Sunshine - A Mental Health Project by Raj Patil

Graduation Project 2020

Sunshine A Mental Health Project Sponsor

Studio Fra Student

Raj Patil

Industrial Design (User Experience Design)

Industry guide

Faculty guide

Jeevan Jonas Dr. Dandeswar Bisoyi

Graduation Project 2020

Sunshine A Mental Health Project Sponsor

Studio Fra Student

Raj Patil

Industrial Design (User Experience Design)

Industry guide

Faculty guide

Jeevan Jonas Dr. Dandeswar Bisoyi

Declarations

7 Statement of Originality

I, Raj Patil, student of MIT Institute of Design, Pune (Maharashtra) for the year 2019-20, hereby declare that the contents of this thesis is my own work and it contains no full or substantial copy of previously published material. I certify that all data, figures and assistance of any other for receiving in preparing this thesis and sources have been acknowledged. All the material about Studio Fra has been approved by the company.

Student name: Raj Patil Place: MIT Institute of Design, Pune Date: 13-07-2020 Signature:

8 Statement of Copyright

I, Raj Patil, hereby grant MIT Institute of Design the right to archive and to make available my thesis in the whole or in part in the institutes knowledge management center in all forms of media, now or hereafter known, subject to the provisions of copyright material in my document or I have obtained permission to use copyright material.

Student name: Raj Patil Place: MIT Institute of Design, Pune Date: 13-07-2020 Signature:

9 IPR Declaration

I hereby declare that the thesis “Sunshine — A Mental Health Project” is a result of my independent work and effort. I certify that to the best of my knowledge it does not infringe upon anyone’s copyrights. Where other sources of information have been used, they have been acknowledged. This thesis has not been submitted anywhere for any other comparable academic degree.

Student name: Raj Patil Place: MIT Institute of Design, Pune Date: 13-07-2020 Signature:

10 Certificate

It is certified that the work contained in the thesis titled “Sunshine — A Mental Health Project” has been carried out under my supervision and that this work has not been submitted elsewhere for a degree.

Dr. Wricha Mishra Place: MIT Institute of Design, Pune Date: 25-05-2019

Acknowledgement I’d like to thank Jeevan Jonas (Industry Mentor), Dr. Dandeswar Bisoyi (Faculty Mentor) and Dr. Wricha Mishra (HOD - UX) for continually supporting and guiding me throughout the design process of the Sunshine Project. I’m grateful to each and every collaborators who decided to collaborate on this Project. Your inputs helped the project reach it’s new heights. And finally, I’d like to thank my family and friends for unconditionally supporting and encouraging me. I am immensely grateful to your support. Without you all, this wouldn’t be possible. In fact, I’ve found a formula for creating a successful design project. It is a combination of support and guidance from mentors, collaborators and family & friends.

THANK YOU!

Contents 01

Certifications & Acknowledgement 1.1 Statement of Originality 1.2 Statement of Copyright 1.3 IPR Declaration 1.4 Certificate 1.5 Acknowledgement

05 06 07 08 09

Context Understanding 3.1 Background Information 3.1.1 Desk Research 3.1.2 Psychotherapy techniques Study 3.2 Literature Study

Introduction 2.1 About Sponsor 2.2 Methodology 2.3 Domain and Project Brief 2.3.1 About Domain 2.3.2 Project Brief 2.3 Problem Statement 2.4 Design Process Definition & Project Timeline 2.6 Goals and Objectives

15 16 20 21 22 24

UX Research 4.1 Market Research 4.2 Questionnaire 4.3 Personas 4.4 Role-playing 4.5 Experience Mapping 4.6 Insights

36 39 42 46 47 49

Ideation & Planning Stage I

Ideation & Planning Stage II

5.1 Project Brief Redefinition 5.2 How Might We’s 5.3 Ideating & Brainstorming solutions 5.4 Possible Solutions 5.5 Insights

7.1 Use cases 7.2 User Journey Mapping 7.3 Empathy Mapping 7.4 Contextual Inquiry Models 7.5 Features listings and Prioritisation 7.6 Information Architecture

52 53 55 56 57

64 66 67 68 71 72

Design Decisions

Prototyping

Design Decisions

8.1 Sketches of screens 8.2 Design System 8.2.1 Moodboard 8.2.2 Theme Definition 8.4 Final UI Design Screens

76 77 78

Contents 09

Testing 9.1 Heuristic Testing 9.2 User Testing

88 89

Conclusion 10.1 Conclusion 10.2 References

92 93

02 Introduction

2.1 About Sponsor Studio Fra is a boutique design company in Bangalore India with a focus on crafting simple & intuitive design for digital products. The offerings include User Experience design services like User Research, User Interface, Brand Strategy, Identity Design and more.

