PLANNER 2.0

Product Design

The problem:

Despite its status as one of the North Shore’s highly affluent and privileged communities, Lake Forest experiences high rates of adolescent depression. In Lake County, one in four students surveyed in the 2014 Illinois Youth Survey reported having a depressive episode within the past twelve months. Our community partners at LEAD and Northwestern Lake Forest Hospital gave us the task of combating depression among 12 to 17-year-olds.

The Process:

Because we started out with such a broad problem, we had to figure out which part of the problem space we could make the most impact in. Through interviews with community partners, paediatricians, a psychiatrist, an emergency department social worker, and LEAD, the biggest issue we kept hearing coming up was that the stigmas surrounding depression between adolescents and their parents were a huge barrier to addressing depression. 

Our team went to visit Lake Forest High School, where we learned about the efforts being made to fight teen depression. When we spoke with four LFHS students, they revealed that a lot of their stress and depression symptoms began before high school, as early as 7th and 8th grade. We decided we could make a stronger impact by reducing stigmas in middle school so that by the time the students get to high school, they would feel more comfortable reaching out for help.

Based on our research, we developed a prototype and storyboard of our solution. We then met with three middle school students for user testing, and refined our design based on their feedback. 

The solution:

Our solution, Planner 2.0 helps proactively open emotional communication for children ages 10 to 12 and those who are important to them so they can be more comfortable discussing mental illnesses if they are to later arise.