Depression affects one in six employees in the UK annually, yet most never disclose it to their manager. Not because they don’t want support, but because the tools to ask for it don’t exist.

OK@WORK is a digital platform designed to bridge that gap by addressing three interlocking barriers: employees’ hesitation to disclose, workplace stigma, and managers’ lack of knowledge about how to respond and provide reasonable adjustments.

The design process followed human-centred methodology throughout, beginning with a literature review and competitive landscape analysis to map the problem space. We developed two personas: Gene, an employee navigating severe depression while trying to meet work deadlines, and Sam, a manager who wants to support his team but lacks the knowledge and tools to do so, to ground every design decision in real human experience.

From there we moved through “How Might We” ideation and rapid prototyping, culminating in a detailed user testing plan designed for real SME environments in London.

The platform works by meeting employees where they are. Rather than requiring full disclosure up front, OK@WORK begins with a comfort-level assessment that gauges how ready someone is to communicate their needs, and builds from there. Using machine learning, it generates a personalised communication toolkit: structured language that helps employees articulate their situation to managers in a way that feels safe and manageable. Managers receive parallel guidance on how to respond, what adjustments are available, and how to create genuinely supportive conditions.

OK@WORK is currently a research prototype. The ambition is a platform that makes workplace mental health support structural rather than exceptional, because no one should have to choose between their health and their career.

CREDITS:

University: UCL (2025)
Professor: Anze Zadel
Research & Design Team: Li Ping Chan, Ranran Ding, Qiuyu Lin, Ziru Wang
My role: Research, ideation, concept development, and visual identity of the platform