The service design inspirations 001: From Mental Health to personal well-being.

Published in

Think Service

7 min readApr 28, 2020

As we move ahead in the phygital (physical+digital) world, the amount of things we come across everyday is increasing dramatically. The boundary between productivity, leisure and well-being is getting thinner. In this fast moving life, one needs to embrace mental well-being. There are a number of service providers out there inventing/re-inventing the path towards a healthy mental state.

Hello, we are two enthusiastic service designers who love to dive into the world of products and services. We are here to share with you our service design explorations and inspirations which we think could be helpful for all of us to develop and innovate.

Let’s go and take a look at some interesting services for mental well-being!

Headspace

A one stop digital solution to do guided meditations for various moods, vibes, goals at anytime, anywhere.

What problem are they solving?

In the fast paced lifestyle, it gets tough to focus and sustain mental well-being. Meditation is one of the fixes but getting into the habit of meditation could be a challenge. Headspace provides meditation in packets as per the need throughout the day.

Who is it for?

For the one who wants to get into the habit of meditation

2 things we liked!

Gamification approach for habit formation
A well curated variety of meditational modules

We wish…

the service made you independent when it comes to meditating on your own. Being guided definitely increases the usage of the app but if you go further deep, this loses the true meaning of meditation.

Note: There are unguided modules in the service, but they definitely aren’t the center of attraction.

Service Design Inspiration

Headspace has definitely shown us how complex issues can be cut down into well designed and well curated modules or packets, which one has to follow for overall growth. We can use this approach in other contexts too.

Context Jam

ABC is a service which helps in setting up businesses, they use gamified step by step small missions with a timeline which leads to overall foolproof business setup.

7 Cups

A free anonymous emotional support & counseling from trained active listeners through online chat.

What problem are they solving?

Oftentimes one might find himself in a situation where there is a lot of emotional/mental burden but no one to express it to or share it with. 7 cups provides chat help anytime with trained listeners.

Who is it for?

For the one who is actively seeking for someone to share their problems with and for the people who wants to learn and apply listening skills (volunteers).

2 things we liked!

An easy on-boarding and quick start to the conversation, which is the core offering!
Anyone can be trained to be a certified listener and offer their listening skills

We wish…

the offerings were more streamlined. The simple chat option is overpowered by other secondary features.

Service Design Inspiration

A great mixture of non-professional and professional help. The demand is met by the volunteers (listeners) and the cases which are in need to get a professional consultation are advised to consult the therapist.

Context Jam

ABC offers medical support online. All the entries are attended by the trained volunteers, solving minor issues as well as filtering the severity. The crucial cases are then directed towards doctors; managing the workflow chain wisely.

Happyfi

An activities and game based app which helps to boost happiness and overall well being.

What problem are they solving?

In day to day life, keeping a track of happiness and working towards improving it is a task. Happify provides a gamified happiness enhancer solution.

Who is it for?

For a person who is willing to work on overall well-being and happiness regularly

2 things we liked!

Science based activities that help further scientific research on happiness.
Mental well-being is treated as an everyday life activity for overall wellness.

We wish…

the digital interface reflected the intention behind the service, as the whole experience could be sabotaged by the poor communication design on the platform.

Service Design Inspiration

Can you divide your experience/goal/mission for users/people into bite size experiences that they can act upon on the go & track over time?

Context Jam

ABC is a personal finance management service. They set daily missions to save or invest money. You can even see your progress and track your performance.

Talkspace

A service where you get therapy from a licensed therapist from the comfort of your device via text, audio and video.

What problem are they solving?

Therapy can be expensive and time sensitive. Talkspace provides therapy at your fingertips with easy steps and convenience.

Who is it for?

It’s for the one who is going through mental troubles and wants to get/try therapy in a more convenient way and for the therapist to set up their practice digitally.

2 things we liked!

Making therapy so readily available while breaking the taboo of seeing a therapist and making it even more accessible.
Provides a space for professionals to work remotely at a consistent pace.

We wish…

the service had an ease-in step to allow for a less emotionally invested on-boarding process to the counseling experience.

Service Design Inspiration

There is demand in the world, there is supply. Breaking traditional service structure to rethink patient-therapist interactions without taboos; Talk space becomes the bridge between them, creating a digital space for the interaction.

Context Jam

ABC is a digital collaborative space for innovation. They have a user base of innovative thinkers, developers, designers. ABC becomes the digital platform to match the right set of users to create business ideas while using ABC’s digital collaboration space.

Mark Manson

Overcoming anxiety course offered by the bestseller author Mark Manson

What problem are they solving?

The author is famous for his books about how to live a better life. Following the business opportunity, the author is trying to upsell his skills by offering courses online that provide his audience a more complete solution to overcome anxiety.

Who is it for?

Apart from the people who follow the author, it is for the people who want to work on anxiety issues.

Also, looking from a different perspective; it is for the author to open up new possibilities beyond the book and the blog.

2 things we liked!

Focuses on self help, people that want the tools to fight anxiety.
An author up selling a service to his already acquired audience.

We wish…

the offering was delivered more like a service than just a text based blog with a payment gate to avail the content.

Service Design Inspiration

When you have a popular audience you can upsell your work in the same domain by making a service out of it, empowering people into doing something, while you don’t need to establish a line of trust by proving your credibility.

Context Jam

ABC is a software engineer with a passion for solving database related problems, and is well known on online forums. His followers/readers often have recurring problems. He can help the audience by providing customised routine solutions to their problems as a digital service on his website turning readers into potential clients.

Our big takeaway

Complex topics such as mental health can be broken down into actionable experiences in which the users take full advantage of the digital touchpoint. It becomes a different experience and effect compared to therapy in person, not a port or a lesser quality version.

What the project is about

We as service designers have always loved to get inspired from various products & services. We have found that every service can give us at least one learning or insight which we can use in various other contexts. We started to breakdown services in various domains and began to mention the actionable insights which anyone/everyone can use in creative ways. This project for us is the output of that hunt and a growing resource which will keep unwrapping in front of us.