Bachelor Thesis • UI Design • Copywriting • Prototyping

Psychotherapy in Germany

Every second German is going to suffer of a psychological disorder in their lives. Psychological disoders are real, serious and mostly quite difficult to manage by yourself. People who struggle to do so need professional help—most commonly in forms like the psychotherapy.

Unfortunately finding a psychotherapy service in Germany is an immensly nerve-wrecking odyssee—statiscally and personally speaking. It was one of the worst user-journeys I ever had to go through. This is especially scandalous considering that these users are very likely to suffer under severe cognitive pressures.

This experience shocked and motivated me to do it better. In my BA-Thesis I’ve redesigned the complete journey—based on newly created design principles for people with psychological disorders.

Go to Theory

Prototype • Starting Page

It’s complex, let’s simplify it.

Based on my research I’ve decided to avoid introducing a completely new product on the market and overwhelm the target group once again. Thus I’ve tackled the existing emergency service 116 117 and tried reconstructing it in a way to make it as user-friendly as possible.

The first step was to simplify the user-journeys by uncluttering its diverse services in a logical way. People who look for psychological help have different needs than people who are looking for a tooth removal.

Thereby I gave the search for a psychotherapy its own journey.

Prototype • Disclosure

Don’t make me think.

People with psychological disorders struggle under severe cognitive stress. Due to that it is especially in this project important to keep the cognitive load as low as posisble.

The first and a very important step to achieve this is to communicate how to actually find a place for a psychotherapy service. What seems obvious, is actually not that obvious—most people aren’t aware and rather confused. There is a lot of unclear, false and obsolet information out there that does more harm than help.

That’s why my user-journey starts with a clear and simple disclosure and offers two different paths to a psychotherapy place: The Assisted Search and the Professional Search.

Prototype • Assisted Search

Let’s find your place—hand in hand.

The assisted search is for people who have never looked for a place before. It is a simple, step-by-step flow that takes the users on their hands and accompanies them until their desired wish.

Take a look in the image galery!

Prototype • Professional Search

Take reponsbility in your own hands.

The Professional Search is for all the people who already know what they want. User-friendly products need to be flexible, which means that we ideally offer each individual their own appropriate user-flow.

The Professional Search offers everything that the Assisted Search offers—but on one sight. It has a high information density but still tries to keep a low friction UI.

Prototype • Specials

We go the extra mile.
So you don't have to.

When you create something new you should question everything. Only striving for products that check all the «hygiene factors boxes» shouldn’t be enough—especially when your struggling users don’t start at the same starting line like «normal» users do. Let’s meet them halfway with improved components.

1. The flexible checkout-flow isn’t soley giving you transparency but also the possibility to change each parameter without jumping back in the journey.

2. The integrated estimated therapy beginnings let users decide beforehand whether it makes sense to approach the therapist.

3. The therapist-list isn’t just keeping you on track with your search history but also provides the benefit to be used as a necessary paper for reimbursement of costs for private psychotherapy sessions. (It’s a whole thing: check it out here.)

Theorie

My design principles.

When I was working on my BA I didn’t want to simply redesign. I wanted to take the conditions of my target group as seriously into account as I can and create a product that offers the best possible experience on all levels: the stratetigcal, the conceptual and the visual level.

Therefore I had to dive deep into the world of design guidelines. Thus I analysed the most renowned ones: NN Group, WCAG, COGA, Inclusive Design Principles, Centre for Excellence in Universal Design. The closer I’ve looked the more I realized that they all come down to one unifying factor: the cognitive load has to stay as low as possible. Only the philsophy, manuals and terms were different.

As I had done all the work analyzing the different guidelines extensively I thought to myself It would a great opportunity to summarize all the guidelines in a more logical way and come up with my very own design principles.

Due to the large scope, I will only touch on the design principles below. If you want to learn more, you can download my BA in the last section.

Design Principle 1

Irreversible Tolerance

Before we look at reversible mental disorders, it must be our duty to consider all irreversible impairments. We are talking here about all people with disabilities, of an organ-genetic nature, such as: the blind and visually impaired, the deaf and hard of hearing, people with movement impairments, speech impairments, light-sensitive people and combinations of these disabilities, as well as provisions for people with learning disabilities and cognitive impairments—not to be confused with cognitive disorders (mental disorders), which, as I said, are reversible (Eckert, 2021).

Our task is to prepare our products for every exceptional situation. We must be aware of any exclusion in order to guarantee equal use. This point is the prerequisite for all Next Principles.

Design Principle 2

Orientation

As in real life, people also need guidance when using products. Because behind every interaction with a product is a certain intention that the user wants to achieve.

Our task is to make this path to the goal as easy as possible for the user. To achieve this, we need guidance—it is reassuring and hardly creates any cognitive load during the user journey (Harley, 2018).

Design Principle 3

Familiarity

We need a space of familiarity. Familiarity is a comforting feeling. As the Nielsen Norman Group says: «It is human nature to feel comfortable in familiarity» (Budiu, 2024).

We achieve this feeling by ensuring that users recognize familiar patterns in our product and maintain this stress-reducing feeling with design constants during the next use. People suffering from cognitive disorders in particular need familiar behavior and design patterns (W3C, 2021).

Design Principle 4

Concentration

Using products always requires a certain amount of concentration, especially when it is the first time. In order to keep the user's ability to concentrate high, or not to diminish it, we designers must also concentrate—on the essentials. Both visually and textually, we need to clearly separate the relevant from the irrelevant.

Design Principle 5

Security

Mistakes are human, they are part and parcel of life. Nevertheless, mistakes can be stress factors. Especially when you are mentally challenged, the susceptibility to mistakes can be higher due to concentration difficulties or other stresses.

On the other hand, the way you deal with making mistakes is also much more self-critical—and in turn, mentally stressful. It is therefore our job as designers to support users in avoiding mistakes—and if they do occur, we should be prepared to offer help. There are two different types of help: proactive and reactive help (Joyce, 2020).

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Design Principle 6

Control

«A great UX gives the user the feeling of being in full control» (Rosala, 2020). This feeling can only be achieved if users are given the operating options they can (and want to) use.

To achieve this situation, a system/product is needed that can adapt flexibly to needs. One advantage of this measure is that it has a strong participatory character, i.e. it is also particularly inclusive.

Download the Thesis

Additional Info

Bibliography & Download

Budiu, R. (2024). Match between the System and the Real world (Usability Heuristic #2). Nielsen Norman Group. https://www.nngroup.com/articles/match-system-real-world
Eckert, M. (2021, April 22). Weißt du, was kognitive Beeinträchtiung ist? Martin Stiftung. https://martin-stiftung.ch/kommunikation/kognitive-beeintraechtigung
Harley, A. (2018). Visibility of System Status. Nielsen Norman Group. https://www.nngroup.com/articles/visibility-system-status
Joyce, A. (2022). Inclusive Design. Nielsen Norman Group; Nielsen Norman Group, World Leaders in Research-Based User Experience. https://www.nngroup.com/articles/inclusive-design
Rosala, M. (2020). User Control and Freedom (Usability Heuristic #3). Nielsen Norman Group. https://www.nngroup.com/articles/user-control-and-freedom
World Wide Web Consortium (W3C). (2021). Making Content usable for People with Cognitive and Learning Disabilities. https://www.w3.org/TR/coga-usable