Services
Services
Services
MoodShift guides young adults through overwhelming situations using simple mental exercises to shift their moods and emotions.
Overview
Problem Space
Gen Z and Millennials mental health has been on the decline since COVID-19 began. In the Harris Poll for the American Psychological Association shows that young people are feeling the stress of 2020 most acutely.
Area of Focus
Improving the mental well-being of young adults by assisting them in developing a mindfulness practice using technology.
Objective
To inspire young adults to put more focus on taking care of their mental health by making it accessible and easy to navigate.
How Might We
assist young adults to improve their mental health in order to reduce their stress and anxiety?
Empathize
Why?
I wanted to gain a deeper understanding of user’s needs, frustrations, and goals by conducting secondary research and user interviews.
How?
Secondary Research
User Interviews
Secondary Research Findings
During our secondary research we notices these themes:
62%
of people ages 20 to 37 feel comfortable discussing their mental health at work, compared with about half as many people ages 54 to 72.
50%
of millennials said they had voluntarily or involuntarily left a job in part because of mental-health reasons
41%
of millennials vs 68% of non-millennials view doctors as the single best source of information, and they are unlikely to rely on a doctor as their sole advisor
This leads us to believe younger generations are more open to seeking mental health support outside of the traditional methods and they are comfortable advocating for their mental well-being.
Interviews
After exploring the problem space using secondary research I gathered qualitative data through 1-on-1 interviews to help me better empathize with potential users.
To prepare for the interviews, I drafted up a script with specific questions on how they approach their mental health.
Interview Findings
To synthesize my interview findings, I extracted insights and patterns from each question.
Living With Anxiety
Living with ADHD makes simples tasks extremely difficult and if it is not properly managed it can lead to anxiety, depression, and OCD.
Affecting Relationships
Living with a mental health disorder has the power to affect every aspect of your life, it can negatively affect both personal and professional relationships
“It manifests by creating scenarios that aren’t realistic, I get upset with my partner because I overthink their actions.”
Number of Participants: 5
Age Range: 23-36 years old
Location: Vancouver & Vancouver Island, British Columbia
Mental Health Struggles: ADHD, Anxiety, Depression & OCD
Symptoms of Anxiety
Anxiety can cause overthinking and thoughts to spiral out of control.
Open to Solutions
Millennials are more open about their mental health struggles and try to approach their overall health holistically.
“My grade 2 teacher pulled me out of the class and asked me why I couldn’t be like the other well-behaved kids in class. Why am I not normal, what is wrong with me?”
Define
Why?
To grasp secondary research and qualitative information in order to define high-level goals and identify the opportunities for MoodShift’s key features.
How?
User Persona
Persona Development
After synthesizing the information from the interviews and revealing participant's goals, behaviors, and frustrations I developed a persona built by real user data.
“I’ve experienced symptoms of ADHD and anxiety for my entire life. When I’m not managing my ADHD properly I find my anxiety gets worse and I can experience depression.”
Goals
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Wants to find a way to calm her mind in order to focus on starting up her small business
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Wants to keep a record of her emotions and thing steps she took to improve her mood so that she can reference it when she’s feeling down
Motivations
-
Finding a way to avoid having her negative thoughts spiral
-
Forming better relationships with her partner, family, and friends
Frustrations
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Not being able to focus on simple tasks
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When people close to her think her inattention means she doesn’t care
Possible Pain Relievers
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Have a digital tool available when she needs it
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Save money by skipping expensive therapists appointments
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Gaining more insights about her thoughts to obtain a deeper understanding of her emotions
Megan Jackson
Archetype: The Anxious Millennial
Design Intervention
Why?
After exploring the insights found during the interviews, and developing a persona I began creating a potential solution to the problem space.
How?
User Stories
Task Flow
User Stories
A total of 28 user stories were created to help map out the tasks users would perform while interacting with the app. These stories were categorized into four distinct epics.
