HelloPsych: Designing Navigation for a Mental Health Professional Platform

The platform had a fundamental IA mismatch — it was structured around what the business wanted to surface rather than how mental health professionals actually navigate their professional identity. A psychologist thinks: 'my profile, my clients, my calendar, my network' — not the category taxonomy the original structure imposed.

Fixing this required understanding user mental models before touching the interface, which meant pushing back on stakeholder requests to jump straight to visual design.

I used Draw Express and XMind to map the optimal navigation paths for different user roles — the platform needed to serve psychologists, counsellors, and support staff with meaningfully different needs and workflows. I mapped current vs. desired user journeys for each role before proposing any structural changes.

Using Photoshop and Axure, I developed interactive wireframes that allowed clients to experience the proposed navigation in action — not just review it on paper. This proved critical: several assumptions about user behaviour only became visible when stakeholders actually tried to complete tasks in the prototype.

Designed the full navigation architecture including menu structure, user journey flows for 3 distinct user roles, and key feature screens (profile, calendar, client management, network). Delivered interactive Axure prototypes for client review and iterative feedback sessions. Collaborated closely with the development team to ensure implementation matched design intent.

The redesigned navigation significantly improved usability and accessibility of the HelloPsych platform. Client feedback on the interactive prototypes guided the final development, resulting in a platform that shipped aligned to design intent — no major IA rework post-launch.