Nadine Raydan- The NextStep story: Young people, digital self-help and better mental health outcomes

UXAUS 2019 Day 1 Guide me, but don’t tell me what to do. This is what we hear from young people. NextStep is a free ReachOut product designed to help 18-25 year old’s going through a tough time. The web app helps young people identify their challenge, narrow down to a single area of focus and generate a recommendation to take a next step that is personal enough to be meaningful in times of distress. The internet affords young people significant opportunities to be self-directed, which can be beneficial for bypassing stigma, financial barriers and even literacy barriers associated with mental health challenges. But the internet can be an overwhelming place to be, and so are our minds when we’re in moderate or high distress. Additionally, when a young person is questioning something’s wrong, but I’m not sure what they often don’t know what they are looking for online, and want to be guided to appropriate resources they can access anonymously. This talk focuses on how we reconcile the polarity of building a digital experience for young people with mental health challenges who present in distress: - How we use multiple data sources to derive insights for product development including behavioural data, UX testing feedback and co-design qualitative insights - Baking in the rigour of an evidence-based approach within the sector into the technical logics that underpin the web app to mitigate potential risk or harm to young people - How we deliver on design principles - upfront, practical, flexible and visual - to ensure that we engage young people in a meaningful way - How we reconcile the need for interactivity and engagement without distracting or diminishing the severity of a young person presenting in high distress by drawing from a duty of care framework - How we ensure the right language is used to assist young people with problem recognition without being diagnostic