As a company, Studio Fra believes in Simplicity, the idea of “Less is More” and Efficiency in Work. It’s a small studio and intentionally kept it small for keeping the values intact. The company selectively works with few clients to give care and attention they need.

2.2 Methodology

Literature Review

Market Research

The literature review is a written overview of major writings and other sources on a selected topic. Sources covered in the review may include scholarly journal articles, books, government reports, Web sites, etc. The literature review provides a description, summary and evaluation of each source.

Market research is a critical tool in helping companies understand what consumers want, develop products that those consumers will use, and maintain a competitive advantage over other companies in their industry.

Questionnaire

Personas

A questionnaire is a research instrument consisting of a series of questions (or other types of prompts) for the purpose of gathering information from respondents. Although questionnaires are often designed for statistical analysis of the responses and to gain insights from potential users.

Personas are fictional characters, which are created based upon research in order to represent the different user types that might use the service or product in a similar way. Creating personas helps in understanding the potential users’ needs, experiences, behaviours and goals.

Role-playing

Experience Mapping

Role-playing is basically playing a character by researcher to put himself/herself in the user’s shoes and see from their perspective. It is about empathising the user’s side by actually understanding from their perspective.

A user experience map is a method of visualizing the entire end-to-end user experience that an average user will go through in order to accomplish a goal. It helps to sketch out the UX and forecast any friction before creating the actual website or prototype.

How Might We ‘How Might We’ (HMW) questions are short questions that launch brainstorms. HMWs fall out of your point-of-view statement or design principles as seeds for the ideation.

Brainstorming sessions Brainstorming is a combination of informal problem solving and lateral thinking. The technique intends for participants to come up with eccentric ideas.

Design Decisions

Use Cases

Design Decisions is about prioritising the design solution out of all the design solutions that are brainstormed, for building a foundational idea to work/ ideate further on.

A use case is a written description of how users will perform tasks. It outlines, from a user’s point of view, a system’s behaviour. Each use case is represented as a sequence of simple steps, beginning with a user’s goal and ending when that goal is fulfilled.

User Journey Mapping

Empathy Mapping

A journey map is a visualization of the process that a person goes through in order to accomplish a goal. It represents how a user interacts with a product and allows the designers to see a product/ service from a user’s point of view.

An empathy map is a collaborative visualization used to articulate what we know about a particular type of user. It externalizes knowledge about users in order to — create a shared understanding of user needs, and aid in decision making.

Contextual Inquiry Models

Prototyping

Contextual inquiry is a semistructured interview method to obtain information about the context of use, where users are first asked a set of standard questions and then observed and questioned while they work in their own environments.

A prototype is a final high fidelity version of a digital product. It is a simulation of how a finished product will work.

Design System A design system is a collection of reusable components, guided by clear standards, that can be assembled together to update on the existing digital product. Moodboards, style guides come under a design system.

2.3 Domain & Project Brief Domain:

Project Brief:

Mental Health, specifically focused on stress, anxiety and depression.

Creation of a design solution wherein the patients having mental health issues (stress, anxiety and depression) get assistance in their recovery through a digital medium. Target Audience: Young Adults (18-25 years old)

2.4 Problem Statement According to WHO, Depression is a leading cause of disability worldwide. India is now labelled as one of the most depressed country in the world. 1 in 20 people in India suffer from depression

In India, there is an extreme shortage of mental health workers like psychologists, psychiatrists and doctors. As reported in 2014, it was as low as “one in 100,000 people.” The average suicide rate in India is 10.9 for every lakh people.

According to a research study, out of those who suffer from mental illness, 87% do not seek professional help.

Problems might be like, there is very less access to psychologists in the rural areas. There might be a language barriers between psychologists and patients.

