Prototype (German)
The Issue
In our society we don't like to talk about mental illness. Even though communication on this topic has become much more open over the years, alot of people are still facing a feeling of shame when talking about their struggles. Due to this lack of communication alot of young people are not aware of the steps they can take towards betterment or how to find a therapist to help.
For alot of people struggling with depression every step is hard work and a big burden to overcome, so a solution to skip some of these steps is desperately needed.
For alot of people struggling with depression every step is hard work and a big burden to overcome, so a solution to skip some of these steps is desperately needed.
With our Bachelor's thesis we attempted to tackle some of these issues and provide a solution to educate affected people on psychological topics and help them through their daily struggles.
Onboarding
In the onboarding user begin to set up their profile by answering a few questions related to their mental health such as their previous diagnosis and therapy experience.
Users also have the option to voice their pains and worries as well as interests to improve their content suggestions later on.
Every mental illness is different so we wanted to make sure to provide information for every individual need.
Users also have the option to voice their pains and worries as well as interests to improve their content suggestions later on.
Every mental illness is different so we wanted to make sure to provide information for every individual need.
Support-Buddy
The buddy is used to track your daily mood and thoughts, by a similar manner to the onboarding. According to your emotions your buddy will offer you a range of exercises to choose from as well as suggestions to help you in your current situation.
Also, if e.g. your mood is on an extreme low for more than two weeks, the application will provide you with support hotlines you can call 24/7. Throughout the application, moods will be represented by colors, keeping the design simple, yet emotional and adding a communicative aspect by personifying your emotion.
Also, if e.g. your mood is on an extreme low for more than two weeks, the application will provide you with support hotlines you can call 24/7. Throughout the application, moods will be represented by colors, keeping the design simple, yet emotional and adding a communicative aspect by personifying your emotion.
Psychological Education
Other than exercises, the app will provide you with useful education related to your psychological problems. There are different topics you can explore to get the help you need: Self-care tips, types of mental illness, types of therapy, how to get therapy and media recommendations. For the purpose of this project we focused strongly on topics related to depression, the most common mental illness amongst our target group. The start page of this portion will be pre-filtered to the issues you have selected in your daily mood tracking to get you the support you need, as fast as possible.
The educational content the users can consume is provided through the medium of video stories. These video stories are the easiest way to consume bundled information without being overwhelmed, especially in critical mental states.
It is also a medium our younger target group is very much familiar with. The users have multiple options such as liking a post or pressing the button labled "this article helped me" to further improve the algorithm and it's suggestions.
It is also a medium our younger target group is very much familiar with. The users have multiple options such as liking a post or pressing the button labled "this article helped me" to further improve the algorithm and it's suggestions.
Testimonials
Through testimonials of other users you can gain a direct insight into therapy, how it works and how it has helped other people with similar problems. These testimonials are marked with the type of therapy that is being talked about as well as the diagnosis the person has. Similarly to the diary entries, you can listen to these testimonials through voice recordings. Additionally, a speech-to-text feature will be provided to easily spot information you might be interested in.
Of course, these testimonials are connected to sensitive topics, which might be unsettling to some. For this reason we added trigger warnings before viewing some articles to ensure the safety of our users. Every user can write/talk about their own experience with therapy. Once such an article is written it has to be verified by the team to check for trigger warnings and other content that might not be allowed on the plattform. If the testimonial is successfully published, other users can react to it, upvote it or downvote it, if they view it as harming.
Mood Overview
The moods you have tracked in your buddy will be collected in this overview. Users have the option to display a daily, weekly or monthly view. Every day has the detailed information you have entered as well as insights on why you might be feeling this way. Through the color coding users can easily spot their good and bad days and connect patterns to possibly change their behaviour.
This page also has an export option to reflect on your emotions once you have made contact with a therapist.
This page also has an export option to reflect on your emotions once you have made contact with a therapist.
Profile
In the profile users can change their personal information as well as the attributes selected in the onboarding. An anonymous display name and profile picture can be chosen to secure anonymity on our plattform, as well as personalize notifications and display colors in the settings.
In the profile users can also easily access the support hotlines if they need help or are struggling with suicidal thoughts. Another aspect of this page is related to finding therapy and providing our users with the German doctors directory. As a last option in the profile you can view information about our plattform and learn how Strive operates and handles sensitive user information.
The Design
Strive's design is strongly influenced by Fluent Design, Glassmorphism and Aurora Backgrounds specifically. It's use of color and font choice is there to provide a sense of comfort and nostalgia to the user and connect to their emotional side. Users should feel comfortable within our application and be able to easily navigate through it. Overall our goal is to provide the fastest way to support at any time.
The use of gradients is a red string following the users through their journey. The different colors used in it's pattern are ment to reflect the ups and downs our daily emotions are going through.
Mockups
Use Scenario and Outlook on the Future
Since our application is focused on students and young adults interested in therapy, advertisement through universities or a prescription from your family doctor is a good option to attract users.
A brochure can be the best way to take the first step on educating yourself about the plattform. It's packaging can be kept simple to provide the users with a sense of anonymity, since alot of people are not comfortable with openly showing what they are struggling with.
Though we have focused this project on depression, it would be ideal to expand it's content to other mental illnesses to cover a larger amount of people in dire need of support. Of course, this project would also require a group of psychologists overlooking and creating it's content to ensure safe and factually accurate education.
A brochure can be the best way to take the first step on educating yourself about the plattform. It's packaging can be kept simple to provide the users with a sense of anonymity, since alot of people are not comfortable with openly showing what they are struggling with.
Though we have focused this project on depression, it would be ideal to expand it's content to other mental illnesses to cover a larger amount of people in dire need of support. Of course, this project would also require a group of psychologists overlooking and creating it's content to ensure safe and factually accurate education.
Creating this project has been important to us after seeing how desperatly needed psychological education is in Germany, especially to lift the stigma still deeply rooted in our society. We hope to provide a possible solution for these problems and would be excited to see these ideas realized.
If you are interested in our concept and would like to know more, feel free to contact me via e-mail!
We want to thank every interview partner and psychologist that helped create and inspire this project.
TEAM MEMBERS
Vanessa Weber / Thang Nguyen / Lucie Wittmer
