Grow
My role
Product Designer
Year
2025
Domain
HealthTech
Time to read
5 mins
Overview
Grow is a therapy app designed around one insight: every major therapy platform in the US requires payment before you can browse a single therapist profile. Most also require insurance. Grow is built for people who want to find the right therapist first, on their own terms, without committing upfront.
Starting from user interviews and competitive research across leading therapy platforms, I designed the complete UX and UI. 60 screens across onboarding, therapist search, booking, sessions, and user profile. Full design system with light and dark mode.
View prototype in Figma
60
Screens
2
Themes
56
Days
iOS
Platform
Challenge
Mental health support has an access problem, but it's not only financial. Every major therapy platform requires payment before you can browse a single profile. You're asked to trust someone you've never encountered. For many people, that friction alone is enough to walk away.
Research approach
I mapped the competitive landscape across 4 direct competitors, analyzing onboarding flows, pricing models, therapist discovery, and session structures.
The JTBD analysis pointed to four situations where people turn to therapy apps: living far from good therapists, having a schedule that doesn't work for in-person sessions, wanting to choose their own therapist, and needing continuity while traveling.
Informational architecture
This map shows the complete app structure. For a new user the entry point is onboarding and quiz, leading directly to Browse therapists. For returning users, Home is the hub connecting sessions, chat, profile, and blog.
The free "Ask a question" feature sits outside the booking flow intentionally. It's a standalone trust-building moment, not a step toward payment.
User journey map
Three research findings shaped key design decisions.
Users needing urgent help led to an urgent session filter. Confidentiality concerns during onboarding led to short explanations alongside each question. Users wanting to know a therapist's methods led to that information being added directly to the profile.
Wireframes & prototyping
The prototype map covered 9 sections: splash, sign up, quiz, home, browse, booking, sessions, blog and profile.
Browse and booking required the most iteration. The logic had to feel right for a user who had never committed to therapy before and needed to trust the process before paying anything.
Key screens
Design System
Grow required a complete light and dark mode system. 34 color variables defined semantically. The entire app adapts with a single system preference switch. The component library covers 130+ elements built on top of that variable system. SF Pro Display was used throughout, keeping the experience native and familiar on iOS.
Validation
Unmoderated remote test. 4 core tasks plus a 5 second first impression test and light vs dark mode preference test.
What we found
Users weren't confident a real person would respond.
Checkout flow felt transactional to some participants.
What changed
Confirmation copy updated to specify a licensed therapist replies within 24 hours.
Booking CTA copy was refined to feel like scheduling, not purchasing.
Licensed in section added to each therapist profile.
All screens
Outcomes
Grow was designed as a complete iOS app covering the full product: onboarding, therapist browse and search, booking, sessions, blog, and user profile. The core user journey from discovery to first session was fully prototyped and prepared for handoff.
96 %
Task
completion rate
100 %
Would use
this app
48 sec
Average time
to find a therapist
83 %
Preferred
light mode
What I learned
User interviews shaped this project more than anything else. Every person had different pain points, which reminded me you can't assume what users need in mental health, you have to ask.
Usability testing revealed friction I'd stopped seeing. Booking flow copy felt transactional, and the Ask a Therapist feature needed clearer language to signal that a real person would respond.
What I'd do differently
I spent too long on the conceptual metaphor behind the app (a flower growing through rock) before building core screens. I'd reverse that order next time.
I'd also run usability testing earlier in the process rather than after the full prototype was built. Some friction points could have been caught at the wireframe stage.
