CLIENT
Soluna by Kooth
DURATION
8 Weeks (2023)
ROLE
Interaction Design @ IDEO
TEAM
3 Interaction Designers, 1 Design Researcher, 1 Data Scientist
Transforming how young people enrich their mental health
CLIENT
Soluna by Kooth
DURATION
8 Weeks (2023)
ROLE
Interaction Design @ IDEO
TEAM
3 Interaction Designers
1 Design Researcher
1 Data Scientist
Transforming how young people enrich their mental health
CLIENT
Soluna by Kooth
DURATION
8 Weeks (2023)
ROLE
Interaction Design @ IDEO
TEAM
3 Interaction Designers, 1 Design Researcher, 1 Data Scientist
Transforming how young people enrich their mental health
Project Overview:
Soluna is a youth-focused mental health app co-designed with California youth (ages 13-25 years old) and launched statewide through a $188M state contract with the California Department of Health Care Services (DHCS). Californian youth are struggling with their mental health and need support.
The goal: provide accessible, clinically backed support for over 6 million young people in California.
Scope of Work:
I led the end-to-end UX for the Community Discussion Board experience: conducting competitive research, mapping interaction flows, designing interfaces, collaborating with engineers, and iterating quickly to meet a newly accelerated timeline. While my core focus was the forums, I also supported features like Coaching and Goals, helping shape the broader mental wellness journey within the app.
I worked closely with a cross-functional team that included three interaction designers, a design researcher synthesizing co-design data, and a data scientist offering guidance on integrating user data meaningfully into our designs.
User Research:
I began by reviewing co-design research facilitated through dScout, learning how youth wanted to feel when interacting with others online. Simultaneously, I conducted a comparative analysis of platforms popular with our target audience: Reddit, Quora, Slack, Instagram, LinkedIn, TikTok, and X (formerly Twitter). Three key insights emerged from this research.
Inspired by these findings, I began sketching out a system that would feel familiar to youth, emotionally lightweight, and supportive of moderation needs.
Prototyping & Iteration
Guided by Soluna’s design principles – especially the directive to “Play Forward” – I embedded joy and clarity into every detail. I introduced emoji stacking (inspired by Slack and LinkedIn) to create playful yet contained responses. I rethought commenting patterns to reduce visual complexity, and added category tags to help users filter content that matched their interests and needs.
I also had to translate ideas into feasible flows that could ship immediately. Drawing from existing app components and coordinating closely with the engineering team, I ensured every new component and screen fit within our evolving design system.
As soon as the Discussion Board came under stakeholder review, new constraints emerged: tight development timelines, complex content moderation needs, and a growing list of legal and accessibility requirements. I made fast, strategic trade-offs – descoping thread replies, simplifying interactions, and prioritizing content filtering features that offered the most user value while reducing implementation risk.
Tagged Posts
Users can tag their content to allow their community to find them.
Emoji Reaction List
For users visiting in the early stages of the app, there's a welcome post from the Kooth team to explain how to use this Discussion Board.
Welcome Post
For users visiting in the early stages of the app, there's a welcome post from the Kooth team to explain how to use this Discussion Board.
Flag Posts
Users can tag their content to allow their community to find them.
Outcomes:
Despite the compressed timeline, my designs were approved for development and launched on schedule as part of the Soluna MVP. The app reached its target audience – 6 million youth across California – with a discussion feature that was thoughtful, scalable, and joyful.
Some of the design decisions I championed – like a yellow “Pending” badge for moderated content and a guiding welcome forum post from the Soluna team – shipped in the MVP. Others, including post flagging, emoji reactions, and reply interactions, were scoped for post-launch releases based on my recommendations.
I also contributed designs to Coaching and Goals Features, reinforcing holistic mental health support across the app experience.
Now, Soluna is available for free to all youth in California, and the state has set ambitious targets for reaching all young people at scale.
Reflections:
Soluna was my first project at IDEO, and it taught me the importance of showing work early, even when timelines feel generous – because they rarely stay that way. I learned how to advocate for my design decisions with data, translating user insights into clear design rationales.
I also learned to let go of control. Not every idea will make it to launch, and that’s okay. My job is to advocate for the user and the design, then trust the process. And finally, I learned how essential it is to align not just within a design team, but across clients, developers, clinicians, and regulators – because when everyone is working toward the same goal, even tight deadlines become achievable.
Project Overview:
Soluna is a youth-focused mental health app co-designed with California youth (ages 13-25 years old) and launched statewide through a $188M state contract with the California Department of Health Care Services (DHCS). Californian youth are struggling with their mental health and need support.
The goal: provide accessible, clinically backed support for over 6 million young people in California.
Scope of Work:
I led the end-to-end UX for the Community Discussion Board experience: conducting competitive research, mapping interaction flows, designing interfaces, collaborating with engineers, and iterating quickly to meet a newly accelerated timeline. While my core focus was the forums, I also supported features like Coaching and Goals, helping shape the broader mental wellness journey within the app.
I worked closely with a cross-functional team that included three interaction designers, a design researcher synthesizing co-design data, and a data scientist offering guidance on integrating user data meaningfully into our designs.
User Research:
I began by reviewing co-design research facilitated through dScout, learning how youth wanted to feel when interacting with others online. Simultaneously, I conducted a comparative analysis of platforms popular with our target audience: Reddit, Quora, Slack, Instagram, LinkedIn, TikTok, and X (formerly Twitter). Three key insights emerged from this research.
