Project Overview
The Check-in app, developed by beyondblue and Two Bulls was launched in June 2014. The free app encourages young people to start and complete a conversation with a friend they are worried about.
The app explains the conversation process and suggests a path – with suggested ways of approaching their friend, places and times. There are also tips from other young people who have had similar conversations and links to additional support.
Organisation
Team
Luke Martin - Clinical advisor
Rachel Sheldon - Brand and content advisor
Rebecca Rennie - Youthbeyondblue project manager
Alison Dale - Two Bulls Producer
Virgil Cameron - Two Bulls Principal Designer
Evan Davey - Two Bulls COO / Development team
Chen-Po Sun - Two Bulls Development team
Project Brief
In 2013, beyondblue were partnered with app developers, Two Bulls in the Vodafone Foundation App Aid competition. The concept – an app that will take the fear out of talking to a friend when they seem down – won the completion with over 700 crowd-funded donations and raised over $16,500 on the Pozible website. Vodafone donated $10,000 per entry and an additional $25,000 as a bonus for the most supporters.
The concept was developed from research and feedback that suggested young people were often worried about their friend and want to ‘be a good friend’, but lack the skills and tools to begin and continue these difficult conversations.
Throughout the development of the Check-in app, young people from around Australia, who have experienced depression or anxiety, have provided feedback.
Project Need
Research shows that one in four young people aged 16 to 24 will experience a mental illness, but only a quarter of those will seek support from a health professional. This is extremely worrying, as suicide is the biggest killer of young Australians, and each year accounts for the deaths of more young people than car accidents. While there is no substitute for professional help, checking on a friend can be a powerful step towards them seeking the support they need.
Young people really want to be good friends and to help but they are also worried that they will either say the wrong thing or make things worse for their friend.
“This app is so incredibly unique and really takes the ‘fear’ aspect out of having a conversation with a friend about how they are going. It's not an easy conversation to have, and this app provides the building blocks for how you would approach this conversation and reinforces the importance of talking about concerns. It's an interactive and productive app that will give a confidence boost to the people using it in talking about mental illness. I'd recommend it to everyone I know." – tester of the Check-in app, age 18.
User Experience
From the beginning, beyondblue has consulted extensively with young people and involved them in the development of the app. Previous to the app, young people had told us that they needed support to talk to friends they were concerned about.
We involved our intended users via workshops, they provided us with content for the app and participated in user testing.
beyondblue is also keen to continue to having young people engaged in feedback and producing ongoing content for the app. There are a number of inbuilt mechanisms for this. 'Suggest a tip' where users can email in their tip for supporting a friend. Users also have the option to email us suggestions to improve the app or share their story on how they used the app as well as a survey to collect data on the usefulness of the app.
Data to date includes:
Of the 62 individuals who have completed the inbuilt survey:
97.8% found the app easy to use
54.3% had a conversation with a friend after using the app
83.3% of these people felt the conversation went well and their friend was well supported
95.6% would recommend the app to a friend.
Project Marketing
The app was launched on 27 July 2014. It was promoted through our online reference group – blueVoices, ambassadors, our database of youth, school and university contacts as well as social media (Facebook, Instagram and Twitter) and over 700 supporters from Pozible who contributed to the crowd funding.
The marking plan was designed to provide engagement with community, click throughs to Pozible page, donations, the sharing of social media post with friends, colleagues and networks.
The key messages were the problem we are trying to solve, encouraging people to get involved, to share with your friends and to help us get this app to market.
‘Get involved, show your support and share some loose change’
Our key communities were:
• Facebook (157k+) – focus on ‘Get involved, show your support and share some loose change’
• Twitter (15+) – focus on ‘Get involved, show your support and share some loose change’
• Existing donors and fundraisers (15k+) – focus on larger donations and helping us get the app to market
• blueVoices members (2k) – focus on ‘Get involved, show your support and share some loose change’
• High profile Ambassadors – focus on sharing through social media networks
• Ambassadors and Speakers - focus on sharing through their networks
We also had a small budget to promote to the target audience using paid Facebook advertising.
Project Privacy
The app does not collect any personal data.
Not For Profit
This category recognises applications developed for Not-For-Profit organisations and charities.
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