Lantern's overall goal was to make mental healthcare more accessible and affordable through coached digital programs.

I started at Lantern as employee number 5, tasked with conceptualizing and designing our first app. What existed was a program for disordered eating at Stanford – written content paired with in person meetings with a psychologist – and we needed to create an  app experience utilizing the evidence based psychological techniques to help users with depression and anxiety.

Our goal was to launch an application for users with general anxiety. The goals for the application were high engagement and a statistically significant affect on clinical outcomes (GAD-7).

Sole product designer, working with content & development. Later I went on to build and lead the design team.

A content writer and I worked closely with a psychologist/psychology professor to turn paragraphs, ideas, and handout exercise into a cohesive, engaging, experience. I led ideation sessions on the app design, and in tandem worked with our content writer on laying out the sessions. We categorized the content into learnings, trackings, and techniques.

After hundreds of sketches and post-its taking over the walls, and our concept became more solidified, I began wireframes to conceptualize app architecture and functionality.

These were the common components we identified and then stuck to in our content.

We did have the budget or time for full user research, but because this was a completely new concept, I put sketches and then wireframes in front of friends and family to gut check our content and design.

After wireframes, I moved onto visual design. I hired and worked with a contract illustrator to add personalization and meaning to the app design. I did brand work myself in the beginning, but worked with a branding agency (Red Antler) to further develop the Lantern visual brand. These designs were around our initial launch.

The initial app showed engagement with early adopters – enough users stuck with the program that we were able to continue iterating, conducting user research, and hiring additional designers.

And later, after much iteration and developing new programs, we updated our illustration syle, and these were some of the latest designs on which I led the design team.