Timeline

• July 2022 - December 2022 (24 weeks)

 PROBLEM

Young adults are experiencing a “hidden epidemic” of loneliness.

The usual solution to loneliness is to establish strong connections with others. However, during the pandemic, young adults experienced a heightened sense of loneliness due to limited social distancing. This raised a question: how might we help young adults feel less lonely without having to meet in-person?

THE SOLUTION

A mental health companion powered by artificial intelligence

WHITE PAPER RESEARCH

Starting with white paper research, I began to draw from research articles on the topic of loneliness- when I stumbled upon an eye-opening statistic from research at the The National Technical University in Kharkiv involving 412 volunteers aged 19-23 years:

“…after 4 weeks of using a mental health app… there was an average decrease of: 28% in depressive tendencies; 31% in anxiety tendency; 15% in the tendency to experience predominantly negative emotional states. Furthermore, 91 % of participants reported improved well-being.”

COMPETITIVE ANALYSIS + THE GAP

While keeping the above statistic in kind, I analyzed other major competitors in this problem space. The competition all had major usability issues. Users had reported confidentiality breaches, weak AI functionality, and lack of sound mental health advice. These areas provided opportunities for improvement upon past iterations of solutions.

USER INTERVIEWS

My interviewees identified 4 main factors that deterred them from establishing strong social connections: confidentiality, judgement, availability, and sound advice.

Although I saw from research that mental health apps could prove effective in reducing feelings of loneliness, I’ve conducted interviews with 8 students who volunteered to share their experiences with loneliness. I’ve asked them questions below to find trends within their individual experiences, then I organized my data through affinity mapping.

RESEARCH QUESTIONS:

1. What prevents you from connecting with others?

2. How has loneliness affected your life?

3. What motivated you to start in the first place?

4. What was your process for trying to achieve that goal?

5. Tell me about a time you had to do something difficult and accomplished it.

MAIN INSIGHT

None of the previous apps my interviewees used worked since they fell short in so many regards.

Based on the trends in my affinity map, I’ve noticed unless these major issues (confidentiality, judgement, availability, & sounds advice) aren’t resolved, users will not enjoy a positive experience with the app.

THE YOUNG PROFESSIONAL PERSONA

DESIGN

At first, I spent almost a week experimenting with different ideas about how to address this issue: online discussion forum, WhatsApp group, and a text message subscription list. However, these ideas all appeared to come with their own challenges that may make the experience less pleasant for users. I eventually settled upon the idea of a simple app that would harness the power of AI to address each of these issues.

TESTING + IMPROVEMENTS

3 major improvements in my design

Based on various feedback from 4 other peers + mentor feedback, I continually iterated my design over the span of 4 weeks- with 3 major improvements:

THE FINAL SCREENS

The final product

The Style Guide

CONCLUSION + LESSONS LEARNED

What I’d do differently next time.

This was my first-ever UX project (Hooray)! 🎉. More than the actual output, however- I’m immensely grateful to have been through an entire UX process so I can see what it’s actually like. On that note, a few things I’ve learned:

1. Iterate as much as you can. In the beginning stages, I’ve explored so many different options to try finding the right solution for my student users- I’ve ended up “restarting” my project over 3 times with over 9 iterations of my FIGMA file to make sure every aspect of the app was designed with intention. Not to mention- I have a better sense to obey WCAG standards next time!

2. Focus more on tradeoffs with each direction. Although at first, I explored solutions using ideas I had in mind. However, I realized the importance of basing decisions off of user preferences, thereby making it more human-centred in design.

3. You didn’t fail- you just found 100 ways that didn’t work. From noticing mistakes in my UI to uncovering more foundational UX problems in my app, I’m thankful to have constantly asked for feedback from my peers and mentors. In the end, I pushed to have the app as best I could, and did not let my own thinking stop me from questioning if my own decisions were truly best for the user.

For more work inquiries, or to grab a coffee, do email me at: designbyuq@gmail.com ☕️✨

Thank you for reading! 🧠

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