24 2.5 Design Process Definition & Timeline

Strategy

Research

05 JANUARY to 20 JANUARY

21 JANUARY to 29 FEBRUARY

Project Brief

Literature Review

Problem Statement

Questionnaire

Design Process Definition

Persona

Project Timeline

Role-playing Experience Mapping Techniques Study Market Research Insights

Ideation & Planning

01 MARCH to 25 MARCH

Execution 25 MARCH to 15 APRIL

Testing & Iterating

15 APRIL to 30 APRIL

Core Problems & Brief Redefinition

Sketching Wireframes

Heuristic Evaluation

How Might We

Digital Wireframing

User Testing

Ideating Solutions

Visual Design Definition

Iterating

Solution Prioritising

UI Prototyping

Finalising & Detailing Design Solution Personas User Journey Mapping Empathy Mapping Contextual Inquiry Models Features listing & Prioritising Information Architecture Insights

2.6 Goals & Objectives • Making users rise from their suffering and feel relief, happiness/ peace/ content and also feel confident. • Getting users to inherit a Momentum of Positive beliefs and Actions. • Challenging the users to do something greater for good. • Creating a judgement free zone (where users can share their fears and mistakes/ regrets)

• Building a momentum for a self-actualised meaningful life for the end-users. • Change the User’s state of being from ‘nonrecurring long-term bad feelings’ to ‘being confident, content and excited.’ • Getting the users to a point where they don’t really need the app anymore, And they have a positive impression / mental model about it.

“The Goal is to get Users to a point that they no longer need the app.”

03 Context Understanding

3.1 Background Information What is Depression? Depression is a common and serious medical illness that negatively affects how you feel, the way you think and how you act. It is a treatable illness. It can lead to a variety of emotional and physical problems and can decrease a person’s ability to function at work and at home. When feelings of hopelessness, helplessness or worthlessness persist for extended periods of time, that might signify more than just a momentary dip in mood. Those could be the early signs of clinical depression. “It acts like an intense fear of happiness, even as you yourself consciously want that happiness more than anything.” Depression symptoms can vary from mild to severe and can include: • Feeling sad or having a depressed mood • Loss of interest or pleasure in activities once enjoyed • Changes in appetite — weight loss or gain unrelated to dieting • Trouble sleeping or sleeping too much • Loss of energy or increased fatigue • Increase in purposeless physical activity (e.g., hand-wringing or pacing) or slowed movements and speech (actions observable by others) • Feeling worthless or guilty • Difficulty thinking, concentrating or making

decisions • Thoughts of death or suicide What is anxiety? Anxiety is a normal reaction to stress and can be beneficial in some situations. It can alert us to dangers and help us prepare and pay attention. Anxiety disorders differ from normal feelings of nervousness or anxiousness, and involve excessive fear or anxiety. Treatment helps most people lead normal productive lives. Generalized Anxiety Disorder; Panic Disorder; Phobias, Specific Phobia; Agoraphobia; Social Anxiety Disorder; Separation Anxiety Disorder are some of the commonly found types of disorders. What is Stress? Posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) is a psychiatric disorder that can occur in people who have experienced or witnessed a traumatic event such as a natural disaster, a serious accident, a terrorist act, war/combat, rape or other violent personal assault. People with PTSD have intense, disturbing thoughts and feelings related to their experience that last long after the traumatic event has ended. They may relive the event through flashbacks or nightmares; they may feel sadness, fear or anger; and they may feel detached or estranged from other people. People with PTSD may avoid situations or people that remind them of the traumatic event, and they

may have strong negative reactions to something as ordinary as a loud noise or an accidental touch. Symptoms — • Intrusive thoughts such as repeated, involuntary memories; distressing dreams; or flashbacks of the traumatic event. Flashbacks may be so vivid that people feel they are re-living the traumatic experience or seeing it before their eyes. • Avoiding reminders of the traumatic event may include avoiding people, places, activities, objects and situations that bring on distressing memories. • People may try to avoid remembering or thinking about the traumatic event. They may resist talking about what happened or how they feel about it. • Negative thoughts and feelings may include ongoing and distorted beliefs about oneself or others (e.g., “I am bad,” “No one can be trusted”); ongoing fear, horror, anger, guilt or shame; much less interest in activities previously enjoyed; or feeling detached or estranged from others. • Arousal and reactive symptoms may include being irritable and having angry outbursts; behaving recklessly or in a self-destructive way; being easily startled; or having problems concentrating or sleeping.

What is the cause of stress, anxiety and depression? Scientific reasoning behind the cause — It’s often said that depression results from a chemical imbalance, but that figure of speech doesn’t capture how complex the disease is. Research suggests that depression doesn’t spring from simply having too much or too little of certain brain chemicals. Rather, there are many possible causes of depression, including faulty mood regulation by the brain, genetic vulnerability, stressful life events, medications, and medical problems. It’s believed that several of these forces interact to bring on depression.

