The Toolbox – the best apps for your brain and body

Victoria Blake, Mariesa Nicholas & Gillian Vogl

Introduction• How the concept came about and what the

Toolbox is• Initial user research• Contextual review and app rating• Toolbox demonstration• User research – testing the Toolbox• Future enhancements• Key learnings

Background• What was the problem that we wanted to solve?There are so many wellbeing apps and young people often don’t know which ones to trust. There are some evidence based apps but a lot of these are not very engaging. • Value proposition workshopFor 17-21 year old young people in Australia who recognise that they want to improve their wellbeing and happiness, but don’t know where to start. The Toolbox is a responsive site that serves as a personalised, ongoing recommendation service for tech based tools. Its trusted by my peers, is proven to improve my wellbeing. Unlike iTunes and Google Play, our product provides more information about the apps, personalised and suited to the user’s needs. The apps in our database have been reviewed by health professionals and young people.

User research

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What does wellbeing mean to you?

03/05/2023 6

Map the journey to achieving your wellbeing goal

“I found that I kept coming to a point where I was lost, I didn’t know the next step and I found that…this website or app would be the solution to the next step.”

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User Experience Goals:• Challenge me to improve my wellbeing• Help me to define my goal(s) and my

approach to achieving it• Give me tools and advice relevant to my

goals and challenges• Motivate me along the way• Connect me to others• Track my progress towards my goal

Contextual review and app rating

Contextual review1) Develop search terms and identify search

databases

2) Audit of existing apps according to inclusion criteria

3) Word of mouth and Google alerts

Rating process

Researcher• Remove irrelevant apps that do not meet basic standards

Researcher

• Mobile Application Rating Scale applied to remaining apps• Highest rating from each category taken to experts and young people

Experts

• Experts rate apps according to ‘Information Quality’ section of MARS• Only apps which are seen to have valid information and do no harm are

taken to young people

Young people

• Apps are rated by two young people according to the MARS Youth• Apps which score 3/5 and above included in Toolbox

Demonstration

http://au.reachout.com/sites/thetoolbox

Testing The Toolbox

Toolbox diary study, workshop and one on one user testingObjectives

Evaluate the overall user experience of The Toolbox housed within ReachOut.com Specific themes to explore include:

• how does The Toolbox fit into young people’s lives?

• How young people would like to access The Toolbox? (e.g. separate site, school/uni sites, a mental health service etc.)

• How do users currently navigate to an app/The Toolbox from ReachOut homepage or article page? Is it intuitive?• Usability and usefulness of quiz, browse and app description page

• Specific features to test:• Sign up• Quiz• Stories• App reviews• Profile• How likely are users to sign up? What do they see as the benefit of signing up?

• Explore low number of user reviews submitted – how likely are they to write a review? What are the barriers to writing a review? What could encourage them?

Methodology• One week diary study/ workshop/follow

up interviews• One on One user testing

Overall Findings1. Loved the look, feel and flow of the site and the quiz2. Liked the type of content but it felt empty 3. Would like to see an active community but many unlikely to participate4. For the majority of participants reviews were important in helping them decide

whether to download an app5. Needed personalised prompts to come back to TT6. Would be happy to access Toolbox from other services. Some felt that the

branding needed to be the same, others didn’t mind change in branding but stressed the importance of maintaining the simplicity and flow.

7. Toolbox easy to find from Reachout on the desktop as it has heading under it “best apps for your brain and body” but people were unsure of what it was on the mobile.

8. Not obvious that there was a dashboard9. Finding an app from the Toolbox –when finding an app through browse – you can’t

go back to the original page without using browser back buttons.

Future enhancements• Add text to make toolbox more interactive• Make it easy to add a review• Apps regularly updated• Add bread crumbs• Provide more opportunities for sign up

Key learnings• Young people love the quiz• Want to feel more that they are part of a community

but don’t want to create that community • Don’t want to pay too much for apps but then think

the free apps aren’t as good• Sustainability• Can make the Toolbox simple but not the apps• Explain why you don’t include certain apps (Calorie

counter)