Led by a founding team with deep experience in the Canadian healthcare system, Cognito understands that the 17% of Canadians who experience mental health conditions also struggle with a lack of systemic support. Between diagnosis, resources, treatment, and care, wait times for the most basic mental health care can be measured in months.

Cognito aims to shorten the critical interval between self-assessment, obtaining diagnosis, and receiving care and resources. They tagged in Partner to help on this mission.

All of our projects tend to begin with a deep dive on a specific target group, but given the sensitive nature of Cognito’s services, it was particularly important to understand the nuanced needs of their audience.

Our very first step was a workshop to uncover insights about Cognito clients: their support needs, the paths that led them to an online service for mental health support, and any hesitations they may harbour about a virtual model of care.

Answering these questions, along with mapping their journey from discovery to subscribing, helped form our initial set of user flow recommendations and a series of wireframes. These were designed to guide  users through the intake experience.

We validated these recommendations through user testing with real prospective Cognito clients, who provided us with actionable and trustworthy feedback for further iterations.

After refining the user flow and wireframes, we developed a self-assessment flow that emphasizes empathy and education, including information about their condition and the ways Cognito can help.

The resulting intake process helps people access mental health support faster — a huge win for an underserved community.