Project Summary
- Client: Linkmate (Health Tech / Social Impact)
- Role: UX Researcher & Design Lead (Team Project)
- Duration: Short-term sprint (bootcamp project)
- Focus: Peer support experience, member engagement, empathy-centered UX
Linkmate is a digital mental health platform that connects members (people seeking help) with mates (trained peers) for emotional support. The platform focuses on early intervention through active-empathetic listening, peer-based care, and social prescribing.
I led the design efforts for the mate user experience, including research, ideation, facilitation, and testing. I also contributed to the member experience, participating in research, competitor analysis, and client presentation delivery.
Team & Collaboration
- Facilitated design workshops with a cross-functional team
- Co-led team decision-making during design MVP definition
- Supported multiple roles across mate and member user journeys
Design Challenge
Young Australians often need someone to talk to, especially someone with similar lived experience. Linkmate’s goal was to design a platform where this need could be met in a trusted, meaningful, and structured way.
Business Needs
- Improve engagement, traction, and retention
- Create a streamlined, empathetic UX for both user types
- Build a system that encourages ongoing use without emotional fatigue
UX Research & Insights
User Interviews
- Explored what motivates mates to volunteer and where they struggle
- Asked carefully framed, non-leading questions about mental health to protect user comfort
- Interviewed members to understand their emotional states, expectations, and pain points
Key Insights
- Mates are motivated by a desire to grow their mental health literacy and give back, and they value meaningful connection over gamification.
- Members want lightweight, stigma-free access to emotional support, ideally through someone who has been through something similar.
- Both sides benefit from transparency about how the system works and why they’ve been matched.
Solution Highlights
🔹 For Mates
- Clear onboarding with emphasis on purpose and outcomes
- Career-building and cultural learning as motivators
- Interface designed around emotional availability and confidence building 🔹 For Members
- Mood tracking
- Messaging a mate
- Voice messaging to reduce typing effort
- Clarity about the role of mates and what to expect from conversations
My Role & Leadership
- Facilitated the mate-focused workshop
- Led interview planning and design prioritization
- Collaborated cross-functionally to define the MVP
- Took initiative to resolve team stagnation by identifying core ideas and aligning consensus around them
- Supported final client presentation and delivery “It helped to talk to someone who gets it. I didn’t feel like I was being diagnosed, just heard.” – Member Interviewee
Learnings
Learned how to ask emotionally sensitive questions without leading or making users uncomfortable Recognized the need for structure and ownership in large teams, especially under pressure Practiced facilitative leadership, guiding decision-making and maintaining momentum Gained confidence designing for emotionally complex user flows
Next Steps
This case has the potential to evolve into a scalable model for mental health support that integrates structured peer training, automated onboarding, and a feedback loop between members and mates. Additional opportunities include deeper integration of mood tracking analytics and match-making logic based on shared experiences.