Redesigning the mental health assessment experience

One month in India researching and testing wellbeing activities. The .YOU. cards invited students to write a problem anonymously, then swap places and answer each other's collectively — the seed of designing for openness without exposure.

Nine months from research to delivery: volunteering weekly at The Dragon Café, meetings with Mind in Camden and Camden Council, co-design sprint sessions with twelve participants, six mockups and prototypes, and twenty events, exhibitions and conferences.

Charting the mental health landscape — NHS pathways, psychiatry, community support and creative initiatives — to find where Mindnosis could sit: between insights, diagnosis and social prescribing.

Workshops at The Dragon Café made difficult conversations tangible — emotional sand pots and magnetic feeling badges recorded how people felt during assessments. Interviews and journey mapping surfaced the insight that carried the project: having someone to listen makes the biggest difference.

Creative focus groups ran 90-minute sessions from problem to reflection. A board game let the public physically experience the wait and bureaucracy of accessing services, and local events — from Bedlam at the Museum of the Mind to council meetings — kept the work in dialogue with its community. Six mockups and prototypes followed, adapted from direct user feedback and tested until the kit found its final form.

Mind Tools: a kit ordered confidentially and delivered by post. Discover, record, try out, learn — with crisis advice at the centre of the box and suggested steps to start a mindful journey.

Five steps from awareness to leaving with a co-created action plan — non-stigmatising, self-empowering, cost-efficient, and building healthier communities.