30 For example, in a therapy session the client might be thinking to herself: “He (the therapist) hasn’t said much today. I wonder if he’s annoyed with me?” These thoughts might make the client feel slightly anxious or perhaps annoyed. He or she could then respond to this thought with a further thought: “He’s probably tired, or perhaps I haven’t been talking about the most important things.” The second thought might change how the client was feeling. Beck realized that the link between thoughts and feelings was very important. He invented the term automatic thoughts to describe emotion-filled thoughts that might pop up in the mind. Beck found that people weren’t always fully aware of such thoughts, but could learn to identify and report them. If a person was feeling upset in some way, the thoughts were usually negative and neither realistic nor helpful. Beck found that identifying these thoughts was the key to the client understanding and overcoming his or her difficulties. Beck called it cognitive therapy because of the importance it places on thinking. It’s now known as cognitive-behavioral therapy (CBT) because the therapy employs behavioral techniques as well. The balance between the cognitive and the behavioral elements varies among the different therapies of this type, but all come under the umbrella term cognitive behavior therapy. CBT has since undergone successful scientific trials in many places by different teams, and has been applied to a wide variety of problems.

Cognitive Behavioural Therapy The Importance of Negative Thoughts CBT is based on a model or theory that it’s not events themselves that upset us, but the meanings we give them. If our thoughts are too negative, it can block us seeing things or doing things that don’t fit – that disconfirm – what we believe is true. In other words, we continue to hold on to the same old thoughts and fail to learn anything new. For example, a depressed woman may think, “I can’t face going into work today: I can’t do it. Nothing will go right. I’ll feel awful.” As a result of having these thoughts – and of believing them – she may well ring in sick. By behaving like this, she won’t have the chance to find out that her prediction was wrong. She might have found some things she could do, and at least some things that were okay. But, instead, she stays at home, brooding about her failure to go in and ends up thinking: “I’ve let everyone down. They will be angry with me. Why can’t I do what everyone else does? I’m so weak and useless.” That woman probably ends up feeling worse, and has even more difficulty going in to work the next day. Thinking, behaving and feeling like this may start a downward spiral. This vicious circle can apply to many different kinds of problems.

31 Where Do These Negative Thoughts Come From? Beck suggested that these thinking patterns are set up in childhood, and become automatic and relatively fixed. So, a child who didn’t get much open affection from their parents but was praised for school work, might come to think, “I have to do well all the time. If I don’t, people will reject me.” Such a rule for living (known as a dysfunctional assumption) may do well for the person a lot of the time and help them to work hard. But if something happens that’s beyond their control and they experience failure, then the dysfunctional thought pattern may be triggered. The person may then begin to have automatic thoughts like, “I’ve completely failed. No one will like me. I can’t face them.” Cognitive-behavioral therapy acts to help the person understand that this is what’s going on. It helps him or her to step outside their automatic thoughts and test them out. CBT would encourage the depressed woman mentioned earlier to examine real-life experiences to see what happens to her, or to others, in similar situations. Then, in the light of a more realistic perspective, she may be able to take the chance of testing out what other people think, by revealing something of her difficulties to friends. Clearly, negative things can and do happen. But when we are in a disturbed state of mind, we may be basing our predictions and interpretations on a biased view of the situation, making the difficulty that we face seem much worse. CBT helps people to correct these misinterpretations.

What Does CBT Treatment Look Like? Cognitive-behavioral therapy differs from many other types of psychotherapies because sessions have a structure, rather than the person talking freely about whatever comes to mind. At the beginning of the therapy, the client meets the therapist to describe specific problems and to set goals they want to work towards. The problems may be troublesome symptoms, such as sleeping badly, not being able to socialize with friends, or difficulty concentrating on reading or work. Or they could be life problems, such as being unhappy at work, having trouble dealing with an adolescent child, or being in an unhappy marriage. These problems and goals then become the basis for planning the content of sessions and discussing how to deal with them. Typically, at the beginning of a session, the client and therapist will jointly decide on the main topics they want to work on this week. They will also allow time for discussing the conclusions from the previous session. And they will look at the progress made with the homework the client set for him- or herself last time. At the end of the session, they will plan another assignment to do outside the sessions.

