Designing a Complex AI Product for Mental Health

Mindloom is a digital platform that helps users explore their mental state through tests, courses, and sessions with therapists. The product combines structured psychological tools with an AI layer that supports reflection and personal growth.

I worked on the product as the UX/UI product designer at an early-stage startup, collaborating closely with the founder and development team. The project was also supervised by a more experienced Lead designer, with whom we discussed the overall direction and reviewed design concepts and layouts.

From the very beginning, the product was designed for two distinct user roles: therapists and participants. Each role had its own user flow, significantly shaping the overall product experience.

For therapists, the goal was to create a convenient ecosystem for content creation (tests, courses), as well as tools for scheduling sessions and tracking participant progress.

For participants, it was important to build an engaging and friendly environment that encourages regular interaction and long-term use.

The data collected during therapist-participant interactions (with user consent) forms a dynamic model — a visual representation of the participant's mental state.

The project started with test development, followed by layout implementation and parallel testing while I began creating courses. The courses section eventually became my favorite part of the project, as it was both the most challenging and the most interesting due to its complex logic and multiple user flows.

After about six months of developing the core features, I continued working on the sessions section while moving on to designing the client reality model and AI chat, focusing on creating an interactive and meaningful user experience. Overall, the project took around a year.

Design systems are a core part of my process in every project, and I always try to approach components through the lens of atomic design.

What made this project especially distinctive for me was its color system: I created three separate color themes and organized them into design tokens. In addition, each module had its own subgroup of components — moslty cards, tables, and unique "organism"-level patterns.

In conclusion, I’d like to say that this project became truly meaningful to me. I joined it as a designer without product design experience, and I’m leaving it with a strong foundation of knowledge that now includes creating a wide range of digital products. The list of references and competitors included products such as Coursera, Zoom, Yasno, Slack, Google Drive, and even Notion.

Still, looking back, I can see moments where I would approach things differently now: in some places I would refine the UI more, and in others I would think through the structure more deeply. These shortcomings came from a lack of experience. At the beginning of the project, there were times when I didn’t fully understand how to structure a product properly, but over time I learned how to create guidelines that were clear and practical for developers.

So I understand, that even my guidelines might be as well as convinient as good looking.