Project Vision
OSO is a short-use app designed to be a resource for those experiencing moments of heightened anxiety and depression. This app is more for acute care rather than preventative care. The goal is to create a simple assessment and tasks catered to each user to help bring down their levels of anxiety or help them out of a depressive episode. The other goal is to better connect users with their friends and loved ones and train and educate those supporters to be more of an aid for the users.
Challenges
Provide acute care to users experiencing heightened levels of anxiety or depression
Create a minimal amount of mental taxation during use
Provide easily accessible support from lifelines
Give a basic yet thorough training to lifelines on how to support those experiencing depression or anxiety
Research
How would you describe your anxiety or depression?
“My hypotheticals start to feel as real as possible, like they’re already set up to happen.”
"I’m either sleeping all the time or not at all when I’m anxious or depressed.”
What have you learned helps you during these moments?
“Talking about things when they’re stuck in my mind, saying it out loud or texting it to someone”
“Doing something unexpected or silly can help me ‘break through’”
What resources do you turn to in taking care of your mental health?
“Certain books that educate me on what’s going on with my mind”
“Knowing that I can go back on medication if needed and I know it’ll work”
Competitor Analysis
Main Insight: Most mental health apps focus on preventative, habit-building care which sometimes takes too long for someone needing more grounding help within a shorter timeframe.
What if our smart phones could care for
our minds in a shorter amount of time?
Our User
Eli is a student that experiences panic attacks. He needs ways to quickly feel connected to the world and his body because his anxiety is unpredictable and can't always find the support from a friend or loved one in those moments.
Get care within 5 minutes
Testing
Type: Moderated, In-person
Duration: appx. 30 mins
No. of People: 6
Design
“The colors and font feel safe and friendly.”
“Some of the buttons were hard to tell if I had selected them or not.”
User Flow
“Love the linear flow and felt like a safe space to be.”
“The ‘rate my emotions” in the initial set up felt disconnected.”
Features
I like the simplicity of it and how it’s not trying to dive too deep into details.
“Lacking animations for the breathing activity”
Eliminated rate your emotions step of the user set-up. Too many variables with mental health and the severity of the users’ neuroses changes from situation to situation.
Main User Flow
(Duration appx 5 minutes)
Immediate Care
Support from “Lifelines”
Lifelines are loved ones chosen by user to provide support through the app
