Your Alcohol Toolkit is a clinically informed web app empowering people to improve their drinking habits.
My role: Leading end-to-end product design from user research to final delivery and optimisation
Impact: Supporting 500+ people in a sensitive and hidden demographic, build healthier relationships with alcohol
Organisation: Addiction support charity With You
Dates: Oct 2020 - July 2021 (9 months)
Impact
Your Alcohol Toolkit helped at least 500+ people in a sensitive and hard-to-reach demographic, reduce harmful drinking patterns and build healthier relationships with alcohol.
The toolkit launched in summer 2021, was actively supported for 3 months and remained online for two years before being pulled at the end of 2023.
An early retention rate 140% higher than the industry average
3 month period: 03/21 - 06/21
Users consistently reported the tool's positive effect on their drinking habits
Numerous users and staff members reported positive outcomes from using the tool.
"Amazing help! Thank You!" – User
"Very knowledgable supportive and reassuring" – User
12 month period: 2021 - 2022
Organic growth to 541 active users with sustained daily usage
The goal for our first release was to reach 100 users. During 2022 over 150 users logged in over 2000+ times and the tool maintained consistent engagement and growth throughout 2023 to 541 users before it was taken offline – all without marketing or maintenance.
12 month period: 2022 - 2023
My role & the team
I was the primary product designer responsible for the research, design and implementation of the toolkit.
We worked in an agile team of nine including user researchers Tyler Gridnduex & Christina Herold, developers Morgan Pearce (front end) & Alex Moore (backend), content designer Martine Gaille, product manager Nadine Krishnamurthy-Spencer, head of design Eliot Hill and head of product Rosalyne Hewitt. I worked closely with the researcher and development team to ideate, prototype and test features and was ultimately responsible for deciding how the toolkit should work, look and feel.
The challenge
How could we help people with problematic drinking habits who couldn’t or wouldn't come into a service?
For many people, lockdown meant an increase in how much they drank and With You’s staff was seeing more people looking for help online. These people weren’t alcohol dependent, but drinking was severely impacting their health and they needed help making a change.
There was a gap in With You's existing digital ecosystem for engaged self directed users
We saw that this need wasn't being served by With You's existing ecosystem of digital support. People needed a service that was more interactive than our online advice but more flexible and self directed than our webchat service. Enter 'Your Alcohol Toolkit' (Or the Alcohol Treatment Journey as it was then known - See below)
Co-creating our approach with subject matter experts
To ensure the toolkit reflected With You’s approach to treatment we facilitated discovery workshops with our internal alcohol treatment specialists to build our first concept of our tool's structure, journey and make up.
We presented the user needs we had collected from Webchat transcripts to specialists, talked them through our interpretation these and how that had informed our planned approach. These sessions helped us to identify the important tools to include aswell as key considerations for these.
We turned the guidance and feedback on how best to deliver alcohol interventions into our proposed user journey for the alcohol toolkit aswell as set of design principles to ensure the development of the toolkit kept in line with With You's approach and best practices.
Our starting problem statememts
We spoke to front line support staff, webchat advisors and analysed webchat transcripts to draft our inital set of problem statements
Our primary user group consisted of individuals who used the webchat but wouldn’t visit a service in person. Our webchat analysis revealed that many users needed help but preferred to do so privately and primarily wanted to re-gain control and avoid worsening their situation. These were the individuals for whom our new service would be designed.
As someone who’s struggling to control their drinking...
...I need to understand my habits and how to change them, so that I can continue to function effectively in my day to day life.
As someone hiding the amount I’ve been drinking to protect others...
...I need to reduce this amount without visiting a service, so that I can improve my situation privately.
As someone drinking more and more at home during the pandemic...
...I need help and support with how to cut down, So that my drinking habits don't get any worse.
Mapping the landscape and our internal resources
Mapping the existing landscape of digital alcohol reduction tools
In order to ensure our toolkit was as robust, modern and competitive as possible I did a matrix comparison of 22 of the best self directed online services for reducing your drinking. I included With You’s existing service offers to highlight key gaps and areas of opportunity.
