The Central Ohio Counseling Association desired to add a counselor directory to its website. This directory allows members to create free profiles for prospective clients to search, filter, and find a well-fitting mental health counselor. The design process was highly collaborative and involved working with COCA executives and members to flush out and refine the directory requirements. The essential requirements included allowing users to search various relevant fields to find a counselor and for a counselor to add a new profile with pertinent information for potential clients (or those who want to network). .
The requested COCA counselor directory is a tool that provides an intuitive search feature to help users find Ohio Counseling Association (OCA) members. It allows potential clients to find a good fit for a counselor(s) and enables members to network and connect. It solves the problem by providing an intuitive mobile and web interface. The team consisted of UX Designer: Aaron Engel (me), and the COCA Executive Committee for reviewing sketches and prototypes. We utilized COCA members and members of counseling Facebook groups for user testing. High-level business and user requirements are shown below.
To the left is a sample wireframe for the beginning step of adding a new profile.
I prefer starting with low-fidelity wireframes (after artifacts like personas, journeys and storyboards) to think through the structure of webpages and mobile applications. I used Sketch and Figma to iterate through the design process.
View the first prototype for filtering on counselors on a desktop, or view the mobile prototype link. This prototype was designed to balance detail and efficiency.
Usability testing allowed us to collect feedback from users and key stakeholders, and iterate through the design and prototypes accordingly. User flows finally “clicked” for the client after I had them use the prototype. About twenty users participated and gave feedback. Users helped us gauge between two of the major design options. The decision to make search filters hidden by default won handedly, as well as adding the option for filters on mobile.
New site design
Revive Counseling LLC wanted a website that instantly connects with their ideal client (those wanting help with men’s issues in Ohio). They are an Ohio telehealth practice in the Cleveland, Ohio, area. They wanted an informational site to cut down on phone calls, improve appointment bookings, and show up in web searches. Working with the customer and potential end-users iteratively allowed us to design and complete the final product. The challenge was attracting potential clients whose previous site had all but failed.
UX DesignWhile this site’s UX/UI design problems were not complex, effectively capturing user attention and clearly defining the ideal client significantly increased the number of booked consultations and information requests.
Usability testing allowed us to collect feedback from users and key stakeholders and iterate through the design and prototypes accordingly. About twenty users from counseling Facebook groups participated and gave feedback. Test scripts were used from rocketsurgerymadeeasy.com by Steve Krug. Users helped us gauge between two ways of implementing ease of scheduling design options. We also identified the consensus ten most serious problems and ranked them to fix in order. The site owner was a key tester and continued testing site pages once built. See the protype of use on a phone here.
Cardinal Point Counseling is a private marriage and couples counseling practice that now ranks on Google among the first in Ohio for essential search terms. This private practice (my practice) wanted a unique, clean design and a first-generation and brand-new site. Researching and documenting features of high-ranking competitor sites provided a foundation for the initial design. Visit the entire counseling site to see the live version.
