Common Threads
transforming student mental health & wellbeing through service design
problem statement
How can we address and improve conditions related to mental health and wellbeing among incoming students in the College of Fine Arts (CoFA) at the University of Texas, Austin?
approach
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Utilized participatory user-research to directly understand user's needs
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Used journey maps, card sorts, and immersion as research tools
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Employed service design blueprinting and architecture bubble diagram to enrich our concept's ideas
project summary
My Role
Team
​Dates
Tools
Client
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Service Designer & Researcher
4 Service Designers
5 Months - Aug to Dec 2024
Miro, Canva
HealthyHorns
University of Texas at Austin
outcome
We created a design proposal and service design blueprint for our stakeholders at the University to generate more buy-in to support mental health and wellbeing for Fine Arts students. The project is currently undergoing review to designate a physical space and to secure funding.
Working in a 5 month long project, my team and I tackled the challenge of addressing mental health and wellbeing needs of incoming College of Fine Arts (CoFA) students.
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Using a service design framework, we created a concept called Common Threads which is a third space ​that is designed to function as a tool for the students to build community and have access convenient wellbeing resources.
overview
table of contents
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01
research
The first step in our research process was conducting secondary research. Secondary research included literature review on mental health trends amongst college students, what resources were already available to students, and comparing wellness programs at other universities.
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We also decided on a more specific subsection of our target population and which were more vulnerable. We decided on undergraduate, first year CoFA students that were moving away from home for the first time.
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We then created a research field guide to decide what type of recruiting methods to use and what overarching questions we were really trying to uncover in our research process.​
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Mapping populations with high pain points and moments where the main challenges exist.
research methods
Some of the topic areas of interest included what the culture amongst CoFA was like, especially among students and faculty.​ We also wanted to know about how they felt about the value of their degree, societal pressures around them, and how this all contributed to their mental health.​
Major stressors that we identified:
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adjusting to life in a new city
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social wellbeing
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secondary responsibilities
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financials
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academics
To rapidly test these stressors, we did intercepts with card sorts. Most of the freshmen ranked academics and social wellbeing as high points of concern. Some of these intercepts lead to longer user interviews where we also conducted journey maps to get a larger overview of their experience from applying to college until that point in time.
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In-Depth Student Interviews
& Journey Maps
5
Subject Matter Expert Interviews
16
Intercepts with Card Sorts
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Immersion Research - Participating in University Health Services
Print marketing used in areas with high flows of target recruit population coming and going.
Card Sorts were used to quickly gage the how impactful each life factor was to being a new student .
Journey Maps were used to understand the emotional journey and thought process of being a fresh college student.
02
synthesis
Our process began with writing the main points of each interview onto color coded post-it notes. Our team then recapped each of the interviews to describe the key feelings and takeaways. We then moved into pattern recognition, moving post its that were of similar themes and boiling down categories to more specific patterns.
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In the creation of our insights, we leveraged the patterns and evaluated the relationship among them. That process resulted in 7 unique insights capturing the pain points and experiences of the users.
Miriam and I parsing qualitative data in the design studio
three major patterns
Mental Health and Wellbeing
Social Connection
Creativity and Self Exploration
Looking at our insights, there were some patterns that we identified. One of the themes revolve around methods to manage mental health and wellbeing. Visibility on mental health resources and finding things that make them feel connected to home are two ways that students can equip themselves to be more mentally resilient. The second theme identified discussed the importance of social connection. Having a strong, local support network, especially one where you can have psychologically safe conversations around mental health is key to cultivating positive feelings about being in a new environment. These conversations even extended out of their peer networks and into the importance of feeling supported by the staff and faculty at the university. Finally, the last theme was around creativity and self-exploration. Having a healthy relationship and confidence in their identity as a creative can be a catalyst for many benefits, setting them up to thrive for years to come.
Social Connection
"In the beginning, it [UT] made me feel like I didn't belong here, but after that 1st week and I was seeing familiar faces, I felt like I do belong here, I can make something good out of my life."
Freshmen, Arts and Entertainment Technology Major
Freshmen, Art Studio Major
Mental Health and Wellbeing
"I don't think I would necessarily know how to go about looking that stuff [mental health resources] up."
Freshmen, Design Major
“The first time I ever reached out to get help was when I was going through my breakup with my ex. I was exhausted. Talking to someone really helped me get clarity on the whole situation.”
Freshmen, Art History Major
"[CoFA's culture about mental health] isn't hush-hush or anything, people here are super welcoming. It's just I haven't heard anything yet and I can't say if that’s a good or bad thing."
Creativity and Self Exploration
"I feel a lot of clarity and creativity when I draw or journal. It makes me feel calm. I find a lot more inspiration when I am in a better mindset"
Freshmen, Art Studio Major
"The best work an artist can create is when they're inspired to the point of frenzy, not when they're under a deadline. To an outsider this might look like the same thing, but it's not."
