There is growing awareness about mental health in our society today. The acceptance of mental health is taken as a key component of health. It is still difficult for the average person to pursue mental health in the absence of mental health professionals such as therapists.
The founders of Mimblu approached ToXSL about creating a mobile application to bridge the gap between people who require therapists and those who need services.
MIMBLU
A text and video therapy platform, Mimblu connects you with the right professional therapist. You can text or video call any problem of yours at your convenience. Many people do not have access to mental health care or support, which the company believes should be a right for everyone.
A detailed look at the development of a mobile application is provided in this Case Study.
Task: Create the complete mobile application experience and hand over deliverables to the clients.
Method: analysis, planning, usability testing
Duration: 5 months
The Challenges
The client needed to create their app from scratch. As a startup, Mimblu requires good support for the development of its app from day one. Thus, ToXSL utilizes its expertise in different development areas: front-end, back-end, and product design.
The Online Therapy service assists people experiencing mental and health care concerns, which is a sensitive issue. Due to this, the development of an app that is suitable for this field is extremely important.
To keep users motivated and to reduce friction in their signing up process, as well as to provide high-quality streaming video that doesn't crash, the look and feel of the app are crucial. The user should feel safe with encryption and safe storage. Privacy and data protection are also important to keep them safe. Many users had poor internet connections because of their location, and they needed the ability to participate in online sessions through the app.
The Key Challenges of the project include :
1. An app that needs to have a smooth UX & UI and be able to work with users with a low internet connection and won't crash or buffer while using it.
2. An important component of mental healthcare is creating data encryption, making sure data is stored safely, and developing an appropriate app for data use.
3. Developing a scalable app that can be exported to other countries.
The Processes
As part of the app development process, it is crucial to continually refine and verify the client's requirements and vision. It was necessary to adapt the app to low data consumption to be used by a large group of users. It was a fast-paced development process, and the functionalities needed to provide real value to the user.
ToXSL divides all phases of mobile app development into processes and methodologies. Here's how we did it:
1. Requirement Analysis
Team members work together and discuss expectations and design details of the app we will be developing.
2. Planning
Once all the stages have been defined, our healthcare development team of experts facilitates a seamless development process.
3. Design and Development
We begin the development of the app after our developers prepare an initial wireframe or sample. By completing this stage, we will be able to complete the Mimblu app.
4. QA assurance
Now that the app has been finalized, it's time to test it. Simplifying and rectifying all the errors the app may have, thereby helps to simplify the development process.
5. Maintenance and Support
At ToXSL, for a specific period, we also offer app maintenance and support.
In the development of the application, we were heavily involved, and our assumptions and decisions proved true with the successful group connection. Even though bugs and errors appeared, we managed to fix them and bring very interesting functionalities to a very meaningful application: Healthcare
The Outcome
In the end, we delivered much more than an MVP of the mobile application. As a result, the app came out with each functionality bringing real value to the user, and it was easily scalable and adapted to future development.
Launch Date: 8th September 2021
Main highlights provided:
- It cost up to 5x less than traditional in-person therapy with Mimblu.
- Access to text messages or voice notes 24/7 from anywhere, anytime.
- Choose a convenient time for your video calls.
- Suitable for LGBTQIA+ and anyone who needs it.
For this project to be successful, the following factors had to be taken into account:
1. Understanding the user requirements and industry standards for the application features is essential in close collaboration with the client.
2. To ensure that the right technical decisions are made during the video session to fix any kind of bugs and to prevent any kind of buffering.
3. Make sure that the app is coded in a way that can be handed over to the client's internal team and that can be scaled up as the company grows.
In terms of online therapy, we still have a long way to go before we find the perfect system that meets both therapists' and patients' needs. We had a wonderful experience working with the Mimblu team for mobile application development because it was a solid experience to be part of an organization that cared about mental care.
