Socialheads

Bridging the gap between clinical and human

Youth (ages 13–21) in vulnerable situations can often face constant barriers to consistent communication with support workers. Support workers themselves can find it difficult to differentiate urgency and maintain privacy with traditional platforms, which can either be too informal lacking safeguarding features, or too clinical preventing genuine engagement from developing.

The Socialheads team had already engaged in user research with support workers, asking a range of questions across existing tools, requirements needed in such an app, and relaying experiences communicating with young people over a mix of different tools.

After synthesising over 260 analysis points and distilling them into main themes, I had to think about what would be both an achievable and desirable feature add. As emphasised by the Socialheads founder and product designer, context and environment dictate communication styles. I thought that focusing on the user's context to inform a differentiated product positioning would be the most important thing to focus on, with a view to increase youth engagement.

I first explored 2 different potential user flows in a free-flowing brainstorm, talking through my initial ideas with the founder. My initial thoughts surrounding the first exploratory user flow above was around eliminating youth frustration with having to 'start over' with a new caseworker. I found in the interview quotes that many caseworkers and youth were both frustrated in different ways with the handover process that can often happen in these cases. Young people feel they don't want to recount their life stories again to someone new, and caseworkers find that forming a new and lasting connection again can be difficult.

While I thought this was an interesting concept to explore, we ultimately rejected this concept for a couple of reasons:

• The research showed 'young people don't frequently complete tasks and check emails / reminders', revealing that relying on advance notifications and forms to fill didn't align with usage patterns
• The proposed 'checklist of communication items' could add barriers rather than facilitating natural communication

The approach we did decide to pursue was Flow 2, where the concept was to streamline communication with an embedded mode selection and contextual communication options, i.e. if the user was in their home or at school. We thought this would address core issues as noted in the research:

• Supports both 'school mode' for structured communication and 'home mode' for more flexible options
• Enables visual communication (whiteboard/draw) and voice notes, addressing the need that 'tone and language must be considered and tailored to the client'
• The options for different communication styles can accommodate various comfort levels of the client in a simple and intuitive interface

To attempt to establish scalability and consistency across the app, I established a comprehensive design system encompassing clean fonts, calming colors, and an adaptive component library. It was an interesting challenge trying to design an interface that could serve different situations, such as a youth in crisis and a youth casually checking in with their caseworker.

While formal usability testing was not conducted within the project timeline, the designs were presented back to the founder to validate business positioning and differentiation strategy, and the Founding Designer for a technical feasibility review and design system scalability.

Overall there was strong enthusiasm for the adaptive mode system as a key differentiator. One of the main feedback points that could be explored or taken forward by the team was the suggestion for offline functionality as critical for local authority procurement. There were some other questions and discussions around the feasibility of 'AI detection' of sentiment in the pictures drawn or in alarming language used within the app.

Final project deliverables in addition to the presentation:

• Complete design system (50+ components) ready for developer handoff
• 10+ high-fidelity screens across young person app, worker app, and web dashboard
• Interactive Figma prototype demonstrating adaptive mode flows
• Design documentation for accessibility, responsive behavior, and animation specifications

Validated "space between consumer messaging and clinical case management" positioning.

What Went Well

• Research-driven approach ensured design decisions aligned with real user needs, not assumptions
• Adaptive mode system successfully balanced flexibility with simplicity
• Design system foundation supports rapid scaling without UI fragmentation
• Visual expression tools emerged as unexpected differentiator through user feedback

What Could Be Improved

• Earlier technical feasibility discussions would have surfaced AI detection limitations sooner
• More worker involvement in dashboard design (research skewed toward young people)
• Formal usability testing would validate interaction patterns before development investment
• Offline functionality needs deeper technical architecture exploration

Key Learnings

1. Vulnerable user design requires trauma-informed thinking: Assumptions about "standard" app behavior (notifications, forced logins, data persistence) can be re-traumatizing. Design for agency and control.
2. Adaptive interfaces are cognitively complex: Clear mental models and visible system status are critical. Users need to understand why the interface changed and how to change it back.
3. Business viability requires dual-audience satisfaction: Young people drive engagement (the product), but local authorities control procurement (the business). Design must serve both without compromise.
4. Visual expression is underutilized in mental health tech: Drawing, color, and metaphor reduce language barriers and emotional labor. This should be primary input, not supplementary.