Turning competency-based training online for the World Health Organisation & Unicef.

There is a lack of mental health professionals in humanitarian settings and low-income countries. To approach this, The World Health Organisation and Unicef train people in the community to provide mental health care. But how to ensure that non-professional people are able to provide good quality mental health support?

For that, they use EQUIP methodology (Ensuring Quality in Psychosocial Support) which helps scale psychological and psychosocial support interventions in low-income settings. This methodology has been developed by George Washington University and was tested by 8 different organisations in 7 pilot countries.

My role
I worked as a UX/UI designer on this project under Elise West Design agency and also assisted the design sprints done with UNICEF.

Problem

Going from on paper to online assessments to scale the platform globally.

EQUIP methodology already existed on paper, but WHO and their academic partners at George Washington University were finding it challenging to drive uniform adoption of the training method across the eight partners for the project. Consequently, they decided to bring the training and assessments online.

The main focus of the project was to meet the growing demand from more countries who wanted to use the EQUIP methodology; and to be able to collate all necessary data for the academic partners to prove the success of competency-based training.

I was involved from discovery to launch, working on research and user interviews to better understand the problem, then prototype & test based on the success criteria we set to reach the project goal.

Solution

Through testing in the field we designed the online assessment tool giving trainers a digital tool adapted to their needs.

We also realised we needed to create an E-learning section to help trainers learn the training methodology online and educate around competency-based training.

Our success criteria included:

Easy and engaging E-learning material for learners
Excellent usability on low spec mobile and tablet
Multiple language compatibility (inc. right-to-left scripts)
Robust editorial workflows, particularly for content in translation
A fully digital assessment tool that could fully function offline
Data visualization for trainers to give full visibility to how their trainings are progressing and improving
Positive adoption metrics and user statistics

Online Assessment tool

Our regular audience was familiarised with the assessment sheets on paper so we followed a similar design and it was easy for them to use the rating sheet.

After testing we saw that team administrators needed more clarity on how to set up the teams and assessments, so we focused on improving our onboarding process.

E-Learning

The LMS (Learning management system) had all the online courses for the users being trained by Unicef staff.

All modules and lessons had to be easily added and edited by Unicef staff, thus we designed a set of ready-made blocks.

It was important to make users engage with the content so we added videos, illustrations, quizzes and practical exercises to make them interact more with the content.

Process

Early focus and prototyping

After better understanding the problem and defining our project goals as a team, we focused on prototyping and testing in the field how users would use the tool, which gave us valuable insight.

We launched a first MVP and then tested the platform with our 7 pilot countries, getting their feedback on how they use the platform and iterating it based on their insights and needs.

Challenges

Designing for non-digital audience

One of the main challenges of this project was to design an intuitive tool and platform that was easy to use for non-digital people. That’s why it was important to go to the field and test our prototypes in real case scenarios to understand the limitations of the settings where trainers perform trainings. It was crucial to focus on user experience and function above aesthetics.

Adapting content to cultural context

When testing the E-learning section with users we realised that the material needed to be adapted to cultural and economical context of our audience in order for them to engage with the content.

We commissioned a set of illustrations and videos that really portrayed real-case scenarios for them.

Outcome

+1,000 users in the first month

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Used in 29 different countries

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Multilingual platform translated to 8 languages

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+1,000 users in the first month 〰️ Used in 29 different countries 〰️ Multilingual platform translated to 8 languages 〰️

Through surveys and user interviews we have continued to improve the current platform and adding new content. The courses are now being translated into 8 languages.

Now, 8 implementing partners are regularly using the EQUIP digital platform in their trainings in the field, and 1,500 weekly active users are learning through the EQUIP courses, in 29 different countries.

EQUIP implementing partners include: