AldrigEnsam
An app designed to enhance overall health and well-being, offering a user-friendly platform with tools and resources to help users adopt healthy habits and make positive lifestyle changes.
Background
Mental health issues have reached alarming levels globally, and stigma, long wait times, and lack of support are major barriers to care. Based on the UN's 3rd global goal, "Good Health and Well-being," I designed a prototype app for people struggling with difficult emotions. The app connects users facing similar challenges to offer peer support, provides a self-assessment depression test with guidance to seek care if needed, and displays an emergency number for urgent cases. It also offers articles and advice to increase mental health awareness and prevention. This digital tool promotes well-being by fostering connections and support among users experiencing emotional distress.
Challenge
Care queues are growing, and long wait times can worsen a person’s condition. While many individuals experience emotional distress, not all cases require clinical intervention. People often need an outlet to talk without judgment, which can be difficult to find in personal relationships. Stigma and high barriers to care also prevent many from seeking help when they need it most. According to research, over 70% of participants rated features like symptom information, client experiences, professional feedback, and tips for overcoming treatment fears as highly useful for breaking down barriers to care.
Objective
Develop a prototype of an app that:
Increases knowledge about mental health illnesses and prevention strategies.
Facilitates communication between people facing similar emotional or life challenges.
Provides timely access to peer support and mental health resources in a stigma-free environment.
Design Process
1. Research
Summarize the theme area and target group
2. Strategy
Analyze problems and brainstorm solutions
3. Design
Create designs based on solutions
4. Prototyping & Testing
Refine the prototype iteratively based on feedback
Research
Target Group
We focused on people of all ages who feel emotionally distressed and need someone to talk to. Interviews with five individuals (ages 20–45) who have experienced anxiety, depression, or loneliness revealed key requirements:
Easy, quick access to emotional support.
A non-judgmental platform where they could speak freely.
Low-pressure emotional support without needing to reciprocate.
Key Insights
Users value anonymity and neutrality, feeling that talking to someone distant from their personal life provides comfort.
Participants desired easily accessible information on mental health conditions, which would help validate their emotions.
Users emphasized the need for quick responses when reaching out for help, to avoid long queues and wait times.
2. Strategy
Pain Points
The following pain points were found from the user research. During thorough stakeholder interviews and detailed research analysis, we successfully pinpointed crucial issues that significantly impact stakeholders across different domains.
1. Judgement
Users avoid talking to relatives for fear of being judged or burdening them
2. Ignorance
Widespread ignorance surrounding mental health prevents people from seeking help
3. High Barriers
Seeking clinical help can be time-consuming and costly
4. Misunderstood
Many users feel disconnected from friends and struggle to explain their emotions
5. Need for speaking out
Many users don’t meet clinical criteria but still need emotional support
6. Tired
Having no energy or motivation to perform everyday activities
Potential Future Situations
Addressing these challenges promptly is crucial to maintaining a high quality of life and enhancing mental well-being. Through extensive brainstorming, we crafted four potential scenarios to address these urgent issues and drive positive results for stakeholders.
Situation 1
Personalized mental health tests, articles, and resources to raise awareness and reduce stigma, addressing pain point 2.
Situation 2
The app makes seeking help easier, offering timely support anytime and reducing care queues, addressing pain point 3.
Situation 3
Users can select their emotions (e.g., sadness, anxiety) and instantly connect with others facing similar feelings, addressing pain points 1, 4, and 5.
Situation 4
Gentle reminders for self-care routines to help users regain motivation and energy. This addresses pain point 6.
3. Design
Paper Prototype 1
To improve Paper Prototype 1, interaction was simplified by offering users suggestions for their selected emotion instead of requiring them to write a reason. For preferences like gender and age, text entry was replaced with a drop-down menu and a scrolling age selector for faster use. Lastly, clicking on a matched profile directs users to a general profile page to make the experience more personal.
Paper Prototype 2
Minor changes were made to improve navigation in Paper Prototype 2, including a menu button to return to the home page and progress indicators for the questionnaire with arrows to navigate questions. Feedback provided clarity for implementing the next steps.
4. Prototyping & Testing
Test Plan
We created scenarios for users to test various app functions. For example:
Scenario 1
You are a 21-year-old woman who is grieving and want to find someone to talk to.
After the initial task, users completed follow-ups:
How do you find a new match?
How do you reconnect with a previous match?
How do you stop chatting with someone?
Scenario 2
You are unsure of your mental wellbeing, and want to gain some insight on it.
Next, users received information about taking a self-assessment test with the scenario:
“You want to understand your feelings better; what do you do?”
“Take the test and explore what to do after receiving results.
Test Participants
We tested the prototype with individuals who had experienced emotional distress, such as anxiety and depression. Their feedback was crucial in assessing whether the app features were accessible and supportive, particularly for users with low energy or motivation. Participants with psychiatric care experience also provided insights on guiding users to appropriate resources.
Test Environment
Testing was conducted in a café, which provided a balanced environment that mimics the unpredictability of when users might experience difficult emotions. Testing in a real-world setting, rather than a calm home environment, allowed us to better simulate conditions under which the app would be used.
Test Run 1
Issue: Users were immediately able to "unmatch" after a chat, which felt punitive.
Solution: We implemented a 24-hour "pause" on chats, allowing users to save or delete them later.
Issue: Confusion about when an emotion was selected.
Solution: Added "Your selected emotion: Example" as visual feedback after selection.
Test Run 2
Issue: Users struggled to find "unmatch," "block," and "report" options, which were hidden behind the profile picture.
Solution: Moved these options to the chat page for better visibility.
Feedback: Users wanted to see more information about the selected emotions of their matches to make better decisions about who to chat with.
Solution: Added a feature showing the matched person’s selected emotions and reasons.
Self Reflection
The app performed well, with testers responding positively to the navigation and features. However, broader testing across a more diverse range of mental health conditions is necessary to ensure the app meets a wider audience’s needs. Testing in more relaxed environments, free from time constraints, would also provide more candid feedback.
Conclusions
TThe app was well-received for its simplicity and functionality, but further testing with diverse user groups is necessary before launch. Collaborating with mental health professionals will ensure the app adheres to healthcare standards and provides meaningful support.
Next Steps:
Conduct more testing with a broader audience to improve personalization and support.
Collaborate with mental health professionals to ensure the app meets industry standards.
Continue refining the app’s user experience based on ongoing feedback.