Case Study
A mobile app built for survivors
Project type: End-to-end app + branding
Role: Sole UX/UI designer + brand designer
Industry: Social networking & Education
Tools: Figma, Miro, Gsuite, Trello, Adobe Creative Suite, Flutterflow, Firebase
Duration: Q1, 2, 3 2024
DISCOVER
1 in 3 WOMEN
(1.35 billion)
Worldwide experience abuse in their lifetime
Research
Why survivors of abuse?
Based on existing research on survivors of abuse + barriers to support
Learning 1 - Barriers
Survivors face systemic barriers to accessing support, with only 35% finding it “easy or very easy” to get help, while services remain underfunded and overwhelmed.
Learning 2 - Isolation
Victim isolation is the most pervasive form of abuse, cutting survivors off from support networks and resources.
Learning 3 - Education
Education on abuse is incomplete—non-physical forms of abuse and post-separation challenges are rarely addressed.
Learning 4 - Mental health
Survivors’ mental health needs are often unmet due to stigma, legal repercussions, and inaccessible resources.
User interviews
I conducted interviews with 20 survivors of abuse at different stages of their journey.
Expected outcomes
Understand the specific barriers survivors encounter when seeking support.
Identify the key types of support survivors feel are missing or underdeveloped.
Determine the essential features that would make an app useful, effective, and safe for survivors of abuse.
Insight 1 - Isolation
85% of survivors reported feeling isolated due to abuse, which disconnected them from their support systems.
Insight 2 - Mental health
75% of survivors found it difficult to access services like therapy because of systemic barriers and backlogged systems.
Insight 3 - Resources
100% of survivors emphasized the need for safe and accessible resources that help them feel empowered and informed.
Insight 4 - Education
90% of survivors shared that they struggled to identify abuse due to limited education on its different forms beyond physical violence.
Insight 5 - Support
100% of survivors shared that they didn’t feel they were given adequate support from DV services, stating again due to backlogged systems.
Insight 6 - Community
90% of survivors expressed a desire for community support to connect with others who understand their experiences.
Is there a disconnect between what survivors need and what they have access to?
According to user interviews… survivors know what they need to recover, but existing systems often fail to meet these needs due to:
Fragmented services that make accessing support overwhelming.
Stigma and shame that discourage survivors from seeking help.
A lack of funding and capacity in available services, leaving many without critical support.
Competitive research
The competitor analysis revealed key insights into the strengths and weaknesses of existing trauma support, mental health, and social networking platforms.
Strengths: Many apps provide helpful directories, crisis hotline access, educational content, and crisis safety.
Weaknesses: Existing solutions focus on either crisis intervention or education but do not provide long-term, community-driven recovery support.
Opportunities: Thrival has an opportunity to create a safe, supportive, and well-moderated community that combines peer support, professional resources, and structured healing paths in a way that current platforms do not.
User personas + journeys
After conducting research on survivor needs and competitor analysis, I distilled common pain points, motivations, and behavioral patterns into user personas and user journeys.
User personas, representing different survivor archetypes, their challenges, goals, and emotional needs.
Victims in crisis
Survivors
Family & friends looking to support
Therapists
Journey maps, visualizing user interactions and pain points in their support seeking process.
DEFINE
Brainstorming solutions
Using the How Might We (HMW) framework, I brainstormed as many solution ideas as possible. Recognising the complexity of survivors’ needs, I aimed to create an app with a simple, intuitive interface that prioritises accessibility, safety, and empowerment. By focusing on the problem space and research findings, I defined clear product goals to guide the development process and reduce barriers to entry for survivors.
HMW Question:
How might we create a trauma-informed digital space that empowers survivors of abuse to access support, resources, and community in a safe and meaningful way?
Product Goals
Prioritize Safety: Implement features like safety assessments, personalized safety planning, and cover app, pin, and exit buttons.
Foster Community and Connection: Enable survivors to create and join peer-support groups with in-app messaging moderated for safety and inclusivity.
Provide Accessible Resources: Offer tailored recommendations, educational content, and wellness tools that meet survivors where they are in their healing journey.
Simplify the User Experience: Focus on intuitive navigation and design to ensure accessibility for users of varying tech literacy levels.
Feature survey
After conducting a feature survey with 10 survivors of domestic abuse, I gained significant insights into the features they would find most beneficial in an app specifically designed for survivors. The survey revealed key priorities and preferences that directly informed the development of the MVP.
High Demand for Security Features:
The strong preference for privacy and security features, such as a fake pin and cover app, guided the inclusion of these tools in the MVP to ensure user safety.
Focus on Usability:
While users appreciated a simpler interface, the majority indicated a preference for a comprehensive interface with additional features valuing robust functionality to meet all their needs.
Need for Comprehensive Support:
The survey showed that survivors value a wide range of resources, mental health tools and educational content. Secure messaging was identified as a particularly important feature for support.
DEVELOP
Information architecture initial sketches
Initial rapid prototypes of main pages
Low-fidelity prototype
User flows
Where and how will the user achieve the product goals?
Flows for Usability Testing
The following were defined as the primary flows necessary for testing if our product meets our product goals:
Home page with personalised content and search
Safety page with personalised assessment and resource directories
Community page with in-app messaging
Wellness page with wellness content and therapists profiles
Profile with dashboard for saved content and settings
Onboarding with account login, and questions to personlise content
I laid out the sitemap using our product goals and referencing the language and app organisation of our competitors. Before diving into the weeds of the branches of the sitemap, I decided to focus my attention on the pages of the app that would most likely need to be created for usability testing.
User testing
I conducted moderated usability tests of the 4 user flows with 4 Survivors (2 in-person and 2 via Zoom).
Priority Revisions
Usability testing revealed multiple opportunities for improvement and user questions that led to new ideas. I sorted the new ideas/issues based on their potential impact on the product goals, frequency in usability testing, and estimated effort required.
While all users completed the tasks successfully, I wanted to help users feel more confident by improving overall clarity and achieving their goals.
Branding
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Competitors
I began the brand design process by exploring DV branding and found many felt corporate and impersonal. Wellness brands also lacked a human touch.
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Inspiration
Inspired by the diverse user base, I aimed for a creative, relatable design that evoked humor, connection, and strength. I landed on postmodernism. An unstable mix of theatrical and theoretical.
Branding Thrival
DELIVER
High-fidelity prototype
How does the Thrival app address user needs?
The problem: Survivors of abuse have complex needs and often face barriers to support that are often fragmented and overwhelming to navigate.
The solution: A comprehensive app designed to personalised support survivors of abuse at each stage of their journey. Providing safety tools, education, resources, and wellness to support the complex needs in one place.
