My primary responsibilities included:
Conducting in-depth interviews with UC San Diego health experts to understand student engagement with on-campus services.
Creating a comprehensive service blueprint of UC San Diego's mental health and wellness services.
Developing and facilitating discovery and co-design workshops to explore feature ideas.
Designing, developing and analyzing surveys.
Generating data-driven recommendations for feature development.
Following my research internship, I transitioned into a Junior Product Manager role, taking on broader responsibilities in roadmap planning and product strategy. In this position, I worked closely with designers, developers, and key stakeholders to drive collaboration and align priorities.
RESEARCH PROCESS
In-Depth Interviews and Stakeholder Workshops
To kickoff our research, we conducted stakeholder interviews and workshops with UC San Diego health providers and university administrators.
I led one-on-one interviews to explore healthcare operations from the provider’s perspective and designed a stakeholder workshop featuring brainstorming activities and prioritization exercises.
These efforts provided valuable insights into student mental health needs and service gaps, guiding the development of a comprehensive service blueprint that mapped the relationships between various service components and processes.
2. Student Survey
With a deeper understanding of UC San Diego’s mental health and wellness services, we turned our focus to the students. We conducted a survey that reached a diverse student population, collecting over 300 responses on:
Awareness and usage of campus mental health services.
Barriers to accessing wellness resources.
Preferences for app features and digital mental health support.
3. Co-Design and Ideation Workshop with Students
The survey data highlighted key pain points and opportunities for improvement. To further explore these topics, I facilitated a co-design and ideation workshop with students. This workshop provided us with rich qualitative insights into students’ mental health and wellness challenges, while allowing us to collaboratively brainstorm solutions for our platform.
FINDINGS AND RECOMMENDATIONS
Based on our research, we identified core themes that shaped our design approach and informed the prototyping of our platform’s core features.
Students Need a Centralized Resource Hub
Finding: Many students found it difficult to navigate existing mental health services.
Recommendation: Develop a unified app experience with a personalized dashboard featuring events, support groups, and wellness activities.
Scheduling and Flexibility Are Key Barriers
Finding: Students struggled with rigid counseling schedules and busy academic workloads.
Recommendation: Implement flexible scheduling tools, including anonymous chat support and on-demand self-help resources.
Engagement Requires a Personalized Approach
Finding: A one-size-fits-all model didn’t resonate.
Recommendation: Use AI-driven insights to tailor content recommendations, ensuring students receive relevant mental health support.
Awareness & Alternative Support Options Need Improvement
Finding: Most students were unaware of alternative mental health services beyond one-on-one therapy.
Recommendation: Highlight peer support groups, workshops, and group therapy options within the app.
CURRENTLY…
Our design, research, and development teams are collaborating to create user flows, IA diagrams, and feature specifications to shape the app’s user experience. Given the challenge of integrating multiple campus services with different APIs and authentication methods, mapping navigation paths is crucial to understanding technical requirements and identifying potential friction points.
Next steps include developing wireframes, refining branding and the design system, and working with developers on scalability strategies and analytics tools to track user interactions.
LESSONS LEARNED
End-To-End Product Development
In contrast to previous projects, where I focused my research on specific features or aspects of a product, this project exposed me to the entire product development lifecycle—from ideation and planning to design, development, testing, and launch. This deepened my understanding of UX strategy, feasibility constraints, and stakeholder collaboration.
Collaboration
I cannot overstate the significance of cross-collaboration. None of this work would have been possible without the expertise of the engineers, designers, health experts, scientists, and students I collaborated with.