Office of Student Life
Center for the Study of Student Life

Health and Well-being UX Study

The research study detailed here was conducted by the Center for the Study of Student Life at The Ohio State University. It focuses on understanding how students perceive and choose to utilize student health and well-being resources.

Background and Summary

Even though ample health and well-being resources exist at The Ohio State University, not all students take advantage of the programs and resources available. To better understand how students perceive, identify and choose to utilize health and well-being resources, we utilized user experience (UX) methodology. This study addresses the following research questions:

  • How do students think about health and well-being resources on campus?
  • How do students decide to utilize health and well-being resources on campus?
  • What barriers do students face as they identify and utilize health and well-being resources?

Methodology

UX methodology is a new methodology in the field of student affairs assessment, but it is an established data collection methodology in market research. While following the structure of an in-depth interview, it adds an additional element – observing the research subjects while they interact with a product or interface and provide feedback on their experience as the end user. In this study, students were observed as they searched online for student health and well-being resources.

Twenty undergraduate, graduate and professional students participated in this study between July 2022 and May 2023. These interviews took place over Zoom, and after asking a few general questions about health and well-being, students were given different scenarios about potential health and well-being issues. Students "shared" their screen over Zoom and the research team watched as they searched for resources. Students talked aloud about their thought process as they sifted through resources and clicked through webpages. They were given scenarios involving anxiety, depression, body image, binge drinking and drug misuse.

Findings

Health and Well-being is…

  • Holistic- a combination of physical and mental health
  • A positive state of well-being
  • The absence of physical and/or mental health issues
  • A measure of productivity
  • Having access to health and well-being resources

Values around Utilizing Health and Well-being Resources

  • Even though students value their well-being, they see investing in their well-being as a distraction from their academics.
  • Students know that education around health and well-being is important, but they are more likely to wait to seek resources until they have an immediate need, which means that they are less interested in educational and preventative resources.
    • Including and emphasizing immediate, tangible takeaways from educational and preventative resources could help students see the value of engaging with these resources.

Read more about student perceptions of health and well-being.

Identifying Resources

  • Students were consistently familiar with a few high-traffic resources, such as Counseling and Consultation Service and the Student Wellness Center. Acknowledging these touchpoints and having easy ways to reroute students to other campus resources would be an effective way of helping students navigate student resources.
  • Students would search for resources for specific clinical conditions rather than searching for names of health and well-being resources.
  • Students preferred to find resources that help them meet with someone, rather than educational resources, such as workshops.

Barriers to Utilization

  • Uncertainty regarding logistical details of resources such as time commitment, cost, and confidentiality of using the resource.
  • Having to read through a large amount of descriptive text in order to find out how to access the resource.
  • Uncertainty regarding the names of different resources and not being able to determine what is offered just from the name.
  • Unsure whether the resource will be immediately applicable to their pressing well-being needs.

Read more about implications for practitioners, including identifying barriers to utilization and recommendations for student affairs practitioners.

Conclusion

This unique study highlights important information about how students perceive and utilize health and well-being resources on campus by using UX methodology. Students value their health and well-being and agree that there are resources on campus that support their well-being. When choosing to utilize health and well-being resources, students find that short descriptions with transparency around cost and privacy are most appealing. Additionally, highlighting immediate, tangible takeaways that meet their urgent needs is important when describing resources and programs. While students face various barriers in identifying and choosing to utilize health and well-being resources, there are clear ways that student affairs practitioners can increase the visibility and student utilization of the health and well-being resources they offer.

Study Citation: Center for the Study of Student Life, The Ohio State University. (2024). Health and Well-being User-Experience Study.