Forward Trust

Where we came in

We partnered with Forward Trust to bring their vision to life by first gaining a deep understanding of the organisation’s needs and those of their Service Users. Leveraging these insights, we developed a custom mobile app tailored to serve as a comprehensive peer support platform, ensuring it effectively meets the unique requirements of their community.

What we delivered

Our work was divided in the following key phases:

Discovery & Design

During this phase we collaborated closely with the Forward Trust team to define user personas, outline service journeys, and identify the needs, challenges and opportunities for both stakeholders and users. To ensure our insights were accurate and actionable, we validate these findings through user testing interviews.

Recognising the breadth of services Forward Trust provides and the importance of stakeholder engagement, we organised bi-weekly co-design groups with stakeholders. These sessions were key in gathering feedback and gaining valuable insights, which were crucial for aligning the project’s functionality with the stakeholders’ expectations.

Our analysis led to the identification of four distinct types of Service Users, each at different stages in their recovery process, as well as Forward Trust staff members as key user personas. By reviewing the current service journeys, we pinpointed the challenges Forward Trust faces and identified opportunities for improvement, allowing us to define the essential functionality required for the app, addressing both community needs and back-office operations.

After creating a clickable prototype, we conducted interviews with current Forward Trust service users and staff members to validate the app’s ease of use, and to test our initial assumptions. The insights gained from these sessions were then integrated into our final wireframes, ensuring the app was both intuitive and aligned with user needs.

Development

‍Building on the insights from the Discovery and Design phase, we chose to use the open source Discourse community platform as the backbone of the Forward Trust app.

We selected Discourse for its flexibility, extensive customisation options, and powerful moderation features.

The key functionalities of the app includes:

• A tightly moderated yet user friendly sign up process.
• Vibrant and interactive group-based community forums where users can share experiences, inspiring reads, photos, articles, videos and event announcements. Users can also react to and reply to content within their groups.
• Real-time communication through direct messages and group chats, enabling users to connect and support each other in both group and individual chats.
• A robust resource hub managed by admin users, who share relevant resources and learning materials within the various groups.
• A personalised user profile that allows users to maintain anonymity if they wish to.
• Advanced notification preferences, giving users full control over what notifications they want to receive.
• A powerful search functionality that enables users to search for topics within the various forums and resource hubs they have access to.

Testing and Feedback

‍Testing and releasing mobile apps can be challenging, so we conducted thorough Quality Assurance testing to ensure the app was stable, secure, and user-friendly. Both our team and the Forward Trust project team, along with a select group of users, participated in the testing process. The feedback gathered was invaluable in refining the app and ensuring it met all requirements.

‍Launch and Support

‍Once the app was ready, we supported Forward Trust in launching it to their community, providing training and resources to ensure a smooth transition. We also established a plan for ongoing support and future enhancements.