Freshmen, Art Studio Major
03
ideate
In our ideation process, we used some service design tools such as cause and effect mapping as well as ecosystem maps to better under the scope. We chose these two insights as a they are high pain points. It is also generalizable for the variety of CoFA students and the high threshold for positive impact if we were to address it.
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establishing early on support enables mental resilience
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art as a medium for self expression supports mental health
We used the following How Might We statements to further think about how we could identify gaps and leverage available resources.
Cause & Effect Ecosystem Map
How Might We...
identify qualities of effective spaces that promote vulnerability so that students can organically establish support networks?
provide resources to CoFA students so that they have the opportunity to utilize new artistic mediums to explore their crafts?
create opportunities for students to use art as a tool for self-introspection and personal growth during their transition?
design the physical spaces within CoFA to enrich the student's natural inclination towards self-exploration?
insight themes shaping design principles
Looking at our insights, themes, and How Might We's, our team crafted 5 design principles that we would reference during our ideation process.
These were derived from the main patterns that we identified from the insights. We saw that factors such as social interaction and creative freedom were key parts to addressing the pain points students might have regarding mental health.
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Incorporating these design principles would ensure that our research would translate into our concepts.
creative freedom
encourage social interaction
renewed sense of artistic joy
mindfulness through art
inclusive of all CoFA majors
concept development and stakeholder pitch
We ideated 4 concepts that we we considered to be viable services to be vehicles of our design hypothesis. Each of our concepts were pitched to our stakeholder, HealthyHorns. This organization operates under the University Health Services who deals with all of the health concerns for those at the University. They are tasked to enhance the health and well-being of students’ bodies, minds and lives which is directly linked to their academic and personal goals.
Some of the factors that we considered when discussing the concepts were the feasibility, which included how we could leverage existing models to build our concept off of. We also looked at outcome, process, and emotional metrics which gave us insight on how we would measure for improvement and validity of the project.
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hover to learn more​
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Capital City Collective
Community building program that allows students that are new to Austin to participate in fun, exploration based activities that allow them to form new bonds with their peers.
Capital City Collective
A weekend retreat for freshmen to connect through creativity and wellness. Taking trips to nearby areas to Austin and bonding over novel experiences contribute to building friendships.
CoFA Getaways
CoFA Getaways
CoFA Learns
In order to facilitate peraonsal connection, a level of consistent in interaction should be had. Allowing students to participate in a weekly, low-stakes class would allow them to befriend their peers while having a space to explore their creativity.
CoFA Learns
A re-imagined communal space for CoFA students that promotes inclusivity, social interaction and collaboration through social events and a shared passion for art.
CoFA Hub
CoFA Hub
selected concept & hypothesis
​From the four concepts we ideated, we selected our CoFA Learns idea based on the hypothesis that structured weekly classes would facilitate meaningful and formative bonds.
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The concept functioned as follows:
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Once weekly classes through the fall semester
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Low-stakes curriculum based around building relationships, mental health and wellbeing, and independent living
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Enable incoming students to connect with one another through their shared passion for creativity during small, creative, in-class group projects
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Forced social interactions among students breeds bond and familiarity
Stakeholder feedback:
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​Hosting a class leverages pre-existing freshmen mandatory classes making it easier to implement CoFA Learns
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Fresh concept that leans more into student's creative tendencies
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Differed enough from other classes because of the emphasis on mental health and the collection to resources​
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prototyping
Facilitating the classroom environment for CoFA Learns
Materials used to prototype
Explaining the prototyping process for our participant
For our prototype, we had some of our past interviewees come in to be our testers. We had the students imagine they were back at their summer orientation and hear the pitch for CofA Learns class they would have to take. After signing up, they moved into a simulation of what a typical class period would look like. In order to mimic the feeling of social interaction we had members of the research team role play as fellow students. They used Play-Do to simulate a clay modeling class. However, there seemed to be a disconnect on the hypothesis of our concept and the feedback that we got.
“It’s too similar to UGS and FIGS. It’s hard to differentiate what more I’d get from this course.”
Freshmen, Art Studio Major
“I like the idea behind this, I just feel like it’ll be another responsibility I’ll have.”
Freshmen, Art Studio Major
pivoting concepts
Feedback
A structured class not only posed an additional burden for the students, but also didn’t support a space for a free flow of creativity.
Decision to Pivot
We revisited some of our design principles and analyzed them with our feedback from the prototyping process to see if there was a mistranslation in the execution.
Re-Ideation
We started the ideation process again to see how we could integrate the feedback. We made sure to prioritize the design principle of supporting unstructured creative freedom.
concept development
We asked ourselves how could we provide a service that supported a free flow of creativity and unstructured creative freedom?