32 How else does it differ from other therapies? Cognitive behavioral therapy also differs from other therapies in the nature of the relationship that the therapist will try to establish. Some therapies encourage the client to be dependent on the therapist, as part of the treatment process. The client can then easily come to see the therapist as all-knowing and all-powerful. The relationship is different with CBT. CBT favors a more equal relationship that is, perhaps, more business-like, being problemfocused and practical. The therapist will frequently ask the client for feedback and for their views about what is going on in therapy. Beck coined the term ‘collaborative empiricism’, which emphasizes the importance of client and therapist working together to test out how the ideas behind CBT might apply to the client’s individual situation and problems. Interpersonal therapy Interpersonal therapy focuses on the interpersonal relationships of the depressed person. The idea of interpersonal therapy is that depression can be treated by improving the communication patterns and how people relate to others. Techniques of interpersonal therapy include: • Identification of Emotion — Helping the person identify what their emotion is and where it is coming from. • Example — Roger is upset and fighting with his wife. Careful analysis in therapy reveals that he has begun to feel neglected and unimportant since his

wife started working outside the home. Knowing that the relevant emotion is hurt and not anger, Roger can begin to address the problem. • Expression of Emotion — This involves helping the person express their emotions in a healthy way. • Example — When Roger feels neglected by his wife he responds with anger and sarcasm. This in turn leads his wife to react negatively. By expressing his hurt and his anxiety at no longer being important in her life in a calm manner, Roger can now make it easier for his wife to react with nurturance and reassurance. • Dealing With Emotional Baggage — Often, people bring unresolved issues from past relationships to their present relationships. By looking at how these past relationships affect their present mood and behavior, they are in a better position to be objective in their present relationships. • Example — Growing up, Roger’s mother was not a nurturing woman. She was very involved in community affairs and often put Roger’s needs on the back burner. When choosing a wife, Roger subconsciously chose a woman who was very attentive and nurturing. While he agreed that the family needed the increased income, he did not anticipate how his relationship with his own mother would affect his reaction to his wife working outside the home.

33 Psychodynamic Therapy Psychodynamic therapy, also known as insightoriented therapy, focuses on unconscious processes as they are manifested in a person’s present behavior. The goals of psychodynamic therapy are a client’s self-awareness and understanding of the influence of the past on present behavior. In its brief form, a psychodynamic approach enables the client to examine unresolved conflicts and symptoms that arise from past dysfunctional relationships and manifest themselves in the need and desire to abuse substances. Several different approaches to brief psychodynamic psychotherapy have evolved from psychoanalytic theory and have been clinically applied to a wide range of psychological disorders. There is a body of research that generally supports the efficacy of these approaches. Psychodynamic therapy is the oldest of the modern therapies. (Freud’s psychoanalysis is a specific form and subset of psychodynamic therapy.) As such, it is based in a highly developed and multifaceted theory of human development and interaction. This chapter demonstrates how rich it is for adaptation and further evolution by contemporary therapists for specific purposes. The material presented in this chapter provides a quick glance at the usefulness and the complex nature of this type of therapy.

History of Psychodynamic Therapy The theory supporting psychodynamic therapy originated in and is informed by psychoanalytic theory. There are four major schools of psychoanalytic theory, each of which has influenced psychodynamic therapy. The four schools are: Freudian, Ego Psychology, Object Relations, and Self Psychology. Freudian psychology is based on the theories first formulated by Sigmund Freud in the early part of this century and is sometimes referred to as the drive or structural model. The essence of Freud’s theory is that sexual and aggressive energies originating in the id (or unconscious) are modulated by the ego, which is a set of functions that moderates between the id and external reality. Defense mechanisms are constructions of the ego that operate to minimize pain and to maintain psychic equilibrium. The superego, formed during latency (between age 5 and puberty), operates to control id drives through guilt. Ego Psychology derives from Freudian psychology. Its proponents focus their work on enhancing and maintaining ego function in accordance with the demands of reality. Ego Psychology stresses the individual’s capacity for defense, adaptation, and reality testing. Object Relations psychology was first articulated by several British analysts, among them Melanie Klein, W.R.D. Fairbairn, D.W. Winnicott, and Harry Guntrip. According to this theory, human beings are always shaped in relation to the significant others surrounding them.

