Background
During the pandemic, mental health has become a very big topic and something that has increasingly been changing for the worse. This app helps to boost your mood and keep you organized to reduce feelings of anxiety and stress.
Final Designs
Challenge
Create a calendar that sends positive messages to help start a user’s day on a positive note.
Role
UX ResearcherUX DesignerUI Designer
Solutions
- Create a way to boost user moods as they live through their day to day lives
- Create a method that allows users to carry on their events and plan for them all the while boosting their mood
Project-Scope
End-to-End
Tools
Adobe XDAdobe IllustratorFigma
Project Proposal
With the rise of the pandemic and as the variants become more and more frightening for the public, the percentage of individuals struggling with feelings of anxiety, depression,negativity, and a lack of self-esteem and control. Even prior to the pandemic these struggles were common. “ Anxiety disorders are the most common mental illness in the U.S., affecting 40 million adults in the United States age 18 and older, or 18.1% of the population every year.” (Adaa). Further research suggests that “Anxiety disorders develop from a complex set of risk factors, including genetics, brain chemistry, personality, and life events.” Given the pandemic and the feeling of a lack of control it is indubitable that the anxiety has peaked this time around. When it comes to anxiety, negativity is prone to rise. Studies show that “ How you talk to yourself about events, experiences, and people plays a large role in shaping how you interpret events. When you find yourself interpreting something in a negative way, or only focusing on the bad aspect of the situation, look for ways to reframe the events in a more positive light.”
(Psychology.org). Given the rise of anxiety, depression, and overall negativity it was important to find a solution to how to increase positivity to overcome these feelings of lack of control. It is important to find a way to give individuals a sense of control and positivity to start of their day in order to reduce feelings of anxiety ,depression, overwhelm, and lack of control.
Empathize
Research
It was essential to conduct research in order to have a deeper understanding of the user and empathize with their needs.What it is: Empathy deals with a deep understanding of Users to identify their
goals,needs,behaviors,motivation and pain points.This stage is
crucial and fundamental to any product development.I first started with Secondary research in order to determine a general understanding of the issue at hand before delving into primary research.
Research Goals
- Understand the correlation of the pandemic and mental health
- Understand the correlation of affirmations and mental health
- Understand causes of anxiety and stress
Research Questions
- Do you plan your day?
- How do you plan your day?
- Do you follow a routine?
- What are some things that boost your mood?
- How do affirmations and compliments make you feel?
- What are some methods you use to bring happiness into your day?
Assumptions
- To an extent users appreciate good messages
- Users are overwhelmed and having feelings of stress and anxiety because of a lack of control
Methodologies
Secondary
Market Research
- Determine information about target demographics and problem to solve
Competitive Analysis
- Determine who provides similar applications
- Identify the strenths and weaknesses of each application
Provisional Persona (based on Market Research)
- Determine typical users of the application and proceed to interview process
Primary
1-1 interviews
- complete via phone/in-person with audio recording
- interview individuals who have needed positive affirmations
Market Research (Secondary)
Conducting market research provides a foundation for understanding who the customer is and better appreciate their needs and the problem. Furthermore, it assists with creating provisional personas and helps with formulating appropriate interview questions during the primary research process. This section covers the background, statistics and facts, as well as demographics of individuals who may be facing feelings of depression, anxiety, and stress.
Background
- When you get home from work and someone asks you how your day was, you reply that it was terrible—even though it was overall quite good despite that one negative incident.
- When you get home from work and someone asks you how your day was, you reply that it was terrible—even though it was overall quite good despite that one negative incident
- negative bias influences motivation to complete a task. People have less motivation when an incentive is framed as a means to gain something than when the same incentive will help them avoid the loss of something.
Statistics & Facts
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- Anxiety disorders are the most common mental illness in the U.S., affecting 40 million adults in the United States age 18 and older, or 18.1% of the population every year.
- Anxiety disorders are highly treatable, yet only 36.9% of those suffering receive treatment.
- People with an anxiety disorder are three to five times more likely to go to the doctor and six times more likely to be hospitalized for psychiatric disorders than those who do not suffer from anxiety disorders.
- Anxiety disorders develop from a complex set of risk factors, including genetics, brain chemistry, personality, and life events.
- How you talk to yourself about events, experiences, and people plays a large role in shaping how you interpret events. When you find yourself interpreting something in a negative way, or only focusing on the bad aspect of the situation, look for ways to reframe the events in a more positive light.
- Curating your news feed so that you’re not seeing so many negative stories can be good.
