Audience
Situation
At danielle’s new job, she is eager to impress her co-workers and boss. This often results in her bringing work home and taking on additional jobs from her co-workers. Danielle has found herself feeling tried, stressed and unable to keep work off her mind.
At home, Danielle has little time to relax as she is busy with social obligations, chores and general responsibilities. This leaves her with no time to relax or plan and partake in stress relief activities.
While stress is a natural response and can sometimes be a positive motivational force. Prolonged periods of stress, however, can lead to chronic stress while minor short-lived stress have potential to cause heart attacks in people with existing heart conditions. It is therefore important for Danielle to regularly relieve and reduce the stress in her life.
Excuses we all make... “I never feel relaxed when I force myself to relax, my mind always wanders back to work”
“The prep it takes to go out for a walk or do exercise is too much, I’d rather just clean up my spotify playlists”
“I’m too busy today, so I don’t have the time”
User Research
“It’s too cold/wet to exercise outside today”
“I was planning too, but I forgot.”
Improvements When asked about the ways in which people thought they could improve on for dealing with their everyday stress, they seemed to agree on knowing yourself better. By understanding ourselves better, we can be more aware of when we are stressed or what stresses us out. Organized routine and discussion with others are also among ways suggested by people as well as more openness and empathy. While some noted that adding a competitive edge might make them feel more motivated in engaging in stress relief activities, others suggested tackling the source of stress rather than relying on stress relief methods.
Insight
Regular walks can boast creative thinking, help create a better perspective and new ideas. This can be felt regardless of the environment.
The first five minutes of exercising in a green space has the biggest impact on a person’s mood.
Unreliable outside forces such as wrong bus times, incompetent workmates, and emergencies can cause a large amount of stress and unbalance people’s schedules for days. The presence of green space or music reduces stress, negative attitudes, relax people, and make exercise feel easier and manageable, minimizing the perception of effort. People are all motivated for different reasons however social and entertainment benefits are often more successful than health benefits.
Need/Provocation
Danielle needs a solution to help her deal with the stress she has from overworking at her new job.
We fo u imme nd that pe diate o tasks, ple tend t social o su o thus l bligations ch as wor focus on m ea k a o relief ving very nd everda deadlines, re y resp little t activi ties. ime fo o r stre nsbilites, ss How m stress ight we s hi relief activi ft thier per t sp ies over m ore im to help g ective on Every ive media o te dis priority perso ne has diff tracti erent n pre ons? fers t cause way. M o so d stress any peopl eal with st f stress an e re d eac r h begin ather than focus on h ss in a pa rticula ow th reduc with. ey ca r ing w nr hat ca uses s educe tress to How unde might rstand w self-a themselve e facilitat waren e peo s and ess ple enc and h of persona ourage be to t ow th l With ey co stress trig ter ou gers uld b it imp r increasin e avo o g ided? to rel ssible to s ly busy life et asi ax. de a p s, people ca ortion of thi n find How er da might y we in tegra t e peop le’s b stress relie usy w ork sc f activities sacrifi hedules w into cing p it roduc hout tivity?
Wellbeing
Responses
Stop, breathe
& think
This is an app that encourages it s user to stop and hav ea moment to b reathe. It also has gu ided meditation se ssion that allow yo u to relax, breathe and u nwind.
30x30 llenge Nature Cha llenge that This is a cha up to and you can sign ending 30 commit to sp ature every minutes in n ays. day for 30 d
Green spaces This is a research paper focused on office spaces and demonstrates how green office spaces generate physiological responses such as increased brain activity and lower stress. https://www.hsph.harvard.edu/news/pressreleases/green-office-environments-linked-wi thhigher-cognitive-function-scores/
Bibliography
Welcoming the wild into nature http://www.bbc.com/earth/story/20161208-why-wild-cities-are-good-for-our-health Apps that connect people to nature http://ofthewolves.com/the-rideswell-project-connecting-people-to-nature/ How plants can improve make people happy http://ellisonchair.tamu.edu/health-and-well-being-benefits-of-plants/#.WX6gvIiGNPa’ Walking increases creativity http://news.stanford.edu/2014/04/24/walking-vs-sitting-042414/ Article on green exercise https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3710158/ This is the good article https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3710158/#B11 Stuff about Motivation and self determination http://eds.a.ebscohost.com.ezproxy.massey.ac.nz/eds/pdfviewer/pdfviewer?vid=1&sid=5 05760df-a2e2-4558-b62a-dcb3fbcc2472%40sessionmgr4009 Article on how nature is good for our wellbeing http://journals.plos.org/plosone/article?id=10.1371/journal.pone.0149777 The importance of urban forests on our health https://www.theguardian.com/cities/2016/oct/12/importance-urban-forests-money-grow-trees Design responding to an issue https://www.ideo.org/impact How stress affacts the body in the long term http://www.apa.org/helpcenter/stress.aspx
Thankyou for reading!