34 Our struggles and goals in life focus on maintaining relations with others, while at the same time differentiating ourselves from others. The internal representations of self and others acquired in childhood are later played out in adult relations. Individuals repeat old object relationships in an effort to master them and become freed from them. Self Psychology was founded by Heinz Kohut, M.D., in Chicago during the 1950s. Kohut observed that the self refers to a person’s perception of his experience of his self, including the presence or lack of a sense of self-esteem. The self is perceived in relation to the establishment of boundaries and the differentiations of self from others (or the lack of boundaries and differentiations). Each of the four schools of psychoanalytic theory presents discrete theories of personality formation, psychopathology formation, and change; techniques by which to conduct therapy; and indications and contraindications for therapy. Psychodynamic therapy is distinguished from psychoanalysis in several particulars, including the fact that psychodynamic therapy need not include all analytic techniques and is not conducted by psychoanalytically trained analysts. Psychodynamic therapy is also conducted over a shorter period of time and with less frequency than psychoanalysis. Introduction to Brief Psychodynamic Therapy — The healing and change process envisioned in longterm psychodynamic therapy typically requires at least 2 years of sessions. This is because the goal of therapy is often to change an aspect of one’s identity or personality or to integrate key developmental learning missed while the client was

stuck at an earlier stage of emotional development. Practitioners of brief psychodynamic therapy believe that some changes can happen through a more rapid process or that an initial short intervention will start an ongoing process of change that does not need the constant involvement of the therapist. A central concept in brief therapy is that there should be one major focus for the therapy rather than the more traditional psychoanalytic practice of allowing the client to associate freely and discuss unconnected issues. In brief therapy, the central focus is developed during the initial evaluation process, occurring during the first session or two. This focus must be agreed on by the client and therapist. The central focus singles out the most important issues and thus creates a structure and identifies a goal for the treatment. In brief therapy, the therapist is expected to be fairly active in keeping the session focused on the main issue. Having a clear focus makes it possible to do interpretive work in a relatively short time because the therapist only addresses the circumscribed problem area. In total, there are more than 75 psychotherapy techniques. CBT, IPT and PDT are most applied therapy techniques.

3.2 Literature Study Literature Review 1) Title: Mental health problems among students Focus: Encouraging students to overcome barriers to seeking professional help. Findings: The interviews conducted in he study showed The results showed that the most commonly found barrier was the feeling of weakness associated with seeking professional help. The feeling that it was weak to consult a healthcare professional seemed to be enhanced by doubts about the severity of the complaints and the belief that the complaints would subside in time. Other commonly mentioned barriers to seeking help were public stigma, self-stigma, earlier negative experiences with healthcare professionals and lacking parental support. Lastly, a minority of students reported that the following five factors were experienced as barriers to seeking help: (1) blaming oneself for complaints, (2) unawareness of complaints, (3) difficulties in talking about mental health problems, (4) practical constraints concerning the place and time of therapy and (5) the costs of professional healthcare.

Insights: The encouragement of seeking professional help the students identified the following five factors: (1) The acknowledgement of mental health problems- As self-perceived weakness, negative experiences with healthcare professionals and stigma were the most common barriers to seeking help. Most of the students emphasised the importance of the acknowledgement of mental health problems and therefore suggested to educate young children in reflecting on their mental wellbeing and to educate university students more extensively about mental health and mental health services. (2) parental support - A common defined barrier is the lack of support from the parents for seeking professional help. Most of the respondents that discussed their mental health problems with their parents explained that their parents were either barriers or facilitators for seeking help. (3) environmental support - Some students explained to feel encouraged for seeking help, as they were confronted with their complaints and the need for help by student counsellors, peers or colleagues. Nevertheless, a few students indicated that they could have been encouraged to seek help if friends or peers had advised them to do so.

36 (4) positive impressions and expectations of healthcare professionals - Students reported varying reasons for these positive feelings about healthcare professionals. For instance, most respondents indicated they felt comfortable with the fact that the healthcare professional is objective. (5) increase in the severity of the problems - A minority of all students described an increase of complaints that had contributed towards their intentions to seek professional help. Some students reported that a series of life changing events accompanied the increase in the complaints they suffered from. 2) Title: The Students’ Mental Health Status Focus: Developing new ideas of mental health education and explore new ways to solve problems. Findings: Mental health means having goals in life, having a solid philosophy for living, family and social relationships, optimal and sustainable benefit for fellows, courage, decisiveness, having control over emotions, goal the final realization of accomplishment and self-acceptance problems and try to solve possible errors Insights: Mental health refers to the efficient, satisfactory and sustainable state of mind. In this state, people can make a good response, have vitality and fully demonstrate inner potentials. In a narrow sense, mental health is a basic human psychological process of content integrity and

coherence. That is to say, the cognition, feelings, will, personality and behaviour can integrate and coordinate one another to agree with the society. Research papers helped in gaining a big picture perspective over the mental health domain and gaining insights and ideas on the exploration of how the problems be solved in new creative ways.

