AIGHT
Everything will be AIght
The Problem
Create an app that addresses mental health by utilizing AI and allow users to trust AI more.
Mental health affects more than 60% of youth in America and is a pressing issue to address. There are cultural, social, and financial barriers that prevent youth from seeking mental health resources and services. How can we utilize artificial intelligence to mitigate the issues of accessing mental health resources for our youth?
Project Details
Duration and Team
4 members-
Developer, researcher, designer, project manager
Semester-long project
Role
Lead Developer
Software
Figma
Deliverables
Research
Brainstorming
Persona
Wireframes
Final Prototype
Secondary Research
Survey
Out of 62 responses
77% University students; 23% Community college; 50% Senior Year
87% have health insurance
50% don’t know their health insurance. Therefore, our app can help educate users on health insurance plans.
Interview
"Do you feel comfortable talking about your mental health?"
The majority of people felt comfortable discussing their mental health with other people. They had a close network of people they could trust. However, some people expressed feeling:
“Don’t want to burden the people around me sometimes”
“I’ve made others uncomfortable in the past by trauma dumping”
“Afraid that it would be seen as attention-seeking”
“Speaking up is only going to lead to misunderstandings, miscommunications, and ultimately get me in more trouble than if I just solve things on my own.”
Questionnaire
We asked users what kind of app features they would like to see
Open chat to talk to a person anonymously
Prompts to vent
Progress tracker: daily/weekly mood tracker
A way to search for specialists in certain fields of mental health to be directed that is accessible for the patient, either locally or remotely.
Goal setting
Booking appointments
Coping mechanism suggestions
Connect to hotlines
Various types of chatting
Conversational
Guiding
Advice
Competitor Analysis
Head Space
Guided meditation and mindfulness exercises
Questionnaires about how you are feeling at the moment
Possible premium membership
Tracks progress
News and articles
Color scheme
Many things are locked unless you have premium
Humans Anonymous
Not a very safe space--no separation between minors and adults
Triggering topics in meeting rooms
No mediators
Scheduled meeting times don’t allow people with emergencies to talk.
Mods (bots) kick out inactive people in meeting rooms but don’t detect racism, harassment, etc.
Paywall to customize profile
WYSA
While the app claims to offer therapy, mental health coaching is only available via text messaging.
Varying costs for the premium version. There is select free content, but most of the app is locked behind a paywall.
All of the CBT activities and exercises are done with the guidance of the AI chatbot, which can be frustrating for some.
Define
Meet our primary persona, Seraphine Saddique, a 22-year-old senior college student diagnosed with depression.
From our research, we discovered that students value anonymity, security of information, signs of progress or improvement in mental health, and being educated on mental health.
We generated user personas of college students that covered areas of concern from our research. Using the information we gathered, these personas range from various cultural backgrounds and family views on mental health. One thing personas have in common is the distrust for AI to address mental health for humans.
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Barriers to Mental Health Services
We identified key variables that cause students to have issues accessing mental health services. This exercise allowed us to narrow down the problems we can address in our final product.
Solution
Based on our problem definition, we found 5 key points that our app needed to address.
Customization
AI tailored experiences with journal prompts, interactive chats, and widgets.
Anonymity
Input data is always confidential.
Progress
Review your monthly progress and view your daily, weekly, and monthly moods.
Privacy
Always ask for consent! AI will not ask invasive questions, and you have the option to edit and delete journals or chats.
Accessibility
Free 24/7 support. Additional health insurance features.
Ideation
Brainstorming
We brainstormed features that best represented the app's needs. We changed color customization, as we received feedback from peers that color does not accurately represent mood because it varies from person to person. Instead, we focused on objective mood ratings based on an illustrative scale, as you will later see in our final mockup.
User Journey
From what we gathered, we want our users to achieve clarity and overall contentment after using the app. Most students do not have time or resources to access actual therapists--Our app aims to make it easier for them to receive help.
User Flow
By using our features, we created a happy path that would be most suitable for our users. We want their journey to end with a progress check-in to show how their journal entries and self-help exercises contributed to their growth.
Branding
Typography
Sans-Serif creates a soft aesthetic and easy-to-read font.
Color Palette
Soft blue represents calmness and tranquility. Psychologically, blue is a symbol of trust, a color used often in corporate branding.
Logo
A cloud represents peace of mind. "AIght" is a play on words between the trendy gen-z slang and the use of the letters "AI."
Main Features
Onboarding
When there is a new user, there is a process of brief questionnaires that allows AI to understand the user's needs. It highlights their mental health goals as well as mood and struggles.
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Home
"Prompt of the Day" is generated with AI by using the answers from onboarding. In addition, users can select between a variety of moods with an illustrative cloud icon which allows them to identify their emotions. as well as swipe through options to create their own journal, chat with Puff, and more.
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Journal Entry
Users can choose from various prompts and select the ones they want to write about the most. If a user writes a trigger word that indicates suicide or self-harm, AI will reveal a pop-up screen that provides an option to call the suicide hotline.
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Folder
This page helps users organize their entries by key words, prompt, and date. They can even edit, delete, favorite, and view prompts below certain files.
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Interactive Chat
Users can choose between an AI chatbot or a self-help activity called "AI immersion". They can select a chatbot with a "friendly" or "professional" tone to suit their preferences.
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Tracker
At the end of the day, users can view their mood's progress by filtering between week, month, and year. They can also add the progress to their home screen as a widget for easy accessibility.
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Profile
Users can edit or delete their selected goals from onboarding and view widgets. They also have easy access to first aid and insurance information as a way for users to stay in the know about their data.
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Future Scope
While we are still getting on our feet, we will be partnering with non-profit organizations and universities by offering them a one-time payment. They will help distribute it through Student Services and promote it through social media and events.