Auditing With You's alcohol focused resources ensuring we utlise existing knowledge
With You already offered four different alcohol support programmes that all feature different tools and approaches. I visually mapped and annotated these resources so we could easily reference our internal knowledge when developing the toolkit (Fig 2)
Landscape mapping (Fig 1) and auditing internal resources (Fig 2)
Inital full product wireframes
Visualising proposed features of the toolkit
Based on our understanding of the most impactful self directed tools from interviews with support workers our webchat analysis – we knew product should include a set of tools users can access at any time that provide the option to seek further support from a webchat agent at any time.
Sharing this early thinking with clinical staff
We shared basic concepts which included various learning modules and self directed tools with our subject matter experts to feedback on our approach before we started testing our concepts.
Initial wireframes for the end-to-end digitial 'Alcohol Journey'
Testing early prototypes
Hypothesis: People would benefit from comprehensive learning modules
We started with the concept of stand alone 'Learning Modules' – giving users information about a particular approach then a complimentary practical tool. Our first prototype 'Understanding where you are' (pictured) gave users information about the importance of understanding where they are currently situated in their recovery journey they could then use the existing 'Pros and Cons' tool to map how they felt about alcohol in their life.
Key insight: People want to 'learn through doing'
Testing these initial modules revealed that users engaging with what they consider an ‘interactive tool’ didn’t want to read for long. They want to start doing something practical almost straight away expecting things to be intuitive. This is clear expectation of digital products but at odds with the patient, considerate and personalised approach taken by front line staff.
Testing revealed these early prototypes were too text heavy
An early goal setting 'Learning Module'
A stripped back action oriented goal setting tool
Learning from our overly detailed early prototypes we implemented an approach to goals with straightforward interactive features. Goals were broken down into big ambitions and practical goals which can be ticked off and celebrated often, this format directly reflected the approach taken by With You's staff. Users found this approach intersting and engaging however there was some confusion about time frames and editing and we decided to keep things even simpler for our first release.
A simple drinks diary. Maybe too simple...
Showing our early diary prototype to recovery workers, service managers and clients led us to realised the diary needed to be more than just a simple tracker and should become a core part of the toolkit. To clients diaries are fundamental to alcohol reduction, helping them recognise problems, identify triggers, and track meaningful progress – principles we wanted our digital solution to fully embrace.
Version 3 of the Goal Setting tool focused primarily on action
In contrast to the rest of the tools the diary would need more complexity
Developing the drinks diary
Guidance from our expert alcohol advisors the diary became the core element of the toolkit
We discovered that drinks diary's real value is uncovered when users go beyond logging drinks and amounts. The context surrounding drinking episodes where people were, what they were doing, and how they were feeling provides crucial insights and opportunities for reflection and understanding of triggers – this understanding led me to re-design the diary to include further questions about context and weekly reflection questions.
I re-designed the diary including more questions on context and a new section for reflection
Introducing the 'unit calculator' to help people understand exactly how much they had drunk
Findings: Unlike the majority of With You's clients our users were drinking smaller amounts and weren't interested in units. They only needed to compare to themselves in order to track their progress.
Results: We dropped the use of units all together and simply asked users how many drinks they’d had. We made this the only mandatory field when adding an entry allowing quick daily tracking.
A visual mood tracker and a persistant 'done' button letting users choose their engagement level
Findings: Users became distracted by the 'Done' button wanting to press it straight away instead of scrolling down and adding more detail. People were excited by the interative nature mood tracker.
Results: We removed the persistant button and continued to developed the 'emoji mood tracker' aiming to make an engaging interaction that people would want to return to.
Testing revealing unit calculation was unecessarry for users
We simplified units to drinks and introduced the Emoji Mood Tracker
Finalising features in close collaboration with the developer team
As I designed final versions of diary features our lead developer Alex would build them and provide links to any issues and work arounds he had found for me to feedback on and/or inform a re-design. As this product had a tight fixed budget with no guarantee of future releases it was important to make our first release as functional and bug free as possible.
The diary included non-linear interactive questions allowing deep or light touch engagement
From toolkit to design system
I intergrated components from our toolkit into the charity's design system, ensuring consistent user experiences across touch points.