04 UX Research

4.1 Market Research Multiple apps have emerged in the market lately in the mental health domain. Plotting according to the functionality and focus areas of digital products — Mindfulness, Meditation, Breathing — Headspace, Calm, Simple Habit, 10% Happier, Inner Hour, Aura

Food intake + mental health — Rise Up + Recover, Cure.fit Workforce + Mental health — Lyra health, Hero well-being VR: Environments to treat conditions — Psious, Limbix

Getting help and helping others on their journey — Wisdo, notOK

Voice Journaling — Kitsungi

Connecting with Psychologists & therapists — BetterHelp, TalkSpace, YourDOST

Wearables — Olive

Chatbot who talks about mental health and helps — Wysa, Replika

Yoga — Isha, Daily Yoga, Simple Soulful

Visuals, meditation product — Mesmerise Learning and Practicing CBT Techniques — CBT Companion, WhatsUP, Talkspace

Apps Evaluation Review of Direct Competitors to Sunshine Project — Wysa — Wysa is an AI life coach that helps you move forward and build emotional resilience. “Onboarding is simple and sweet. No unnecessary content on the onboarding screens. The app doesn’t store any information about profile names as such, just a nickname is good enough to get started. So privacy and secrecy to privacy of information is guaranteed. Home screen is also clear enough. There are multiple tiles that the user can tap into. SOS button is a genius idea. A lot of users need urgent help which makes SOS useful and reliable. The AI chatbot is brilliant when it comes to empathy and UX writing. Some minor drawbacks are present but still, I would rate the chatbot experience 8/10. One of the drawbacks I observed is that personally, I felt that the chatbot has too much to communicate. The writing/ text content can be reduced to inherit simplicity.”

Headspace — Headspace encourages users to live a healthier, happier, more well-rested life in just a few minutes a day. It primarily focuses on meditation and mindfulness. Review: “Onboarding is nice and clean. I liked the overall colours and style used in illustrations. So in the app, there is Day-time mode and sleeptime mode. The colours change according to the mode selected. The day-mode consists of meditation exercises whereas, the sleep-time mode consists of exercises/ audios that help you sleep better. Small details are kept into mind when designing which is good. A lot of content is paid so very less content from free users.” Happify — Happify is the single destination for effective, evidence-based solutions for better mental health and wellbeing in the 21st century. Review: “Onboarding is good enough. There is a feature of Accessibility Options in the app which makes the app more accessible.

After that, there’s a form to fill up but where 1 question appears only on one screen so good Information Architecture of onboarding I must say. They have highlighted 6 aspects to stay/ be happy. If you regularly keep doing activities in these aspects, it helps in terms of your overall happiness. The actual app’s information architecture is not that clear, unlike the onboarding. Because the focus of the app isn’t clear. But still, it’s a good enough app.” CBT Companion — A companion app to learn and practice Cognitive Behavior Therapy (CBT) Techniques. Review: “Onboarding doesn’t have a ‘sign up with facebook/ google’ which makes the user enter all the details for signing up. This app is mostly about learning the CBT for the psychologists who are learning the field. But it also encourages users to exercise the lessons offered. Its more like learning while doing. It has got a journal, in which users can record their thoughts and moods as well. Overall good one for CBT learners.”

Talkspace — Connect with a licensed therapist from the palm of your hand, and experience the most convenient, affordable way to improve your mental health. Review: “Onboarding doesn’t have a ‘sign up with facebook/ google’ which makes the user enter all the details for signing up. Talkspace is all about matching users with therapists. It’s that simple, there’s nothing else other than matching. One of the good features include “fullscreen writing” - where users can describe their problem in the chat in a full-screen mode so that it covers all text and the points that the user wants to convey is visible on the whole screen. It’s a paid service.”

4.2 Questionnaire Three kinds of Questionnaires were developed for a different set of audience Patients who have gone through depression, stress or anxiety issues in their life — Questionnaire Surveys were practiced in-person for the ones who have gone through depression, anxiety or stress. In-person for empathising with the situations and gaining more insights. The sample space of this particular was 5 persons since a lot of people are not ready to share such sensitive topic. The participants were assured that the responses will be kept confidential and there would be no judgements so they can answer the questions genuinely. Goal/Focus— Empathising with the patients with depression, anxiety or stress. Questions — • Name • Age group • Gender • Profession • Personality type • Have you gone through any tough times when your mental health wasn’t on point but you managed to get through it?

