Psych 🌿
Step into Psych, an app designed to help users track and improve their mental health with ease and empathy. It helps with mood tracking, setting goals, and self-reflection to support mental health. 🪷🪬🔮🌿🕯️💆♀️
The Brief 🎯
I designed a mental health tracking mobile app called Psych as part of my project. I chose the theme of mental health because it is a pressing issue that needs more attention. Many mental health apps are not effective because they lack proper research and thoughtful design. This project was created for my Human-Computer Interaction (HCI) course, so the goal was to learn HCI methods rather than solve a business problem. The project went through 3 steps:
First
Focused on understanding user needs (contextual inquiry), created a basic design concept, made paper prototypes, and conducted initial tests.
Second
Worked on the app's user experience (UX), developed a more detailed prototype, and performed thorough testing and evaluation.
Third
Created a high-quality version of the prototype (high-fidelity) and refined it based on feedback from the earlier steps.
Involvement
User Research
UX
Interaction Design
Usability Testing
Project Context
Timeline: August 2024 - November 2024
Course: Human Computer Interaction
Project Type: Use Case
The Process
The design process for this project followed the Interaction Design Lifecycle Model, which includes four main steps: Establishing Requirements, Design, Prototype, and Evaluation.
The first step, Establishing User Needs and Requirements, focused on defining the initial requirements for the product. To gather reliable data for the initial design, various activities were conducted, such as interviews, online surveys, observations, and research on similar products. I was responsible for conducting the online survey and researching existing products.
The collected data was divided into two categories: quantitative and qualitative. Quantitative data included results from sources like surveys and Technology Acceptance Model (TAM) questionnaires, while qualitative data was organized into affinity diagrams based on the survey findings. Using this initial data, I created three User Personas. These personas were then used by my team members to develop Interaction Scenarios.
User Personas
Caleb Davis
"I care about managing and tracking my stress cycles and general mental health."
Read More ->
Susan Wong
"I care about managing and tracking my stress cycles and general mental health."
Read More ->
User Flow Diagram & Prototyping
The user flow, outlining all possible decisions a user could make while interacting with the system, was developed to visualize the system comprehensively and identify pain points for improvement in subsequent iterations. To ensure a robust prototyping process, a Diagonal-Prototype approach was implemented, combining horizontal prototypes for mapping the system’s structure and vertical prototypes for testing specific design details. The initial phase involved designing paper prototypes, which were then translated into low-fidelity static prototypes during the second iteration. Finally, a high-fidelity prototype was developed in the third iteration for thorough testing and validation.
UI Design & UX Considerations
The design process began with sketching wireframe ideas on
A4-sized paper, which helped conceptualize the layout and features, providing a clear starting point for the design. These initial sketches guided the transition to digital prototyping.
Note: Some screens are longer due to scrollability. To display them appropriately, their size was reduced, resulting in a thinner appearance compared to non-scrollable screens.
Self-Care Tracker
I designed this interface with inclusivity in mind, ensuring it is accessible and easy to use for individuals of all abilities.
The Self-Care Tracker, prominently displayed on the dashboard, shows a simple graph tracking Mood, Diet, and Sleepratings (1–7) across days, weeks, or months. Users can click ‘Add Activity’ to open a pop-up for updating these metrics via toggle bars, with a help button for guidance (not yet functional). Updated values are reflected in the graph, offering a quick visualization of trends in mental health over time.