The mood slider became a standout feature – an intuitive and flexible way to track mood, it had broad applications across the charity's digital experiences.
Creating clinically informed design principles
I developed 13 guiding princibles informed by user insights and our in-house alcohol specialists.
These principles helped us to balance of the self-directed nature of digital tools with the compassionate, personalised approach that makes addiction support effective.
Giving users control and empowerment
User-led journeys: Give clients control – the journey belongs to them with flexible movement forwards, backwards and sideways
Self-understanding first: Users need to understand their situation before setting meaningful goals
Personal motivation: Focus on personal 'why' and life goals, not just drink reduction
No wrong doors: Everything should feel like the 'right path' regardless of user choices
Designed to be left behind: Effective journey teaches users to implement advice independently without ongoing tool dependency
A supportive and 'human' experience
A gentle introduction: Friendly approach as people come to terms with drinking (initial screening can be shocking)
Connection with community: Show users they're not alone—others share similar experiences
Celebrate progress: Highlight strengths and successes early and throughout
Balanced reflection: Encourage reflection on both challenges and successes
Providing contextual support & safety
A gentle introduction: Friendly approach as people come to terms with drinking (initial screening can be shocking)
Connection with community: Show users they're not alone—others share similar experiences
Celebrate progress: Highlight strengths and successes early and throughout
Balanced reflection: Encourage reflection on both challenges and successes
Public release
The first public release of the toolkit included five interactive tools and an integrated webchat
The tool included three primary tools (Pros & Cons, Goal Setting and Drinks Diary) to help plan alcohol reduction journeys, plus two 'quick tools' (Deep Breathing and Distraction) for managing immediate cravings.
We utilised a feedback survey and analysis of webchat conversations to identify areas to improve
A persistent homepage banner linked to a feedback survey, helping us collect insights alongside webchat conversations to identify pain points and opportunities for our next release.
Impact
Your Alcohol Toolkit helped at least 500+ people in a sensitive and hard-to-reach demographic, reduce harmful drinking patterns and build healthier relationships with alcohol.
The toolkit it was supported for three months after it's release – launching in summer 2021 the toolkit remained online for two and a half years before being pulled at the end of 2023.
An early retention rate 140% higher than the industry average
3 month period: 03/21 - 06/21
Users consistently reported the tool's positive effect on their drinking habits
Numerous users and staff members reported positive outcomes from using the tool.
"Amazing help! Thank You!" – User
"Very knowledgable supportive and reassuring" – User
12 month period: 2021 - 2022
Organic growth to 541 active users with sustained daily usage
150+ users logging in over 2000+ times during 2022 and the tool maintained consistent engagement and growth throughout 2023 to 541 users before it was taken offline – all without marketing or maintenance.
12 month period: 2022 - 2023
Key learnings & future growth considerations
Reflecting on the experience, I've identified three areas that could have significantly enhance the tool's impact and sustainability.
Better charity wide integration for more sustainable growth
Due to profitability constraints and integration challenges with With You's core services, we struggled to secure ongoing funding and organisational support for the toolkit's development.
Deeper service integration from the start could have ensured sustainable growth and further releases.
Expand proven effectiveness for frontline services
The pandemic prevented us from integrating the toolkit with front-line services. Had we been able to continue development, we would have focused on replacing paper diaries with our digital solution across service delivery.
Proven efficacy with individual users suggested strong potential for implimenting more digital solutions in physical services.
Address the 45% who needed more intensive support
45% of users who completed the initial assessment scored as alcohol dependent. Due to safety concerns around withdrawal, we couldn't support these users through the self-directed toolkit alone.
A hybrid model combining digital tools with professional support could have reached this significant user group and expanded our impact.
Thanks for reading!
Well done for making it this far, you keen bean! If you'd like to find out more about this project, my other case studies or see more recent work, please connect with me on LinkedIn or email me at jamesbarclayuk@gmail.com
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If you'd like to chat or see my most recent work connect with me on LinkedIn or email me at jamesbarclayuk@gmail.com