HealthTech
Bridging Gaps in Mental Health Access Through Telecounseling in Taiwan
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CONTEXT
Define a design strategy and experience model to launch a scalable telecounseling platform in Taiwan.
Far EasTone Telecommunications (FET), one of Taiwan’s largest telecom companies, saw an opportunity to expand its telemedicine Health+ initiative into mental wellness in Taiwan.
As an intern at the FarEastern Group (largest conglomerate) in Taiwan, I and my team had the amazing opportunity to spend 6 weeks in Taiwan to run research, build service strategy and demo UI/UX prototypes to the leadership.
Client
My Responsibilities
User Research, User Journey Mapping, Wireframing, Prototyping, Visual Communication, Product Strategy
Tools
Figma, Miro, Whimsical
Team
6 Designers
Timeline
6 Weeks
IMPACT
"Thank you team, It was really a great work! I really went through this kind of discussion for the first time. While you were explaining, I realized that we didn't really think about behaving as an instituition bringing everyone together and think through the monetization model. So this is a lot more work than we thought. The learning was really precious. And I think you did a fantastic job. I really appreciate that!"
Dr Chee Ching
President, FET (Far Eastone Telecommunication)
"While we were going through the project, at first I was skeptical. I thought there are lot of hurdles that I wasn't sure we would deal well with. But the team did an outstanding job executing it. I am really impressed! "
Jeff Hsu
Chief Innovation Officer, DRIVE Strategy, FarEastern Group
"Thank you team, It was really a great work! I really went through this kind of discussion for the first time. While you were explaining, I realized that we didn't really think about behaving as an instituition bringing everyone together and think through the monetization model. So this is a lot more work than we thought. The learning was really precious. And I think you did a fantastic job. I really appreciate that!"
Dr Chee Ching
President, FET (Far Eastone Telecommunication)
"While we were going through the project, at first I was skeptical. I thought there are lot of hurdles that I wasn't sure we would deal well with. But the team did an outstanding job executing it. I am really impressed! "
Jeff Hsu
Chief Innovation Officer, DRIVE Strategy, FarEastern Group
"Thank you team, It was really a great work! I really went through this kind of discussion for the first time. While you were explaining, I realized that we didn't really think about behaving as an instituition bringing everyone together and think through the monetization model. So this is a lot more work than we thought. The learning was really precious. And I think you did a fantastic job. I really appreciate that!"
Dr Chee Ching
President, FET (Far Eastone Telecommunication)
"While we were going through the project, at first I was skeptical. I thought there are lot of hurdles that I wasn't sure we would deal well with. But the team did an outstanding job executing it. I am really impressed! "
Jeff Hsu
Chief Innovation Officer, DRIVE Strategy, FarEastern Group
"Thank you team, It was really a great work! I really went through this kind of discussion for the first time. While you were explaining, I realized that we didn't really think about behaving as an instituition bringing everyone together and think through the monetization model. So this is a lot more work than we thought. The learning was really precious. And I think you did a fantastic job. I really appreciate that!"
Dr Chee Ching
President, FET (Far Eastone Telecommunication)
"While we were going through the project, at first I was skeptical. I thought there are lot of hurdles that I wasn't sure we would deal well with. But the team did an outstanding job executing it. I am really impressed! "
Jeff Hsu
Chief Innovation Officer, DRIVE Strategy, FarEastern Group
CHALLENGE
Low engagement with counseling services in Taiwan reflects deep-rooted cultural stigma and systemic complexity.
Over 1.5 million people in Taiwan experience depression, yet engagement with counseling remains low due to factors like stigma, low awareness, and a fragmented system with multiple entry points.
And with telecounseling (online mental health counseling) emerging as a new channel, there is an added uncertainty making it harder for individuals to even begin their mental wellness journey.
Mind+ is a telecounseling service strategy designed for working young adults in Taiwan, supporting their holistic mental wellness journey by meeting them where they are.
We designed two parallel experiences tailored to user's emotional and informational needs - a website and mobile app
"Mental wellness is a long journey, and counseling is not a one-off event"
(~ 32yr old PhD student)
📝 Note: Based on timeline and resources, we decided to scope the project deliverables for the care receivers.
SOLUTION
OUTCOME
Usecase 01
The Homepage of the website offers three entry points aligned to the key strategy to meet users where they are and guided by the design principle that lead users to the right intervention.
"Some people might not know how to choose"
(~ Interview Participant, Mother of four, 46y.o)
Usecase 02
The Counselor Selection feature offers intuitive filters and a personalized bundle subscription model, ensuring transparency around costs
"Bundles that allow progress in different formats feels rewarding"
(~ Interview Participant, Engineer, 25y.0)
Usecase 03
The Shared Space of the mobile application fosters consistent engagement with counselors and empowers users to monitor and reflect on their progress over time.
"Counseling became a maintenance over time."
(~ Interview Participant, Nurse, 26y.o)
Here is how we reached there…
The highlighted areas show my responsibilities.
CONTEXT
Select a quadrant square to jump to your desired section :)
RESEARCH
The healing journey is deeply personal and no experience is the same.
Through our secondary and market research, 22 interviews, 2 field visits and 3000+ survey analysis, we encountered a spectrum of mental models when people think about counseling in Taiwan. They can be in different stages in their counseling journey and will want different things.
Key Takeaways
Our survey data show that only 7% of the user group is likely to engage in counseling.
Within those people, only 35% is likely to receive online counseling.
There are 6 barriers to counseling and telecounseling has additional challenges like lack of warmth, technical difficulties, and difficulty to express and percieve emotions.
Competition for telecounseling exists in Taiwan, but they offer fragment solutions for the mental health journey.
FRAMING
Meeting users where they are—emotionally and digitally was essential to lowering barriers to care.
We facilitated workshops and stakeholder sessions to shape our direction. This led to 6 guiding principles and 4 key strategies. I took a lead in development of these principles, which served as a north star for the team and co-created the workshop materials both in english and Chinese to serve the diverse participants.
DESIGN POSSIBILITIES
To kick off ideation and conceptualization, we established a structured approach by framing ideas through ‘what,’ ‘how,’ and ‘why.’ This helped us to trace every possibility back to our core insight and overall goal.
PROTOTYPE & VALIDATE
Considering the timeline, we made a strategic decision to focus on user experience and key moments for the care receiver. After rounds of card sorting, prototyping, and user testing, storytelling played a role in communicating our key insights and strategy to client leadership. To bring the experience to life, we chose to demo the user journey.
LEARNINGS AND TAKEAWAYS
Working in a non-native environemnt taught me to be resourcesful. Translation tools helped me to be more efficient during the interview, workshop and testing sessions.
With multiple meetings and workshops, balancing feedback from diverse stakeholders became a challenge, so prioritization and careful listening helped manage it much better.
I realized the importance of prototyping early as it enabled us to fail fast and stay agile. With that a key takeaway was to keep synthesizing when memory is fresh because it maintained clear traceability.
