Lifeline – Crisis Supporters Service Tool

Every year, over 1 million people reach out to Lifeline for support. The Crisis Supporters who help people going through their darkest moments give referrals to free and low-cost local providers of mental health support options, such as clinics, shelters and other helplines. Their online system was clunky and difficult to search - so much so, each Centre used their own version of a paper folder rather than try to navigate the system. We needed to create a tool which enabled Crisis Supporters to find and share resources, adding more value than their current paper ‘cheat sheet’.

Needing to align with Lifeline’s corporate palette, the design system is functional with minimal fanfare. The real solution to the problem lies in the UX. Taking principles from the paper version being used, we created an improved version online, where Crisis Supporters could access popular shortlists, bookmark frequently searched services, and easily share these. The UX took into account all information the Crisis Suporter needed at a glance, based on our user testing. We featured a simple onboarding, to cater for volunteers aged 18-80, ensured WCAG 2.0 accessibility standards, incorporated drag & drop functionality, tooltips on hover and keyboard shortcuts.

The long-lasting positive impact of the tool cannot be understated - it plays a core role in the experience of both Crisis Supporters and Help Seekers. Finding from our field research that Crisis Supporters themselves often felt frustrated and helpless when they were unable to find the right support services for Help Seekers, this tool to alleviates this issue to help both the volunteers and the people reaching out to them for support. This tool noticeably improves the current system and is the change 10,000 Crisis Supporters have been waiting for.

Key functionality of the new tool: - Quick Lists - access to lists of services already grouped by contextual categories, such as “Drugs & Alcohol”, “Domestic Violence”, “Teens” - Drag & drop a service directly from the list to create a personalised referral plan for the Help Seeker - Keyboard shortcuts - we identified many Crisis Supporters relied on these to efficiently find what they’re looking for so incorporated the most useful - Sharing functionality - Referral Plans are able to be shared directly from Lifeline to Help Seeker via email or SMS - anonymously, the data is not stored - Shared Services output - the Help Seeker receives a link to access their personalised page, populated with the recommended services from the Lifeline Crisis Supporter, and able to be accessed later to help with their ongoing management of their recovery