NHS TRUST · YOUTH MENTAL HEALTH · USER RESEARCH + UI DESIGN

A safe space that earns trust.

Teens, parents and clinicians form one fragile network: the Triangle of Care. I led research and design for an NHS trust product that lets teens share at their own pace, and gives clinicians a dashboard they trust.

ROLE · USER RESEARCHER · UI DESIGNER
METHODS · INTERVIEWS · SHADOWING · PROTOTYPES · 6-WEEK LAB
FRAMEWORK · UK GDS SERVICE STANDARD
NOTE · NAMES & DETAILS ANONYMISED

+0%data types collected for sharing

+0%willingness to share data

+0%engagement with clinicians

+0%trust between patients & parents

THE TRIANGLE OF CARE

01 · THE PROBLEM SPACE

Three points. One fragile network.

Every edge is a communication channel that can build trust, or quietly erode it. Hover the nodes.

The teenager CENTRE OF CARE

Wants to be understood without being watched. Sharing feels risky: too much invites overreaction, too little means no help. Needs control over what leaves their private space.

Parents & carers SUPPORT AT HOME

Want reassurance that their child is okay, but pushing for detail can shut the conversation down. Need enough visibility to support, never enough to surveil.

Clinicians PROFESSIONAL CARE

See patients for one hour a fortnight and have to reconstruct the other 335. Need signal (trends, warnings, context) in one place instead of paper notes, emails and EHR fragments.

"How can we facilitate improved communication within the Triangle of Care without compromising trust?"

THE DESIGN CHALLENGE

02 · DISCOVERY

Do research. Talk to users. Don't make assumptions.

Discovery ran on the UK GDS service standard: user needs first, no assumptions. Even the name, "Clinician Data Dashboard", follows GDS guidance: say what it does.

My role

Researcher and UI designer, leading both phases: scripts, recruitment, remote sessions, then interactive prototypes tested with the same users.

INTERVIEW SCRIPTSRECRUITMENTREMOTE SESSIONSPROTOTYPING

The users

8 users, interviewed and shadowed, plus their parents and carers. Their care-system walkthroughs became the personas below.

8 USERS+ PARENTS+ CARERSSHADOWING

PERSONA 01 · CLINIC-FIRST SHARER

Amir · 17, London

Often feels misunderstood. Opens up to clinicians: a structured, professional setting feels safer than home.

OPENS UP TO → CLINICIANS
BLOCKER → SENSITIVE TOPICS WITH PARENTS

PERSONA 02 · HOME-FIRST SHARER

Emma · 16, Derbyshire

Feels isolated and fears burdening others. Shares most easily with parents, in a familiar, informal setting.

OPENS UP TO → PARENTS
BLOCKER → CLINICAL SETTINGS FEEL EXPOSING

DrT

Dr. Thompson

CLINICAL PSYCHOLOGIST · 45 · LEAD AT THE ADOLESCENT CLINIC · CASELOAD OF 20 TEENS · 15+ YRS

The third corner of the triangle. Moderate tech proficiency, zero patience for tools that add work.

Quickly overview a patient's recent mood and activity before sessions, to target therapy where it's needed
Spot warning signs early (sustained low mood, withdrawal) and intervene
One place for patient info, instead of paper notes, emails, and the EHR

Both personas struggled with the same thing: communicating sensitive issues. The difference was only where they felt safe doing it.

THE CORE INSIGHT · A SAFE SPACE, TAILORED TO EACH COMFORT ZONE

03 · THE HYPOTHESIS & DESIGN

Let them share at their own pace.

Our hypothesis: people open up when they control the pace. So the journey has three deliberate steps.

Comfort through private reflection

A private space to record and reflect. No pressure to share, no judgment. Confidence builds one entry at a time.

Tools for emotional management

Once recording feels normal, tools help process what's there:

MOOD TRACKER log emotional states over time; see patterns and triggers

GOAL SETTING structured goals that encourage proactive steps

Seek help when ready

Knowing their own patterns lets users decide when and how to ask for help. Intentional communication instead of overwhelmed oversharing.

INTERACTIVE · TRY THE CORE LOOP

The mood diary, playable.

The ten-second daily loop, playable. Pick a day, log a mood. Nothing leaves this widget: that's the point. Sharing is a separate, deliberate choice.

My mood in spring MOOD TRACKER ›

Pick a day above, then tap how it felt. Only you can see this.

Four screens of the mood tracker mobile app — **The patient app · track, plan, reflect**MOBILE UI

Clinician dashboard: appointments and secure chat — **Clinician Data Dashboard · today's appointments, shared diary entries, secure chat**DESKTOP UI

Clinician dashboard: patient overview — **Patient overview · mood timeline & alert flags before each session**DESKTOP UI

Patient journey map: after, with the mobile diary app — **The journey, after · gentle prompts, private mood chart, sharing only if chosen**JOURNEY MAP

WATCH IT MOVE

The prototype, on tape.

A capture of the proof-of-concept in motion: the daily prompt, the mood log, the private chart building up day by day. This is the exact build our eight users tested in the office every week for six weeks.

04 · PROOF, NOT PROMISES

Six weeks. In the room. Every week.

No app budget yet, so we built a proof of concept and brought users into the office, every week for six weeks, watching them use it and interviewing in real time.

WEEKS 1–2 · BASELINE

First contact with the portal. Friction mapped, emotional responses logged next to functional feedback.

WEEKS 3–4 · ITERATION

Post-session conversations became fixes: mood tracking enhanced, goal-setting simplified, flows smoothed.

WEEKS 5–6 · MOMENTUM

The biggest shift: how users talked to their parents. More understood, more supported, steadier week by week.

CLINICIAN PILOT · WORKED

All 5 clinicians navigated the prototype successfully and found the data useful. Favourites: the patient timeline graph and the alert flag on concerning entries.

CLINICIAN PILOT · FIXED

We'd labelled the mood graph "Wellbeing Score over 4 weeks" and two clinicians couldn't tell if higher meant better or worse. Renamed to plain language: "Mood (1 = low, 10 = high)." Clarity beats cleverness.

PROCESS ARCHIVE

Meeting Amir and Emma persona slides — **Meeting Amir & Emma**PERSONAS

Process slide — **Framing the problem**PROCESS

Testing portal screenshot — **The testing portal**LAB

Testing session screenshot — **Session artefacts**LAB

Empowering them to share at their own pace was the key to healthier communication. The testing didn't just validate the design, it changed relationships.

OUTCOME · SIX-WEEK IN-PERSON STUDY