Overcome the mind through narrative, space missions and goals.

MISSION
Individuals are intuitive about tracking their money or monitoring BMIs, but why not mental state? How might we reframe our relationship with mental health? Leveraging gamified features, my mission is to motivate users to take charge of their mental wellness in a fun way.
MY ROLE
Solo Designer - discovery, user research, design, prototype, testing
TIME FRAME
3.5 Months
RESEARCH
Mental health is a global issue
As of September 2022, around 4 in 10 adults in the United States reported their stress piling up, as well as being unable to do anything when stressed;In the same year, another study in Spain found cases of anxiety disorder, characterized by uncontrollable feelings of worry and fear that affect an individual's life are on the rise with cases reaching more than 7.9 million as recorded by the primary healthcare services in 2021, 2.9 million more than 1 year ago.
There are solutions, but problem prevails
Counselling proven to be highly effective for depression and anxiety disorder, but despite its efficacy, many do not actively seek counselling.  
Reason being ---
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1. Not able to afford it
2.Believing mental health issues will go away
3. No time
4. Negative stigma of receiving counselling
Getting to know potential users
Through user interviews and surveys, it became evident that there were major pain points in mental health digital products and apps.

Key insights:
1. Individuals view mental health apps as being too serious
2. The market does not offer a personalized experience
3. Current apps lack creativity and engaging experience, leading to abandoning the product
Affinity map generated from user interview analysis
3 out of 4 interviewees identified some form of anxiety that disrupts their daily life.
All interviewees recalled never properly addressing this issue.
As with any disease, mental health disorders entail direct and indirect costs for health systems, businesses, and individuals. Take Spain, spending associated with depression and anxiety increased in the last few years, reaching approximately 1.51 billion euros in 2021.
user persona
Sasha
“I want to feel empowered and be in control of my mental state ”

- 30

- Full time architect at a medium sized firm

- Part-time student
Brand

The concept was born out of the mashup method - IDEO ideation technique that brings odd or unexpected things together to birth refreshing products. At the time of ideation, I was reading a book called ‘Think Like a Rocket Scientist’ by Ozan Varol. It mentions how scientists overcome their own limitations utilising divergent thinking.

Varol’s book inspired me to combine my app with a space themed narrative, as he wrote:

'If you course correct in the direction of the Moon – as opposed to the ground – you’ll soar higher than you would before'
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‍'What would a science fiction solution look like?'

What if mental health management is reframed as course correcting yourself? – Just like how scientists would course correct the rocket’s direction upwards and far, if individuals can think beyond their own narrative, then they could one day soar and be free of constant emotional strains.

create
The initial stage  - differentiating between dashboard, games and mental health exercises. The sketches heavily focuses on the gamified elements.
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Guerilla testing insights
  • Users were able to identify exercises and games
  • Nav bar presents confusion
Testing revealed flaws in labelling and information architecture. Upon review, personalisation feature was also missing from the user flow.

Read on to view the evolution!

What’s changed?

  • Added personalised onboarding
  • Changes made to the nav bar labelling, reserving ‘Home’ for exercises only. ‘Dashboard’ houses games
  • Presenting a mental health exercise in the form of CBT
Visible options and actions

Testing revealed the importance of reducing user’s cognitive load.  Selection options were made clear in V2, to prevent users from wondering. For the ‘Shooting Stars’ exercise, testing revealed the need to provide users with a sense of control. In V2, adding the timer provides users with a sense of control over the task - the duration.
The initial labelling for the nav bar components were not as clear for users. In V1, ‘Dashboard’ houses games and ‘Home’ for exercises. However, this caused confusion for users. V2 aims to provide clarity with ‘Dashboard’ renamed as ‘Mission’ to emphasize gamified feature. A simple change instantly provides intuitive navigation. Color contrast is adjusted to provide consistent color use and minimalism.
THE PRODUCT
Click here to try out the Prototype!
OUTCOME
  • mainly positive, expressing desire to use the app and appreciates the hidden message behind the theme and gamification.
  • Feedback overwhelmingly called for expansion of features and additional content to sustain long-lasting impact.
  • User interview helped clarify the direction of my project, and inspired me to combine gamification with mental health.
  • The quality of questions asked at interview is crucial to building an enjoyable product.
  • Let user pain point be the guiding post.
  • The importance of design heuristics, user control and freedom, accessibility and mimic real life interactions are crucial to quality design.
  • Testing done correctly immensely speeds up the design process and helps designer quickly iterate and improve on usability.
  • Build on the points system, the game elements and tie it back to mental health management.
  • Allow users to see their mental health progression through completing different level of missions.
  • Infuse elements of mental health tips into games to give meaning to the games.