Moodscape

UI/UX Design

Integrate daily mental health maintenance into the lives of young adults. View Pitch Deck ︎︎︎

Objective

Young adults want (& NEED) to be more in touch with their mental health.

Eliminating traditional and cognitive barriers to mental health resources for young adults is *essential* for early prevention.

How could we create a simple and personalized resource?

After conducting 9 interviews with young adults struggling with mental health, and synthesizing our insights into archetypes, these were some notable quotes:

• "I know that I’ve been having alot of negative emotions going through my head and I want to take action, so I can grow from them. But after 4 failed connections with therapists I’m just trying to figure it out on my own."
  
  
• "I've tried some of the medication apps & podcasts. But I don't feel like I’m building towards anything. Apps like Calm only help me in certain situations and is only momentary."
  

Discovery

Current products lack accessibility... 

Through our competitive analysis of the available apps we noticed a lack of personalized, casual resources for young adults. As you move to the left of the above graph, the more generalized (one-size-fits-all) the approach becomes. As you move down, the less accessible the resource becomes.

Our vision

— a casual, accessible digital safe space.

Resources were either: way too generalized or not very accessible. Accessibility in our case specifically meant cognitive barriers beyond just time and money. Through user interviews and secondary research, it became evident that there were massive pain points young adults were experiencing in the space.

• a want for actionable advice
  
  
• struggles with accountability
  
  
• struggles to connect with therapists
  
  
• negative connotations with mental health time

Method

Emphasizing co-design and inclusive research practices

Throughout the creation of our product we consulted with numerous psychiatrists and therapists. We wanted to emphasize co-design and inclusive research practices throughout our process.

Our solution 

A digital safe space that encourages young adults to share their emotions, build resillience, and take action.

Moodscape is a mental health maintenance app powered by Alexa offering personalized recommendations, resources & insight based on your feelings & personality.

A safe space for you & your feels.

Our solution:

• Generates a safe space that encourages mental health maintenance to be part of your daily routine.
  
• Tracks monthly mental health progress with mood summary charts & analytics.
  
• Provide you with personalized recommendations & resources to cope with your specific emotions.
  
• Helps you better understand your personality type & what recommendations work for you.
  

Takeaways

When we think about what makes technology or a website accessible, we consider things like color contrast and keyboard accessibility as checkboxes. However, in this scenario as we discussed earlier accessibility can be different for those struggling with mental health.

1. Minimize Complexity

We needed to consider the state of mind of the user as they accessed our product. Young adults expend a lot of their energy on other electronic devices. We wanted to be on the opposite end of cognitive overload. This is why we chose to use only Roboto, a familiar font that kept a clear hierarchy throughout.

By using a more neutral approach to graphic design, we acknowledge that mental health challenges may look different depending on the individual.

2. Lack of Images

Lastly, we decided to not include anything resembling a potential user. We’ve all seen stock photos of people clutching their head in frustration/sadness. Although those photos might seem like an obvious way to represent stress or despair, they tend to be a bit over-dramatic and support the idea that mental illness looks a certain way for everyone.

I’ll be giving a talk on this subject in May at Confab!