Call BlackLine
Empowering Call BlackLine, a non-profit crisis counseling organization, to deliver mobile crisis support services to individuals throughout the U.S. and Canada.
Product Designer
Sep 2022 - Jun 2023
1 Product Manager
5 Developers
3 Product Designers
2 Stakeholders
Product Thinking
Interaction Design
Visual Design
Design System
Providing a confidential, 24-hour hotline for those in crisis.
Call BlackLine is a non-profit that provides immediate crisis counseling to individuals who need to talk with someone immediately or are in distress.
As the project's Product Design Lead at Triton Software Engineering, a student organization that develops pro-bono software, I oversaw a team of two designers, managed the distribution of design work, and facilitated cross-functional collaboration.
Connect with a Call BlackLine volunteer
Users seeking aid can contact volunteers by calling or texting.
Write about your experience
Don't want to text or call? No worries. Users can write about the mistreatment they experienced and have volunteers get back to them with next steps.
Send affirmations to Call BlackLine users.
Volunteers can send affirmations to app users, providing them with supportive words throughout their week.
Providing secure crisis counseling in a mobile app
Call BlackLine aimed to transition its resources to an all-in-one mobile app to reach users in a more secure and flexible space.
Security Issues
Call BlackLine relies on volunteers to connect with hotline callers. However, volunteers largely received hate calls; preventing them from reaching callers in immediate need.
Uncovering user needs and client goals
A challenge during this project was that we had the inability to interview Call BlackLine users due to confidentiality reasons. We utilized 1:1 client interviews and secondary research.
Interview Insights
Users want...
...more opportunities to seek aid (expand beyond calls).
Stakeholders wished...
...for better connections between those they help.
Volunteers want...
...improved security measures to decrease hate calls.
User Personas
The team designed two personas to align product expectations. One persona is a user seeking aid and the other persona is a Call BlackLine volunteer who responds to calls.
Aligning client goals with our problem space
We collaborated with our clients to generate solutions. We converged on the following ideas:
More opportunities for aid
New opportunities in the app: texting a volunteer and writing about your experiences in the app.
User & client connections
An affirmation feature can allow stakeholders to connect with users.
Improved security measures
A log-in flow and authentication features can improve security for volunteers.
User Flows
Next, we developed user flows to: identify each step in our experience, track pain points, and work out technical constraints with developers. Here is an example.
Designs iterated by concept testing and feedback
Below, you will find key features that were changed based on concept testing conducted with our clients and internal design critiques.
Homepage
Finding a balance between information and features presented was a challenge for our homepage designs.
Concept testing helped us balance the information client's wanted and the features that users needed to seek aid.
Affirmation Selection
Volunteers can send words of affirmation to users. Designing this feature challenged my visual design skills in mobile design. Secondary research and criqitues helped me identify and learn mobile-best practices.
Crafting a design system with sustainability in-mind
During our MVP development, we hoped to create a sustainable design system that could be used continuously in future iterations of the Call BlackLine app. Below are a few of the components that I worked on.
The Call BlackLine app, a source for crisis-counseling
In addition to calling, users can write and text to volunteers.
Providing more opportunities for users to seek aid.
Account verification aims to improve security measures
This feature acts as a shield, aiming to decrease the number of hate calls volunteers receive.
Volunteers can send users affirmations and words of encouragement.
Improving the connection between volunteers and users of the app.
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