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Conversation flowed, throwing ideas back and forth, considering student needs and viability of the services. Eventually we walked back into a third space concept that we had talked about during the first round of ideation.
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From there we fleshed out the concepts for the space known as
Common Threads.
Common Threads is a third-space that would be on-campus for all students in the College of Fine Arts to access. This concept would be open to all CoFA majors and class levels, to better support incoming students in building a larger community starting from their first year. Most of all, Common Threads reflects the revised design principle of unstructured creative freedom, allowing students to have choices on how they want to explore that.
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revised design principles
unstructured
creative freedom
encourage social interaction
renewed sense of artistic joy
mindfulness through art
inclusive of all CoFA majors
final concept features
Below, is a basic ideation of how our concept would visually be displayed. We created different features of the space to support the three insight themes and the design principles. The areas are segmented between types of energy it would encapsulate, whether that be focused, self work or coming to a more collaborative, social energy to work on a project with their classmates.
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Mental Health and Wellbeing
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CoFA Mental Health Counselor: location in high visibility so students can easily access mental health services
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Wellness Resources: ie. sleep kits and mindfulness journals are readily available to use
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University Health Services Advertised: linking to other health services to have full physical and mental health care
Social Connection
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Large Communal Tables: large spaces to support group work
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Food and Beverage Options: sharing healthy snacks to encourage conversation
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Freshmen Specific Activities: workshops on tips to navigate college and have small group bonds
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24/7 Access: supports open structure with more freedom and ownership over the space
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Student Art Wall: sparking conversation and sharing of personal artistic expression​​​​
Creativity and Self Exploration
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Basic Art Supplies: explore visual creativity and give themselves a medium to make art outside of the classroom
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Unstructured Agenda: the freedom to spend their time to their choosing whether that be to recharge, meditate, or practice art
Mental Health and Wellbeing
Creativity and Self Exploration
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​Weekly Creative and Mindful Prompts: ie. prompting students to make a color pencil drawing of something that makes them feel gratitude; explore their creativity and mental health through expressions of art that might be personal and self-reflective
Creativity and Self Exploration
Social Connection
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​Customizable Spaces: Flexible and modular furniture allows students to make the space suit their needs to support socializing or a greater flow of creativity
validation testing
Validation testing around creating a third space confirmed how necessary it is for creatives to have a third space. Our main set of validation testing took place in the third space of the theater building. It features a vibrant, open space fostering collaboration, connection, and creativity.
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Some of the more senior students explained to us how their third space was the lifeblood of their community. It was a place to build relationships with your peers. These relationships affect their crafts as these were the individuals in which playwrights would for actors in their next projects and which choreographers would be gathering inspiration for the upcoming musical. This space was even highlighted by the faculty as professors would casually hold open office hours in the open space.
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It showed us how vital the features of collaboration and connection was to making the theater community flourish. This is an insight that is extremely unique to our users and that feedback became a priority for us to support in our new concept. The more senior students in other majors expressed how they would have loved to had a space like this.
"The biggest downfall of the ART building is the environment it creates -- it doesn't have a great vibe to it, it's really dreary. I'd like a place that's quiet, but not silent."
"Freshmen are required to take a lot of mandatory freshmen courses and they have to take a lot of their classes together, so they don't have the opportunity to mingle with [upper class men] as much."
"We are tied to this [theater] building. It has become a huge part of our lifestyle. We got the advice from our professor, 'This is your building, own it' and we really have."
Sophomore, Art History Major
Senior, Performance Process Major
Senior, Theater Major
service design blueprint
We filled out a service blueprint to imagine what a typical experience might look like for a student coming in during the middle of day. To help think through the many features, the student utilized everything from the art supplies to picking up a healthy snack at the food station. We thought of front of house processes, back of house organization, the technology we would need, and inventory tracking. The service blueprint helped map our eventual timeline and budget proposal as we were able to see what type of supplies and software we needed.
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design proposal
stakeholder presentation
Personal Takeaways
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Don't be afraid to iterate on your ideas. The pivot during this project was definitely difficult to accept after our first round of prototyping. After each tester we had come in, it seemed like there was never really a moment of connection and true validation that our concept addressed our problem statement. Taking into account the feedback and the fact that there was a bit of unspoken uncertainty in the team on the concept showed that there was more to uncover. Having the strength to pivot lead to a concept that was more complete which, retrospectively realizing, even had more research to support the ideas.​​
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Identifying strong insights. Insights needed to be actionable and provocative. We rewrote our insights countless times to work to truly encapsulate what unique thoughts and findings we had about mental health in students. The insights that we came up with showed the nuance of the many influences that the users had in their life, from social pressures to struggling with their identity of being a creative. The insight that really stuck were the ones that articulated thoughts that we never fully materialized, but made a lot of sense regardless.