Treehouse

RESEARCH | UX DESIGN

Treehouse

RESEARCH | UX DESIGN
INTRODUCTION
Treehouse is an anonymous platform for children to express their thoughts and problems in a safe, friendly space. The desktop application focuses on the child's support system by providing them with an outlet to share their problems in a community and potentially lead them to ask for adult or professional help in the future. This design exploration hopes to create a catalyst for growth and community among children who are often “hidden victims.”
ROLE
Research, User experience design, design systems, visual design
TIME
Fall 2021, 2 months
TOOLS
Miro, Figma, Photoshop
Design Process
FINAL DESIGN OVERVIEW
Anonymous group chat
Chat rooms and topics
Educational blog posts (Illustrations from flaticon.com)
Anonymous mail and helpful reminders
‍
Mood Tracker
PROBLEM STATEMENT
As of July 2021, the United States had the highest number of incarcerated individuals worldwide, with almost 2.1 million people in prison. Around 50% of prisoners have at least one child and they are often referred to as "hidden victims". How might we support the social and emotional needs of children with incarcerated parents to improve mental health and well-being?
Discovery
CONTEXT
Historical Development of Prisons in the US
1891
The United States establish the prison system in 1891. Congress passed the “Three Prisons Act,” which created the Federal Prisons System.
1930
Federal Bureau of Prisons wasn’t established until 1930. It would become responsible for managing and regulating all federal correctional institutions to provide more progressive and humane care for federal inmates.
1971
President Nixon paved the path for zero-tolerance drug policies which led to the number of people incarcerated for nonviolent drug law offenses skyrocketing to more than 400,000 from 1997 from just 50,000 in 1980.
1990
Policymakers continued to turn to disciplinary policing and sentencing plans to reform social order and address rising drug use - resulting in increasing numbers of unemployed black urban residents with low levels of education pushed into prisons.
2009
An all-time high of 2.3 million people were imprisoned in the U.S. in 2009, Reason reported. Criminal justice reforms over the subsequent decade would allow the prison population to drop 11% by 2020.

