/01 Intro
The Client
Apogee Behavioral Medicine™ (ABM) is a behavioral health company born out of Apogee Physicians™, which offers psychiatry services, counseling and therapy, TMS, and telehealth.
Problem
ABM needed a logo that symbolizes the mental health journey and honors the legacy from which it was born. They also needed a modern yet inviting website that enabled users to easily schedule an appointment.
My Role
I performed many tasks throughout this process, including branding, logo design, web design, UX design, and graphic design.
I collaborated with the CEO, Chief Medical Officer, and Chief Physician Officer throughout the branding process as well as the web design process. The leadership team hired Alphametic as an SEO consultant whom we'd meet over zoom biweekly to discuss strategies and next steps that stimulate more organic searches and increase conversion rate.
Project Overview
Branding
ABM was first conceived as a pure telepsychiatry service but quickly evolved into a brick-and-mortar psychiatry and therapy clinic with telehealth options. I was charged with the task of creating a modern and bold brand that would help them break into a new market with a new audience that symbolized the mental health journey while honoring the legacy of Apogee Physicians from which ABM was established.
ABM was first conceived as a pure telepsychiatry service but quickly evolved into a brick-and-mortar psychiatry and therapy clinic with telehealth options. I was charged with the task of creating a modern and bold brand that would help them break into a new market with a new audience that symbolized the mental health journey while honoring the legacy of Apogee Physicians from which ABM was established.
Client Website
ABM had an extremely tight deadline for designing a brand new, patient-facing website that provided plentiful information about behavioral health, had a new patient sign-up, a job board, a locations page, a “Find a Provider” filter, a blog, and more.
ABM had an extremely tight deadline for designing a brand new, patient-facing website that provided plentiful information about behavioral health, had a new patient sign-up, a job board, a locations page, a “Find a Provider” filter, a blog, and more.
/02 User Research
Competitor Analysis
ABM’s direct competitors are MindPath Health and LiftStance Health. Their goal was to make room in that space with their competitors drawing inspiration from their success and applying a similar formula until ABM establishes their unique brand voice.
Audience
ABM’s first clinic is in Greensboro, NC where their demographics were 46% male, 54% female, 45% white, and 55% African American. Through their grassroots marketing efforts, the ABM team discovered that most of their clientele was young, adult women most of which are women of color.
/03 Design Process
Logo Design
Apogee Physicians was traversing a new market and audience, which allowed the opportunity to explore various logo designs, such as wordmarks and icons, and discover the one that would meet their goals of having an established, modern brand that is instantly recognizable and symbolizing the mental health journey while honoring the legacy from which ABM was born.
Color Palette & Style
Light teal with charcoal gray, along with light gray and rich black as accents. These colors were specifically requested by the client. This posed a challenge as grays and blacks are often inappropriate for the visual language of behavioral health. After many proposals, the client agreed to broaden their color palette to have secondary colors along with an accent/web set. Stock photos would be carefully curated to support the ABM color palette.
With the ABM business in its infancy, it needed to build trust and brand recognition with its new audience. The website needed to be inviting and modern.
Website
Home page design process.
Icons
I created custom icons to support both the visual storytelling and brand aesthetic.
/04 User Flow & Sitemap
Due to the extremely tight deadline, we needed to understand the user flow for each section of the website for maximum efficiency throughout each step of the design process. A successful conversion is a scheduled appointment, whether by phone or through the EHR system.
User Flow
Sitemap
/05 Style Guide
/06 Challenges
Challenge #1
ABM needed to gain a high conversion rate of new clients for the Greensboro, NC location.
ABM needed to gain a high conversion rate of new clients for the Greensboro, NC location.
Solution: Design an efficient user flow in scheduling a new appointment with minimal steps.
Challenge #2
ABM is a new business/brand that the local community has never seen before.
ABM is a new business/brand that the local community has never seen before.
Solution: Inform users of ABM’s service offerings through visual storytelling, relating to its audience through carefully curated imagery and well-written content.
Challenge #3
ABM needs to expand its practice throughout North Carolina and (eventually) the rest of the US and thus will need the means to recruit and hire more talented providers.
ABM needs to expand its practice throughout North Carolina and (eventually) the rest of the US and thus will need the means to recruit and hire more talented providers.
Solution: Design a "Join Us" page for recruiting talent that has a search filter and a "Partner With Us" for business development.
/07 Website Design
Home
This would be the first impression ABM would make with their new audience, and each page needed to be just as warm and inviting as the office patients would visit.
Using the brand's secondary and accent colors set the stage for a more calming mood, and the photos would be of happy individuals and families to symbolize hope in their mental health journey.
Find a Provider
Apogee Physicians – the parent company of ABM – puts a great focus on connecting their hospital patients to their Apogee doctors, which improves the overall patient experience. A similar approach to ABM’s patients is a natural fit for them.
Users can learn more about their local psychiatrists or therapists through an informative “Find a Provider” page. As the practice grows, a search filter will be added to fine-tune users’ search for the right provider for them.
Services
In the world of behavioral health, conditions treated and service offerings are relatively the same across all competitors. So, it was important to use ABM’s brand voice and visual aesthetic to create interest in their providers over the competition and alleviate any apprehension potential new patients might have about seeking help.
Location Details
Each ABM clinic will have its own page on the website giving users an overview of the location, services offered, conditions treated, and its providers.
The page needed to be informative and inviting for users seeking treatment with the goal of reducing the anxiety of visiting a behavioral health clinic. While the initial design achieved most of this, the team agreed that a more polished design would make the locations more attractive and less intimidating.
The latest design is cleaner, more structured, and more visually engaging.
Location page redesign process.
Final design for Location pages.
/08 Prototypes
After analyzing many design options, an interactive prototype was created based on the chosen design. This was an important/necessary step to allow a smooth hand-off to development.
/09 Conclusion
The overall process, from branding to website design, was challenging and rewarding under a tight deadline. It was a challenging design sprint that required intense focus, starting at the initial client brief for a logo design to launch. However, I also found this sprint a growing experience as I learned to be more decisive and purposeful in my decision-making while focusing on the users' best interests.