Therachat: Card Sort
Date
May 2017
Team
Sajid Reshamwala
Amanda Kennedy
Methods
Card Sort
Best Merge Method (BMM)
Actual Agreement Method (AMM)
Survey
My Role
User Researcher
The Opportunity
How can we learn from Cognitive Behavioral Therapists what makes effective therapy homework in order to improve chatbot questions?
Our team at Therachat searched for Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT) homework sheets to improve the types of questions that our chatbot asks people with anxiety in between sessions with their therapists. We came across many different types of worksheets, and we wanted to understand which worksheets were more effective than others. So we turned to private practice therapists to get their take. We decided that a card sort would be the best method for this research project since the format allowed therapists to easily sort worksheets in terms of effectiveness.
Process
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I found 25 CBT worksheets online and uploaded them to Optimal Workshop. Each homework example served as a card.
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We asked therapists to organize the homework examples into buckets by theme and gave them a survey to fill out that asked what effective and non-effective homework meant to them and which examples we provided fit into those categories.
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I used Actual Agreement Method (AAM) and Best Merge Method (BMM) to analyze results from the card sort and sifted through survey responses.
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I combined results from the survey and AAM/BMM to understand which were more effective than others.
Various homework sheets that we found online that Cognitive Behavioral Therapists use to support clients with anxiety.
Impact
Therapists’ responses led to me developing a series of design principles for effective therapy homework that helped guide my team as we developed a new therapy homework feature for Therachat:
In order for therapy homework to be effective, it needs to...
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provide clear instructions.
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have a goal and purpose in mind.
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reinforce what the therapist and client worked on together in session.
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receive buy-in from the client.
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fit into the client's therapy goals and treatment plan.
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be relatively simple to complete.
Design Principles
These principles informed various homework modules that we created and introduced to clients via the Therachat chatbot.