- Recommended keeping a gratitude diary in the book, for example. But that’s still a case of using your rational brain—you decideyou’re going to keep a diary because the shows that this will help you, thinking about the good things in your life. And that does indeed produce a wonderful emotional response; it’s one of the best ways to lift your spirits. So, in that sense, you’re using your rational brain to bring out those good emotions.
- According to the National Science Foundation, an average person has about 12,000 to 60,000 thoughts per day. Of those, 80% are negative and 95% are repetitive thoughts.
Demographics
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- Generalized anxiety disorder (GAD) is the most common anxiety disorder among older adults, though anxiety disorders in this population are frequently associated with traumatic events such as a fall or acute illness.
Competitive Analysis
The competitive analysis was done in order to determine the strengths and weaknesses of competitors who target the same issue. After gathering research on each application and analyzing customer satisfaction as well as the reviews of the application, I was unable to uncover the pros and cons of each.
Personas
Define & Ideate
POV & HMW
This process involves translating the statements into POV statements from the perspective of the personas, and then translating the statements into HMW questions. This process enables a better way to empathize and appreciate Dev,Mimi, and Meghan’s perspective and the issues at-hand. The last column, HMW Questions, is the bridge to both the brainstorming process as well as the define phase.
POV
- Users need an app that reduces their stress and anxiety
- Users need an app that will help them stay organized
- Users need an app that will boost their overall mental health
- Users want to be happier
HMW
- How might we help reduce stress and anxiety and what are some effective proven methods
- How might we use technology as a beneficial method of boosting overall mood and mental well being
User Flow
- Identifies a path the user will take when using the app
- This path is taken from launching the app to calling the necessary hotline
User Journey
What is it: User joruneys are the step by step journey that a user takes to reach their goal. It also
highlights the touchpoints,opportunities and delights in the process. In this scenario the
journey starts with the user feeling a lack of control over their day.
Low-Fidelity Sketches
After completing the user flow chart, it was time to start creating wireframe sketches. Since this was an Android application, I made sure to read the Material Design guidelines before beginning the initial sketch phase. I had a compiled list of necessary components needed on the application in order to keep myself organized.
Hi-Fidelity Iteration #1
What it is: Prototyping is an integral part of Design Thinking and User Experience design in general because it allows us to test our ideas quickly and improve on them in an equally timely fashion. Prototypes are created in different forms like paper prototyping, low, medium, and high-fidelity prototypes to test our ideas from initial conceptualization to final pixel perfect mockups. For the testing process, it is necessary to prototype screens using specific software programs. In this case I used Adobe XD to design and create my Hi-Fidelity screens and then ultimately prototype the screens to show functionality.
Demo/Walkthrough
Usability Testing
What it is: Usability testing is done in order to determine how usable a design is in the hands of users. Do they understand how to use it without prompt or instruction? Is the language easy for them to understand? Can they achieve their goals?
Usability Test Plan
Objectives:
- Determine the user’s ability to navigate through the application
- Identify user’s pain points
- Determine each user’s thought processes while completing tasks
- Improve design functionality based on feedback
Test Method: In order to determine the usability of the application, users were given a set of 3 tasks and asked to record themselves completing these tasks as well as giving feedback on the overall functionality of the application. Notes were then taken based on user feedback to iterate designs.
Research analysis:
Moodboard
Takeaways
What have you learned about the design process while working through this project?
I learned that by using interface guidelines the actual design part of the project becomes a lot simpler and easier to do. I also learned the difference in designing iOS applications as opposed to Android applications. I also learned how to use the UI design kit that adobe provides within XD that makes designing interfaces much quicker and efficient. I learned new methodologies during this project that I can further develop.
What was the most challenging part of this project?
Personally the most challenging part of the project was coming up with an idea to tackle the solution at hand. It had been something that I had been doing for months on my own and diving more into understanding myself. That is when I knew what might be helpful for like minded individuals and the research only confirmed it.
How will you improve your design process for future projects?
For future projects, I can begin to take note of design ideas and inspiration and make more mood boards as this was helpful during this project. I also would like to develop more screens and functionality to the application.
I learned that by using interface guidelines the actual design part of the project becomes a lot simpler and easier to do. I also learned the difference in designing iOS applications as opposed to Android applications. I also learned how to use the UI design kit that adobe provides within XD that makes designing interfaces much quicker and efficient. I learned new methodologies during this project that I can further develop.
What was the most challenging part of this project?
Personally the most challenging part of the project was coming up with an idea to tackle the solution at hand. It had been something that I had been doing for months on my own and diving more into understanding myself. That is when I knew what might be helpful for like minded individuals and the research only confirmed it.
How will you improve your design process for future projects?
For future projects, I can begin to take note of design ideas and inspiration and make more mood boards as this was helpful during this project. I also would like to develop more screens and functionality to the application.