Re-architecting PeerChat for on-demand mental health support
at UX Australia 2026
Type
talk
Nadine Raydan and Emily Smith explain ReachOut’s redesign of PeerChat from booked appointments to on-demand youth support. They cover the reasons for changing the service, co-creation with young people and frontline workers, and lessons from its first year.
People
Emily Smith
Nadine Raydan
Methods
Service DesignService design examines how people, tools and organisational processes work together to deliver an experience. Map the customer-facing steps alongside the staff activities, policies and systems that support them, often using a service blueprint. Bring the relevant teams together to identify broken handoffs, duplicated work and conflicting responsibilities, then coordinate changes across the service. Use it when problems span departments or channels and cannot be resolved through interface changes alone. Include employee experience because internal constraints shape what customers receive.