Seeking Support
Moods & Emotions
Tracking & Reminders
Profile
Task Selection
Once I had decided on a core epic, I translated all the user stories within that epic into tasks and picked one task to focus on. The core epic focused on creating a supportive interactive experience within the app.
Core Epic
Seeking Support
User
A young adult experiencing mental health struggles.
User Story
As a young adult, I want to be able to do something to reduce my anxiety so that I don’t feel so overwhelmed.
Task
Talk to an AI chatbot, practice mindfulness, and track their mood.
Task Flow
Digitizing Wireframes
After choosing the core task flow, I began sketching design solutions. This was followed by low-fidelity wireframes which were turned into a prototype to begin conducting user testing.
User Testing
Using my greyscale prototype I conducted two rounds of user testing. After each round of testing, I updated the app to improve the overall information architecture. The next section outlines some of the most important iterations.
Users were asked to:
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Have a chat
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Practice Mindfulness but doing a breathing exercise
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Track their mood
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View their past conversation
Round 1 Results
Feedback
-
Confusion around what users were tracking
-
Users didn’t understand what the chat was about and who they might be chatting with
Action Taken
-
Including information on the conversation cards
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Added conversational text with options for users to express how they’re feeling
Old
New
Round 2 Results
Feedback
-
Users not familiar with cognitive distortions
-
The cards on the tracking page we not easy to scan
Action Taken
-
Rename to thinking traps and add a set of slides explaining each distortion
-
Introduce characters for different moods so users can review their history at a glance.
Old
New
Visual Identity
After completing two rounds of user testing and evolving the usability of the app I was ready to establish a visual identity. A visual identity is a unique set of visual elements that represent a product’s vision and values.
After reviewing our research and persona I developed a list of adjectives my brand embodies:
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Modern
-
Friendly
-
Calm
-
Reflective
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Functional
-
Innovative
-
Caring
-
Cheerful
Using these adjectives, I search for inspiration and created a mood board that inspired the colour palette and typography choices.
Typography
When considering the type choices I was looking for something legible, modern and functional. I decided on Proxima Nova because it has a large font family. Geometric sans serifs are not only legible, they feel contemporary and functional.
Colours
For my primary colours, I decided on bright yellow because it represents happiness which is the ultimate goal for our users. I complimented it with a rich turquoise because it is calming yet sophisticated.
Logo Development
After exploring some different concepts and iterations I landed on the final logo. The outline of the head represents the user working through emotions and analyzing their thoughts. The gears represent the movement of exercising their brain.
High Fidelity Prototype
After ideating the visual identity it was time for the fun part: injecting colour! Below you can view pages from the final UI design and watch a video of the task flow in the final high-fidelity prototype.
Key Features
Simple & Effective
When Megan opens the app she has two clear CTA's. When she needs to work through her thoughts she can Chat and when she needs to further reduce her anxiety she can Breathe.
Referring back to my persona Megan Jackson I will review some key features of MoodShift
The Final Prototype
Product Marketing Website
In order to effectively promote MoodShift I needed a product marketing website. This was a great opportunity to practice my responsive web design skills. It was a good challenge to see how it would translate from mobile to desktop while staying aligned with the MoodShift brand.
To explore some ways my design could impact the world around me I picked some questions from the Tarot Cards of Tech.
THE BFFs: If two friends used your product how could it enhance or detract from their relationship?
By relieving the pressure of working through tough emotions alone. The product could free up quality time for more enjoyable activities.
THE SUPERFAN: How would a community of your most passionate users behave?
In an empathetic, and understanding manner. The app iteaches users reasonable ways to manage their moods and emotions.
THE BACKSTABBER: What could cause users to lose trust in your product?
If the user's information was not private and confidential. To prevent this we guarantee users information is completely confidential.
Design Impact
Credits
Alison Roberta
Barurezeki
Vectors Market
Iga
Summer
Eliricon
IconMark
Becris
Finnacreated
Alvida Biersack