AHADI
A mental health app connecting people in Tanzania with therapists, self-help tools, and a community that carries them between sessions.
AHADI in Swahili means "with much promise". The app had over 1000 downloads and only 100-200 active users. I ran the screening, research, and full redesign of the mobile experience, then designed the web admin dashboard behind it. Today AHADI is backed by the Tanzanian Ministry of Health and was a EUTECH SDG Awards finalist.
- My role
- UX/UI designer - screening and discovery, user research, personas and user stories, user flows, wireframes, UI design, accessibility checks, web admin dashboard
- Team
- Graphic designer: Hanna Adamczyk. Developer: Shadrack Abely. Total project duration: 4 months.
- Toolkit
- Figma
- Jira
- User surveys
- Personas & user stories
- Crazy 8s
- Attention Insight
- Contrast checker
- Live
Who is AHADI?
AHADI is a mental health app designed to connect individuals with mental health experts and give them self-help tools to improve their mental well-being. It targets people between 18 and 35, offering therapy sessions, journaling, community interactions, and a helpline in one place.
Fact: AHADI in Swahili means "with much promise".
Discovering AHADI - the screening
After the initial video call with the client, I gathered everything needed for a first assessment into a single working document and sent it back with deeper questions: who exactly is the audience, what worked and what didn't in the previous app, what user feedback already existed, what they liked and disliked in the current product.
That document became my foundation. It is where I formulated the initial hypothesis that I would later confirm, or reject, through user surveys and personas.
Low user engagement. Over 1000 downloads, but only 100-200 active users. Nothing in the product motivated people to come back and use its features consistently.
Inadequate motivation. Users were not sufficiently motivated to engage with the app, which pulled retention and satisfaction down together.
A dull user experience. The interface gave people no reason to stay: no rhythm, no reward, no sense of progress in their own well-being.
- Purpose
Connect individuals with mental health experts and give them self-help tools to improve their mental well-being.
- Audience
People between 18 and 35 years old, initially in Tanzania.
- Keep
Helpline, therapy, journal, and community - the four features people already relied on.
- Improve
Community (live sessions led by psychotherapists), journaling, therapy session management, and notification timing and relevance.
- Remove
Clubs inside community, replaced with support groups for more targeted and effective interaction.
- Experience vision
Easy to find and use, timely help, and a consistently high quality of service.
Timeline: completion aimed at the end of June, earlier if possible.
The app before the redesign
Beyond the missing functionality the client already knew about, the visual audit showed three structural problems.
- It lacked consistency in the colour palette, screen to screen.
- There was no brand book or colour guide to anchor any future design work.
- The bottom navigation bar was missing the features meant to guide people through the app.
User survey - challenging the hypothesis
I ran a survey with 35 respondents in Tanzania to test whether the client's read on the problem matched what people actually experienced. Age split: 40% were 18-24 (14 respondents), 35% were 25-30 (12), and 25% were 31-35 (9).
Seven questions covered frequency of use, ease of navigation, design intuitiveness, moments of confusion, the colour scheme, the hardest features, and what people would change first.
Frequency of use
- Daily
- 10%
- Weekly
- 20%
- Monthly
- 30%
- Rarely
- 25%
- Never
- 15%
Ease of navigation
- Very easy
- 5%
- Easy
- 15%
- Neutral
- 25%
- Difficult
- 35%
- Very difficult
- 20%
Feeling lost or confused
- Never
- 5%
- Rarely
- 10%
- Sometimes
- 30%
- Often
- 35%
- Always
- 20%
Opinion on the colour scheme
- Very appealing
- 5%
- Appealing
- 15%
- Neutral
- 25%
- Distracting
- 35%
- Very distracting
- 20%
Most challenging features
- Journal
- 30%
- Community
- 25%
- Therapy sessions
- 20%
- Notifications
- 15%
- Helpline
- 10%
Suggested improvements
- Improve navigation
- 40%
- Simplify design
- 30%
- Enhance colour scheme
- 20%
- More engaging features
- 5%
- Better content quality
- 5%
- Navigation: people found it genuinely difficult to move around the app.
- Design intuitiveness: the interface was not intuitive or user-friendly.
- Colour scheme: the palette read as distracting rather than calming.
- Feature complexity: Journal and Community were the hardest to use.
