MINDFULL
End-to-End Application
Helping users prioritize their mental health by speaking positivity into life
My Role
I was responsible for creating and designing an end-to-end application. This included research, branding, designing, and user testing interactions for a robust, full-featured app.
Problem
Studies show that adolescence and young adults are the most prevalent age groups to have mental illnesses. At the same time, they are the least likely to receive any kind of mental health treatment. Options like therapy sometimes carry a certain stigma, are too expensive, or are hard to make time for.
How might we help users become more mindful in an effort to prioritize their mental health?
hmm..
Solution
Mindfull is an affirmation/journal app that can bring some daily relief to users looking to prioritize their mental health. On a day-to-day basis, people go through life on auto-pilot, with a mind full of thoughts that get ignored. Reflecting, being present, and self-affirming are daily practices that will contribute to mental clarity. Self-affirmation activates the brain's reward centers. It fires up your neural pathways and makes changes to those areas of the brain that makes you happy and positive.
The onboarding process ensures that each user’s specific needs and goals are catered to.
IDENTIFYING GOALS
“Paying more attention to the present moment can improve your mental wellbeing. This includes your thoughts and feelings, your body and the world around you.”
GUIDED JOURNAL ENTRIES
“Repeating a supportive, encouraging phrase gives it power since hearing something often makes it more likely you'll believe it.”
SPEAKING POSITIVITY
Research
Secondary Research
Understanding the problem space, current solutions, and potential improvements
User Interviews
Understanding the user journey, user needs, and pain points
Following the secondary research phase, I understood the importance of addressing mental illness and the aspects that we can control. Stress is a natural part of life, but left unattended, it can build up and have damaging effects on mental health. Various studies confirm that self-affirmations can decrease health-deteriorating stress and improve your mental well-being. Repeating a supportive, encouraging phrase gives it power. Your belief makes it more likely you'll act in ways that make your affirmation become reality. Paired with daily reflections, the act of being more present and mindful has lasting effects that will help users take control of their mental health journey.
User interviews showed me the priority people are putting on their mental health these days. They just need a little push and the right set of tools to aid in their progress. I understood their needs and pain points.
Affinity Mapping
Key Insights
1
Users are self-motivated but still find value in having others encourage them
2
Users need to be reminded to take a moment to reflect
3
3 users preferred journaling, while others preferred voice memos for their reflections
4
Users are making sure to prioritize their mental health
5
Users reflect on their days if they remember or have time
6
Users have a lot of areas they would like to be encouraged in
Ideate
LOW-FIDELITY WIREFRAMES
After interviewing several participants, I gained insight into areas of importance to the users, as well as how they might go about interacting with this platform. Each wireframe was designed with a specific purpose in mind that would cater to all the subjects that needed to be addressed. The simplistic layout of each page was chosen so that the user could easily identify their goals and complete the task in a low-stress environment.
MID-FIDELITY WIREFRAMES
From sketches to digital wireframes, this process started to bring the idea to life. A more in-depth view of the concept came about in this stage. Here, the app and its features were established and defined more clearly.
Branding
COLOR PALETTE
MINDFULL is supported to have a dreamy feel to it. Blue and lavender evoke feelings of freedom, stability, ambition, and sensitivity, which felt perfect for a place of comfort and vulnerability.
SPLASH SCREEN AND LOGO
TYPOGRAPHY
Poiret One (Logo only)
Quicksand
Usability Testing
The goal was to see if the process helped users describe their emotions and make sense of those feelings. The “Why?” question was responsible for evoking further thought into their responses because anyone could just choose an emotion and move past it. The goal was to process it.
TASKS
Describe emotions and create a journal entry
Find an affirmation and add it to list
Record an affirmation
Usability Testing Results
5 users participated in the usability testing. Each of the tasks was successfully completed in under one minute. No errors occurred as each user carefully went through the prototype. All of the participants spoke about the deep sense of calmness that they felt when using the application. They mainly attributed those feelings to the variety of dark blues used. One user also mentioned how important the “Record” feature was, saying, “This is making me so emotional… being able to hear myself say something and then listen back to it. I really love that.” The overall prototype was received greatly by all of the participants.
Iterations
My Affirmations Page
ORIGINAL
The option to create a personalized affirmation was added, as well as a number to indicate how many affirmations were saved in each category. The name of the tab was also changed to “Affirmations” instead of “Saved.”
REVISION
What Topics Are You Interested In Page
ORIGINAL
The option to add the entire category to their saved affirmations was added, as well as the option to add individual affirmations of their choice.
REVISION
My Affirmations Page
ORIGINAL
The option to go back to view all affirmations was added, instead of a dead end after completing their recorded affirmation.
REVISION
Final Product
Next Steps
If I had more time, I would continue to research mental illnesses and ways to that improve mental health. I would also explore and test additional features such as a timed meditation.