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MY WORK
A Breath of Fresh Air
In a challenge to understand how to develop an app that supports an element of mental health, I was thrown into the deep end on user research methods, prototyping and wireframing, and designing a high-fidelity prototype of a mobile app for mental health. Breathe is an app focused on integrating moments of relaxation into your daily life without disruption.
DESIGN PROCESS
Let's take a look at how we got here.
In my first interaction with mobile app design and usability, I initially found it difficult to understand why user input was so necessary to the job's function. We started, not by sketching our prototypes or even discerning the concept of the app, but by talking to people and empathizing with the issues they encountered. We then built the beginning ideas of our solution around their problems and checked back in with the user to ensure that our solution solved their problem.
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By the end of this first phase, I understood why users were so important to creating and vowed to center all my public-facing work around helping people. For me, this has always been important, and realizing that I was able to do it in my work and my play, I was excited to get started.
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After developing the idea, we began sketching our wireframes to show how a user might navigate through the app. After confirming this, we then set out to digitally prototype these same wireframes to let real users walk through the app themselves on a very basic level. Finally, we prototyped the high-fidelity workflows and continued to test and improve with users based on their needs.
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This iterative cycle made the app what it is today and contributed to my outlook as a human-centered designer, completely understanding the importance of this iterative process.
Design Tenets
Everyone’s mental health needs are different. Personalization is key.
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The personalization survey in the introduction accounts for all user needs.
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Using suggested content to help users after personalization.
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​Personalization needs to be editable and non-definitive to preserve changing user needs.
Users need validation once they have completed tasks.
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Users receive rewards for completing their to-do’s.
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Incorporating mental health tasks balances the user's day.
Knowing progress is important to users.
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The streak counter creates a sense of accomplishment for each user.
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With increased use, each user has an increased sense of progress.
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