Product: Mobile App & Website Role: Digital Designer

Insight

Insight is a platform that assists with managing and learning more about chronic stress through friendly and approachable means.

Opportunities

Juggled many different hats: My responsibilities spanned across a broad spectrum, from creating visually compelling graphic designs, crafting engaging motion graphics, to designing intuitive and user-friendly UI/UX interfaces.

Presented proposals to mental health professionals: Honed skills in crafting and delivering pitches to a wide range of mental health practitioners, ensuring the information is accurate, non-triggering, professional, and beneficial.

Self-organized learning: This diverse experience not only honed my technical skills but also fostered a holistic understanding of the design process, enabling me to deliver solutions that are both aesthetically pleasing and functionally effective.

The Issue

Mental health and well-being are a global problem that many people disregard and it is one of the issues that should be looked into more carefully in depth. Many people feel like they do not have access to help within their reach and I want to help them by creating an online system that caters to their emotional needs through a touch of a button.

The Goal

Insight's Mobile App allows a safe and non-judgmental environment where individuals are able to open up about their struggles and problems with the newly implemented buddy system.

The Insight Mobile App is aimed at individuals who are trying to manage chronic stress through a personal approach. The idea was to implement a “personal coach” or a “buddy system” that would guide the user to open up about themselves to learn more about how they perceive themselves in order to help cope with chronic stress through a safe and non-judgmental environment.

  • Goal Consistency

    Users have goals they want to reach but tend to stray away.

  • Stigma

    Mental health is negatively portrayed in the media, which tends to scare people away from talking about the topic.

  • Judgement

    Many users found that they often hide their problems due to judgement from other people and lack of acceptance.

Based on these pain points, a deep analysis was made to combat the users’ frustrations and to make the app more welcoming and goal-oriented.

What’s Unique?

The app prototype is customized based on the user's needs and Chum the Slime, is here to help.

Chum is an artificial intelligence personality that will respond based on how the user is feeling and will act as a buddy system to the individual when they need someone to console them. Chum will check up on the user occasionally to ensure that the user is feeling alright and will offer help when needed, while also reminding them of their accomplishments and the cheerful moments they have experienced.

As it's intimidating to talk to a person about what they are going through, the buddy system will allow individuals to open up and receive help as it provides a safe and non-judgmental environment for them.

UX Design

Many apps take an all-in-one approach, but people often find themselves using only a few functions. This app was made specifically to be a safe space to reach for help as well as becoming a goal-oriented app. It is designed to be simple and easy to use, with a focus on helping the user achieve their goals.

High-fidelity wireframes were made to visualize what the overall UI will look like. The interface was designed to be uncluttered to erase noise that might distract or stress the user. The goal was to make navigation as simple as possible and stress-free to help individuals collect their thoughts and become more relaxed while using the app.

UI Design

The UI has been designed in a simple manner to reduce noise while also making navigation straightforward. The user would be able to recognize what is considered to be a button through the dark overlays and keeping legibility in mind, dark backgrounds were used to make the white text pop and easy on the eyes.

The gentle cool colours help soothe and relax the user providing them a safe and stable environment in their minds. Different types of colours were also applied to “How was your day” screen to visually indicate how the user is feeling, which can help them reflect their state of mind.

  • Showcased at OCAD's GradEX Exhibition

  • App and Site Launched In Less Than 1 Month

Key Takeaways

Using humour to break the stigma: Society has traditionally viewed mental health through a negative lens. However, through my research, I learned that humour often serves as a powerful tool to shatter this stigma. Not only does it break the ice, but it also lightens the gravity of the topic. This strategy has proven effective in fostering engaging dialogues about mental health, making it more relatable and accessible

Considering gentle language: My interactions with mental health professionals have underscored the importance of mindful communication. This insight has guided the creation of the Insight platform, ensuring our content is gentle, respectful, and comforting to all users.

Option of choice: No one likes to be boxed in for one option. It’s essential to remember that everyone values the freedom to choose. By providing users with multiple options on the Insight app and website, we empower them to make decisions that best suit their needs. This has helped me understand that it enhances user satisfaction as well as fostering a sense of control and personalization within the platform.

Want to see the prototype in action?

The Issue

There are people who put an effort to help but have a hard time keeping within the safe boundaries for people who are under the pressure of chronic stress.

The Goal

This website raises awareness to chronic stress and the different approaches that people can take to reduce some pressure designed in a more friendly and unique approach.

As mental health has a strong negative stigma attached to it, I wanted to display the information in a more appealing and enticing fashion where it makes the user want to read more and learn about the topic.

  • Lack of Resources

    Users found that they were unable to find helpful resources on how to manage chronic stress.

  • Stigma

    Mental health is negatively portrayed in the media, which tends to scare people away from talking about the topic.

  • Confusing Language

    Many users found that the language used in many help sites were quite difficult to understand.

Based on these pain points, a deep analysis was made to combat the users’ frustrations and to make the site more resourceful and accessible to a wider audience while making it feel more welcoming and easy to understand while incorporating examples.

UX Design

After conducting research on many different healthcare sites and informative medical webpages, I noticed that the examples and instructions that were given catered to situations in a more general approach. It’s difficult to understand how to act and be wary of what to say as it could trigger negative feelings towards another individual. As mental health is a difficult topic to start off, I created ways that can potentially help an individual start a conversation and made it as comfortable as possible to read for the user using illustrated characters and scenarios.

Phrasing

I kept the language simple to read and easy to understand. As people tend to stray away from content that is hard to comprehend, I wrote about the subject matter in a way where people would be able to grasp the concept after reading through it once.

Navigation

I have kept the most important topics at the top in the navigation bar to allow the user to access the page easily. Users will be able to learn how to cope with chronic stress, how to help, and look for emergency resources through any page on the website in case they ever need to go to it.

Users are also able to go through each of the different webpages that are found on the landing page through a touch of a button with comic illustrations accompanying the subject matter.

UI Design

The UI has been designed in a minimalistic approach with the aid of comical illustrations to reduce stress levels and make the topic of mental health more appealing and engaging. The simplicity of the website was made to make the navigation straightforward and intuitive.

The colours I used are gentle cool blues to soothe and relax the user in order to provide them a feeling of safety when browsing the webpages. I’ve also made the text stress-free as possible using a legible font with ample leading for individuals who may be experiencing chronic stress may feel anxious and have difficulty reading. 

  • Showcased at OCAD's GradEX Exhibition

  • App and Site Launched In Less Than 1 Month

Key Takeaways

Using humour to break the stigma: Society has traditionally viewed mental health through a negative lens. However, through my research, I learned that humour often serves as a powerful tool to shatter this stigma. Not only does it break the ice, but it also lightens the gravity of the topic. This strategy has proven effective in fostering engaging dialogues about mental health, making it more relatable and accessible

Considering gentle language: My interactions with mental health professionals have underscored the importance of mindful communication. This insight has guided the creation of the Insight platform, ensuring our content is gentle, respectful, and comforting to all users.

Option of choice: No one likes to be boxed in for one option. It’s essential to remember that everyone values the freedom to choose. By providing users with multiple options on the Insight app and website, we empower them to make decisions that best suit their needs. This has helped me understand that it enhances user satisfaction as well as fostering a sense of control and personalization within the platform.

Want to see the prototype in action?