Project-COVID: Mental health and the Pandemic
“These past few weeks have been tough for everyone as evidenced by an increase of over 70% in the number of people reaching out to us for help with their mental health needs. Because of this & as part of our mental health response to the ongoing pandemic, we have created a platform that caters to all your needs by providing a wide variety of activities, resources, & entertainment to help you maintain optimal wellness.” — MANI
About the Project
In April 2020 during the Pandemic lockdown, Victor Ugo, the founder of MANI — Mentally Aware Nigeria Initiative contacted me. He needed a platform that could engage and inform people about how to deal with the lockdown, especially for those with mental health needs. I had a couple of online meetings — video calls and texts with him and Jolaade Taiwo who at that time was their Communications Manager, he would be responsible for supplying contents and managing the platform after delivering it.
My Role
I was responsible for coming up with designs for the User Interface and ensuring that it wasn’t just pleasing aesthetically but was simple to interact with. After the design had been approved, I implemented the design with WordPress
I was also responsible for designing the posters and creating videos that would be used for social media publicity.
Process
I and the stakeholders involved in this project had several online meetings and texts, He also sent me some websites that contain certain design styles and elements he loved and would love to see on this platform. They needed this website to be done urgently as it was meant to solve an ongoing problem.
There were challenges with regards to research as this platform was going to be a novel one in the country, I did not have much data to work with. The plan was to go public as soon as possible and iterate as people interacted with the platform, making adjustments here and there.
The project began swiftly right from start till finish. I came up with a couple of sketches and then went ahead to design the best one as a high fidelity design. (Unfortunately, I could not find the raw XD files for the UI Design. 😢)
Design and Implementation
The website had to be designed in such a way that it would fit into the brand of the parent website, educate and engage people right from the first visit, hence the large call to action buttons and most importantly it should be easy to understand, with the use of clear and unambiguous copies.
Information Architecture
Impact
Since its launch in April, the website has had over 25,000 visits with lots of positive reviews across Twitter.
MANI, through this new website, was able to engage and educate a lot of people during the pandemic lockdown period. The website is still very much active as blog posts are frequently published.
My favourite page, which was fun to work on, is the Resource Hub. It contains lots of useful information for just about everyone — parents, people dealing with anxiety, victims of domestic abuse, health care workers, etc.
I am glad that I could be a part of the project which had an impact on several lives across Nigeria and beyond.