Inspired by these findings, I began sketching out a system that would feel familiar to youth, emotionally lightweight, and supportive of moderation needs.
Prototyping & Iteration
Guided by Soluna’s design principles – especially the directive to “Play Forward” – I embedded joy and clarity into every detail. I introduced emoji stacking (inspired by Slack and LinkedIn) to create playful yet contained responses. I rethought commenting patterns to reduce visual complexity, and added category tags to help users filter content that matched their interests and needs.
I also had to translate ideas into feasible flows that could ship immediately. Drawing from existing app components and coordinating closely with the engineering team, I ensured every new component and screen fit within our evolving design system.
As soon as the Discussion Board came under stakeholder review, new constraints emerged: tight development timelines, complex content moderation needs, and a growing list of legal and accessibility requirements. I made fast, strategic trade-offs – descoping thread replies, simplifying interactions, and prioritizing content filtering features that offered the most user value while reducing implementation risk.
Tagged Posts
Users can tag their content to allow their community to find them.
Emoji Reaction List
For users visiting in the early stages of the app, there's a welcome post from the Kooth team to explain how to use this Discussion Board.
Welcome Post
For users visiting in the early stages of the app, there's a welcome post from the Kooth team to explain how to use this Discussion Board.
Flag Posts
Users can tag their content to allow their community to find them.
Outcomes:
Despite the compressed timeline, my designs were approved for development and launched on schedule as part of the Soluna MVP. The app reached its target audience – 6 million youth across California – with a discussion feature that was thoughtful, scalable, and joyful.
Some of the design decisions I championed – like a yellow “Pending” badge for moderated content and a guiding welcome forum post from the Soluna team – shipped in the MVP. Others, including post flagging, emoji reactions, and reply interactions, were scoped for post-launch releases based on my recommendations.
I also contributed designs to Coaching and Goals Features, reinforcing holistic mental health support across the app experience.
Now, Soluna is available for free to all youth in California, and the state has set ambitious targets for reaching all young people at scale.
Reflections:
Soluna was my first project at IDEO, and it taught me the importance of showing work early, even when timelines feel generous – because they rarely stay that way. I learned how to advocate for my design decisions with data, translating user insights into clear design rationales.
I also learned to let go of control. Not every idea will make it to launch, and that’s okay. My job is to advocate for the user and the design, then trust the process. And finally, I learned how essential it is to align not just within a design team, but across clients, developers, clinicians, and regulators – because when everyone is working toward the same goal, even tight deadlines become achievable.
Project Overview:
Soluna is a youth-focused mental health app co-designed with California youth (ages 13-25 years old) and launched statewide through a $188M state contract with the California Department of Health Care Services (DHCS). Californian youth are struggling with their mental health and need support.
The goal: provide accessible, clinically backed support for over 6 million young people in California.
Scope of Work:
I led the end-to-end UX for the Community Discussion Board experience: conducting competitive research, mapping interaction flows, designing interfaces, collaborating with engineers, and iterating quickly to meet a newly accelerated timeline. While my core focus was the forums, I also supported features like Coaching and Goals, helping shape the broader mental wellness journey within the app.
I worked closely with a cross-functional team that included three interaction designers, a design researcher synthesizing co-design data, and a data scientist offering guidance on integrating user data meaningfully into our designs.
User Research:
I began by reviewing co-design research facilitated through dScout, learning how youth wanted to feel when interacting with others online. Simultaneously, I conducted a comparative analysis of platforms popular with our target audience: Reddit, Quora, Slack, Instagram, LinkedIn, TikTok, and X (formerly Twitter). Three key insights emerged from this research.
Inspired by these findings, I began sketching out a system that would feel familiar to youth, emotionally lightweight, and supportive of moderation needs.
Prototyping & Iteration
Guided by Soluna’s design principles – especially the directive to “Play Forward” – I embedded joy and clarity into every detail. I introduced emoji stacking (inspired by Slack and LinkedIn) to create playful yet contained responses. I rethought commenting patterns to reduce visual complexity, and added category tags to help users filter content that matched their interests and needs.
I also had to translate ideas into feasible flows that could ship immediately. Drawing from existing app components and coordinating closely with the engineering team, I ensured every new component and screen fit within our evolving design system.
As soon as the Discussion Board came under stakeholder review, new constraints emerged: tight development timelines, complex content moderation needs, and a growing list of legal and accessibility requirements. I made fast, strategic trade-offs – descoping thread replies, simplifying interactions, and prioritizing content filtering features that offered the most user value while reducing implementation risk.
Tagged Posts
Users can tag their content to allow their community to find them.
Emoji Reaction List
For users visiting in the early stages of the app, there's a welcome post from the Kooth team to explain how to use this Discussion Board.
Welcome Post
For users visiting in the early stages of the app, there's a welcome post from the Kooth team to explain how to use this Discussion Board.
Flag Posts
Users can tag their content to allow their community to find them.
Outcomes:
Despite the compressed timeline, my designs were approved for development and launched on schedule as part of the Soluna MVP. The app reached its target audience – 6 million youth across California – with a discussion feature that was thoughtful, scalable, and joyful.
Some of the design decisions I championed – like a yellow “Pending” badge for moderated content and a guiding welcome forum post from the Soluna team – shipped in the MVP. Others, including post flagging, emoji reactions, and reply interactions, were scoped for post-launch releases based on my recommendations.
I also contributed designs to Coaching and Goals Features, reinforcing holistic mental health support across the app experience.
Now, Soluna is available for free to all youth in California, and the state has set ambitious targets for reaching all young people at scale.