Hi, I'm Rebekah - a user experience designer and recent Digital Design graduate from Ulster University, Belfast.
As a designer, I am passionate about understanding peoples needs, behaviours and motivations to create thoughtful, user centric digital experiences. My final year product Compass has allowed me to explore how user centric and emotional design can help support children and their families through challenging and anxious experiences such as hospital appointments.
Outside of design, I love to play and watch football as well as being a big musical theatre fan!
Compass is a narrative-led app designed to support children aged 7 to 10 and their parents during hospital visits. Through reassuring language, interactive features and engaging characters, the app helps children understand what to expect, reducing fear and anxiety while making the experience feel more manageable.
Unlike existing healthcare apps that focus mainly on preparation before appointments, Compass provides real-time support throughout the hospital journey from getting ready at home up to waiting for treatment.
Hospitals can be overwhelming environments for children due to unfamiliar people, equipment, and procedures. Research shows that many children experience significant anxiety in healthcare settings, often because they do not know what to expect.
Compass aims to address this by giving children and their families the guidance and reassurance they need to feel more confident, informed and prepared throughout the experience.
I began by defining the key problem I wanted to address: How can we make hospital visits feel less overwhelming and more manageable for children and their families? My initial research highlighted that many children experience anxiety in healthcare settings due to unfamiliar environments, procedures and uncertainty. To better understand the problem space, I carried out desk research, user research through surveys and market research of current healthcare resources and support tools.
Using these insights, I conducted competitor analysis on existing healthcare and wellbeing apps to identify gaps in support for children during hospital visits. This process revealed that many existing solutions focus primarily on preparation before appointments however children and families wanted real time support and help during the hospital experience. These insights helped shape Compass as a tool focused on offering real-time reassurance and emotional support throughout the entire journey.
From there, I moved into product development, creating user flows and low-fidelity wireframes that explored how children and parents would navigate the app together. These concepts were refined through testing and iteration to ensure the experience felt simple, reassuring and engaging for young users.
Alongside the app experience, I developed a friendly and comforting visual identity designed to reduce intimidation and create a sense of familiarity. This branding informed the final high-fidelity prototypes and helped shape Compass into a supportive digital companion for families navigating hospital visits.
Working on Compass has been both a challenging and rewarding experience. The project pushed me outside of my comfort zone, particularly through designing for a younger audience and considering how children emotionally experience healthcare environments. It reinforced the importance of empathetic and emotional design, showing me how thoughtful interactions, reassurance, and clarity can have a meaningful impact during stressful situations.
While creating a friendly and visually engaging experience was important, Compass challenged me to prioritise usability, accessibility, and emotional reassurance above purely aesthetic outcomes. This shift in perspective strengthened my understanding of design as a tool for support and communication, rather than simply visual appeal.
Overall, I am proud of what I have created and hope Compass can provide comfort, reassurance and a greater sense of confidence for families navigating hospital visits.