Today

Prisons in the United States still face issues that have an impact on society, such as abuse of power, misconduct, corruption, and children facing trauma with an incarcerated parent.
Discover
SECONDARY RESEARCH
Books, papers, and seminars
The concepts of prisons and their impact on families are not new topics, hence, I had plenty of resources to pull from that helped me understand incarceration in the United States and how an inmate's child can be supported.
SECONDARY RESEARCH
Systemic impacts on children of an incarcerated parent
Children with an incarcerated parent are often referred to as hidden victims and have specific needs that allow them to thrive despite their circumstances. Some impacts on children with an incarcerated parent are:
Housing Instability
Financial Hardship
Changing Caregivers
Critical Health Outcomes
Educational Opportunity
Social and emotional solutions are crucial because children can learn the skills and pocket resources to cope with situations that are outside of their control, despite adversity.
PRIMARY RESEARCH
Target User
My main target users are children with incarcerated parents. To get a better understanding of this topic, I conducted a semi-structured interview with participants that had a family member in prison as a child or have experienced prison themselves. Due to ethical concerns and limited resources for a sensitive research topic, children who have experienced and are still exposed to trauma were not interviewed.
KEY PARTICIPANT ANSWERS
“I relied on the church to go down a better path because it gave me a sense of community.”
“Being there for my siblings and giving support helped me cope with everything."
‍“Talking to a therapist helped me get to know myself, find and activate inner resources and independently choose the best solution.”
“Seeing a therapist in Hispanic culture is taboo, we were told not to share anything outside the house."
*All participants photographed consented to share images to create awareness of their story.
PRIMARY RESEARCH
Data Analysis
After the interviews, the data was analyzed by using affinity mapping to identify patterns and themes. This exercise helped me develop opportunities for ideation and plan for an MVP.
RESEARCH OVERVIEW
Key Research Insights
01
Adverse childhoods are one of the four reasons people commit crimes, making it one of the most important and vulnerable stages in life to address.
02
Children want to be connected with others who understand their struggle to feel supported.
03
Children can worry that their parent incarcerated or trauma experienced is their fault, and talking about their feelings with an adult can help them understand the truth about their situation.
04
Invitations to share your feelings encourage psychological health and future help-seeking behavior.
05
Disclosing information leads to higher rates of well-being and stress relief, and the more you hear others disclose about themselves, the more you feel free to disclose about yourself.
06
Improving self-esteem through group therapy allows children to realize that they have skills and experiences that may be helpful to their peers.
Competitive Analysis
I analyzed the two main apps that provided a similar outcome for children facing difficulty or trauma. Headspace and Kids Helpline gave insight into solutions to positive well-being but also gave inspiration for a cohesive UI experience.
Headspace
Headspace has specific mindfulness activities for kids, with five themes: Calm, Focus, Kindness, Sleep and Wake Up. The app focuses on children ages 5 under, 6-8, and 10-12. Teens can also benefit from the app, which offers reminders to help kids stay on track, and a buddy system so different users can encourage each other.
  • Upgrade to Headspace Plus for $12.99 per month or annually for $34.99.
  • Breathing exercises, visualization and focused-based sessions
  • Scientific based research and themed meditations
  • SOS Emergency section to help manage intense experiences
Kids Helpline
Kids Helpline is a phone counseling service for children between 5 to 25. They also provide services and information for parents. Kids can read stories about other children experiencing similar difficulties and trauma, such as bullying, physical health and identity, family, and more. The helpline also allows them to contribute their own stories too.
  • Free service
  • Privacy and confidentiality
  • Can choose the gender of the counselor they speak to
  • Access the same counselor if they wish to call back
  • Young people are encouraged to give feedback about Kids Helpline and the service they receive
Define
DEFINE AND CONTEXTUALIZE
Design Principles
Design principles were developed when the product was going through the ideation process so that the project could be narrowed down to a functional MVP.
Designing a judgement free community,
to allow for open thoughts and feelings.
Support playfulness,
to provide a space for kids to act their age and not take on larger responsibilities.
Easy and Noncompetitive,
to allow for open, honest communication and to not feel like healing is a competition.
Promoting Duration,
since trauma can show up in different stages of life the design should be helpful and lasting too.
DEFINE AND CONTEXTUALIZE
Ideation
I wanted to make sure I was allowing myself to explore outside of mobile applications and websites. This also allows me to think about analog solutions that could have the potential to be transformed into digital experiences.
DEFINE AND CONTEXTUALIZE
Ideation Takeaways
01
Self Expression
Allowing children to express themselves with the design, instead of providing the products own set of instructions on how to process their specific adversity.
02
Validating Content
Allowing space for trained professionals to be a part of the user experience creates an environment of trust and effectiveness.
03
Technology
Adopting the importance of considering the right technology. It is crucial to choose technology that would deliver and be accessible to all children despite their individual circumstances.
DEFINE AND CONTEXTUALIZE
Value Proposition Canvas
Value proposition canvas is used to determine whether the product is positioned around what a child needs. This exercise allowed for another checkpoint where I could see the product having a direct relation to needs that emerged through my research.
DEFINE AND CONTEXTUALIZE
User Persona
This user persona was based on my research collected in the discovery phase. Due to ethical concerns and covid restrictions, I did not interview the desired age group (8-14), but I used my participants' experiences as a child to form the user profile.
DEFINE AND CONTEXTUALIZE
User Journey
I created a user journey to better understand a child’s needs, clarify channel performance, and improve the user experience. I show a flow starting with the user discovering the application to closing the app.
Develop
DEVELOP AND IMPLEMENT
Brand Values
Outlining the brand values allows me to build better relationships with my target audience and allows me to boost brand consistency across all product activities. Connect, Learn, Grow fits the platform because children can think of treehouses as a safe, comforting, nostalgic place to spend time with new friends or alone.
Connect
and share with other kids about struggles you’ve been through.
Learn
about various topics on emotions and feelings that are relevant to your specific needs.
Grow
and build your effective coping skills and emotional reflection with volunteer professionals.
Style Guide
I chose green as the main color because of its feeling of growth, balance, and renewal. Blue and yellow are included to represent the sky and sun, all colors that reflect outdoors.
Concept art and explorations
I sketched out concepts for a treehouse and came up with a final design that would display fun, playful shapes. I wanted to keep the design simplistic, to begin with, and hope to create a more complex theme as interactions continue and my skill set develops.
Thumbnails
Final line art
Final background image
‍
Wireframes
Deliver
Final Outcome Highlights
DESKTOP FEATURES
Educational Resources
Children can access personalized mental and social health insights through readings and videos to learn how they can better their well-being.

This was important to include because each child could have different experiences and various levels of information, and having these available resources makes for a better experience of the application.
DESKTOP FEATURES
Sharing Experiences
Users can respond to another child to make them feel like they are supported. Helping others can enhance a child's confidence and make them feel included through adversity.
DESKTOP FEATURES
Group Chatting
Users can pick a topic they are interested in. They can view how many people are in the chat and who the moderator is.
DESKTOP FEATURES
Avatars
To remain anonymous, users can pick an avatar as their identity throughout the social platform. Their name on the header and dashboard will only be visible to them.

Remaining anonymous is an important feature because it allows for openness and honesty.

Avatars from flaticon.com.
DESKTOP FEATURES
Interactive Backgrounds
Later iterations could include interactive backgrounds for users to explore. Clicking on items, such as the Nintendo Switch, can open  a well-being game.

The interactive background concept was one of my favorite components to include because as a child going through difficulty it is important to note the seriousness of their situation, yet it is equally as important to keep education light and fun - kids should be kids.
TAKEAWAYS
Challenges and lessons learned
Keep the scope narrow
I found myself wanting to find a solution to every difficulty a child with an incarcerated parent faces and it took me quite some time to narrow down a specific problem to design for.
Although it’s important to ensure I’m solving the most appropriate problem, defining a strict deadline kept me focused on one topic at hand - after all, I can’t solve everything, but I can solve something.
The right participants for the target demographic
I initially was unsure how to conduct primary research on my target demographic due to ethical concerns, as it was a thesis project with limited resources.
In the future, when the research is safe to do so, I would want the appropriate participants for interviews and user testing to make sure my results are reliable.
Failure is an option
In some phases, especially development, I found myself wanting to have the perfect product from the jump before conducting user testing.
It was important for me to understand that perfection is not going to be possible and that learning from a mistake and moving on is the best way to keep pushing forward.
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Glad you could make it!
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