- Engagement: nothing in the product motivated consistent use.
Personas, user stories, acceptance criteria
The personas were not a deliverable for its own sake. I used them as the foundation for mapping detailed user journeys, because the needs of a therapist managing a calendar and a mother of two looking for ten calm minutes are not the same problem.
Sarah needed a straightforward, efficient path to book a session. Dr. Hassan needed fast access to manage appointments. Writing acceptance criteria per story kept the design honest about what "done" meant.
Dr. Hassan - therapist
User storyAs a therapist, I want to manage my availability and schedule sessions easily, and see an intuitive dashboard with my appointments and client information, so that I can provide the best care possible.
Acceptance criteria- Availability and scheduling are editable in a few taps.
- One dashboard shows upcoming appointments and client context.
- Session management never depends on external tools.
James Mwangi - community member
User storyAs a user, I want to interact with people going through the same thing, and receive tips I can choose the type of, so that support feels relevant rather than generic.
Acceptance criteria- Community supports posts, comments, and likes.
- Moderation tools keep the environment safe and supportive.
- Tip categories are user-configurable.
Sarah Amani - busy mother of two
User storyAs a user, I want to easily find stress management resources and connect with other mothers, so that I can cope with the demands of parenting and share experiences and advice.
Acceptance criteria- A dedicated stress-management section, categorised and searchable.
- Articles, videos, and audio guides tailored for parents.
- Groups specifically for mothers, with discussions, questions, and advice.
- A calm colour scheme and an interface that never overwhelms.
Pencil, paper, and the main user flow
During the design process I work with pencil and paper first. They are my go-to design, research, and note-taking tools, and they keep early decisions cheap to throw away.
With the data in place, I could define the primary flow and translate it into low-fidelity wireframes.
- 01Onboarding screens
- 02Register / log in
- 03Dashboard
- 04Book a therapy tab
- 05Research the right therapist
- 06Pick date, time, and session length
- 07Pay for the session
- 08Pre-questionnaire
- 09Submit
- 10Booking confirmation
Crazy 8s: designing the dashboard
One element kept raising question marks: the dashboard. To explore it quickly I ran a Crazy 8s sketch round, with a single goal - find the most functional layout. I then walked all eight versions through with the client and we agreed on what mattered.
- Big, bold buttons that stay simple and intuitive.
- A bottom navigation bar instead of a burger menu, with both icons and text labels.
- Bottom bar destinations: home, settings, notifications, profile.
- A place on the dashboard for reminders and daily gratitude.
- A quick-access button straight into the booking flow.
- A visible notification bell.
With the dashboard settled, I designed wireframes for the complete flow, from registration to booking confirmation - the successful path first, then the edges around it.
Accessibility and attention checks
While working on the artboards I tested them against attention insights and colour contrast, in both light and dark mode. This told me whether the layout was directing attention where the flow needed it and whether another accessibility iteration was necessary.
The project ran several user flows plus therapist flows in parallel, so I tracked design progress in Jira to stay accountable and keep the developer and graphic designer in sync.
Mobile app and web admin dashboard
Beyond the mobile wireframes, AHADI was extended with a web admin dashboard, necessary for the team to manage the mobile app: therapist accounts, content, community moderation, and notifications.
The illustration work was a collaboration with senior creative designer Hanna Adamczyk, which gave the app a warm, non-clinical visual voice - important for a product asking people to talk about their mental health.
AHADI has been running in beta and gathering feedback from its users since launch.
Design with purpose - a successful integration
The team behind AHADI has an ambitious plan: a well-designed app where therapists create accounts, log in, and run online sessions with clients, on a platform that promotes stigma-free mental health support.
Finalist in the EUTECH SDG Awards, SDG 3
- Ministry of Health
AHADI established a collaboration with the Tanzanian Ministry of Health and is the only app in the country serving this purpose with that backing.
- Reach
The team collaborates with clinics, extends into underserved communities, and runs workshops to educate, teach, and inspire.
- EUTECH SDG Awards
AHADI was a finalist in the EUTECH SDG Awards, SDG 3 - Mental Health and Well-Being.
- Grand Challenges Canada
AHADI is listed as a Transition-to-Scale innovation under the Being Initiative.
- National health infrastructure
The solution integrates with Tanzania's national health hotline, 199, and SMS service 15061.