Company: Limbix is a digital therapeutics startup on a mission to make mental health treatment accessible to young people who need it the most, when they need it the most. In 2023, Limbix was acquired by digital therapeutics company, Big Health.
Product: SparkRx is a digital therapeutic that provides an evidence-based adjunct treatment intervention for adolescents aged 13-22 with symptoms of depression. SparkRx was offered for a limited time, at no cost to patients or providers, under the FDA’s Enforcement Policy during the COVID-19 public health emergency.
Designed with clinical experts in adolescent depression, SparkRx brings evidence-based treatment to each patient’s smartphone, delivering a multi-week program based on cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT) and behavioral activation protocols.
Role: At Limbix teams were organized into product development “pods” comprised of Product Management, Clinical Science, Content Design, Product Design, UX Research, Engineering and Data Analysis team members. I was the Content Design lead embedded on the Spark pod and worked collaboratively with these cross-functional partners.
The problem: The onboarding experience of an app is the users’ first impression of the program. Industry research indicates that the early user experience is a big indicator of user retention and engagement. SparkRx’s original onboarding experience was not leaving a positive first impression. We were hoping to excite and motivate users, but our findings indicated that Spark users weren’t feeling excited and weren’t bought into the treatment’s efficacy, leading to lower retention rates.
The goal: Improve user retention by injecting some excitement into the early product experience. Improve engagement by increasing intrinsic motivation and treatment expectancy. We had to achieve these goals with minimal impact on the product’s regulatory compliance.
My contribution: I was the content design lead on the project and worked closely with the product team, including the program’s clinical and design leads. I actively participated throughout the entire process, from ideation to content design of the final solution. The process took a little over 2 months, from the design sprint to finalizing designs. There were some delays due to shifting organizational priorities and resources. Despite some complications the SparkRx product team was able to deliver a strong onboarding experience through close collaboration.
The solution: We tested multiple hypotheses to determine how they might improve the early user experience and increase retention. The key solutions that we prioritized aimed to create a more personalized and engaging onboarding experience to help users feel motivated, excited, and invested in their Spark journey.
- Goal setting: A new feature where users can select the goal they’d like to accomplish during the course of the program. This allows users to complete a mini-task and gives them a teaser for what’s to come
- Social proof: Another new addition, designed to foster belief in the treatment’s effectiveness
- Removal of tutorials: Existing content was streamlined by removing the more intuitive content that didn’t need to be spelled out for the user
- Gamification: Lastly, the app’s home screen was completely overhauled into a gamified experience intended to increase excitement
Goal Setting: Users can select their treatment goal for the program, increasing interactivity and investment in their journey. Goal setting is revisited again in Level 2.
Goal Setting 2: Additional examples of goal setting screens. Users see different content depending on the goal selected.
Social Proof: An opportunity for users to view clinical data of Spark’s impact and product testimonials from other users.
Demographics: At the request of our research team, these screens allow us to obtain baseline information, ethnicity and pronouns, about real-world users.
Gamified Home Screen: The new gamified home screen experience vs. the previous version. Tool tips at each task pad trigger the next lesson or activity in the program. The gamification process was led by the pod’s Product Designer.
Tuba Karim 