• Which of the following mental health issues have you experienced in your life? (Depression, Stress, Anxiety, Other) • How would you rate your mental health as of now? (1-10) • How did you go about/ cope up with depression and anxiety? • What time of the day did you feel most depressed/ anxious? (Morning, Afternoon, Evening, Night, All of the above) • What situation did you feel most depressed/ anxious? • Have you used any mental healthcare apps/ products anytime in your life? Which ones? • What did you like & dislike about the products? • Have you ever considered to get professional help? Why or why not? • What are you more comfortable with? The idea of talking to strangers or friends or therapists? (Strangers, Friends, Therapists, Family) • If you need mental health assistance, how would you prefer to receive it? (App/ website, Going to therapist, Including family for assitance, Other) • What do you generally do when non-recurring • negative thoughts are taking over your mind? • What do you regularly do in order to maintain your mental health?

• What would you like to see from mental health apps / products/ solutions to make the treatment of the patients better? What is most important to you in regards to mental health? How much social and outgoing person are you? Do you follow a routine in life? (yes, No, Maybe, Other) Would you rather go for solo-trekking, read books or hangout with friends, party at a pub? (Solo-trekking, read books; Hangout with friends, party at a pub) How many good friends do you have who you can count on and who will save you in crisis? Have you found your purpose/ passion yet? (Yes, I’ve found; No, still exploring) Are you addicted to anything? Elaborate. Are you more of a challenge-loving person or a stability-wanting person? (Challenge-loving, Stability-wanting) Do you exercise? How often? Do you meditate? How often and how long? How does it help? And lastly, How is your sleep schedule and cycle? (Best, I follow a strict routine; Good, I generally maintain my sleep cycle;Bad, I don’t really maintain my sleep cycle; Worst, I never follow a strict routine)

Doctors/Psychologists & Researchers — We collaborated with Psychologists and Researchers for ideas and deep insights regarding the topic since they are professionals in this field. A lot of inputs were taken for the advancement of the project from psychologists and researchers. Goal/Focus— Understanding and gaining insights on Psychology and mental health. Questions — • Name • Age • Profession • When do patients generally come to you? • What are the different therapy sessions that you conduct? • How helpful is the therapy for the patients? • Please describe your experiences where the transformation took place through therapy. (What kind of therapy was administered, and how they transformed?) [Any 3 experiences]• • What do you advise patients to do when they’re having mental health issues? • Only 13 out of 100 people seek psychological help, what do you think stops them from seeking help? • What are the difficulties in convincing people that they could have a mental health issue? • What, in your experience, are the most effective ways of raising mental health awareness? Any references to campaigns, videos or websites?

43 • What is your view of the use of technology in therapies? What are the pros and cons of using technology? • Do you use any apps to assist you in therapies? Which ones? • If you were to have such an app, what features would you want? • What are the effective forms of therapies? Any new advancements or new therapies such as ACT which are increasingly used? Designers/ Collaborators — Some Designers in the Design communities were interested in contributing and collaborating on this project and so a questionnaire was distributed to them as well. A lot of insights were obtained from fresh and different perspectives which helped the project’s quality of delivery. Goal/Focus— Gaining insights on the progress of app and it’s features. • Name • What implementations should be avoided in the design solution? And what should be implemented in the design solution? • What should be the recovery process be like according to you? • According to you, what do you think is the best solution for depression, stress and anxiety? • According to you, what is missing in the current mental health apps? • Do you know any new and effective methods to deal with depression, stress and anxiety?

• What do you regularly do in order to maintain your mental health and well-being? • Since you’re a Designer, what process do you generally follow for coming up with new ideas, and solutions? (Ideation Process) *We thank every contributor to answer the questionnaires and deciding to collaborate on this Project.

4.3 Personas

“I am in a deep trouble as I am not able to find a job and my parents pressurise me a lot.” AGE: 23 JOB TITLE: HR Executive STATUS: Single

LAZY

PROCRASTINATOR SOCIAL MEDIA JUNKIE FREQUENTLY USED APPS Facebook, WhatsApp, LinkedIn

BRIEF ABOUT JANE: I am an HR Executive by training and I am actively looking for job opportunities. I am depressed for the same reason. My father pressurises me and we get into arguments which gets my mood and mental health even more worse. He is not at all encouraging. His drinking habits makes him even more harsh at me. I am at that point of life where I don’t know what should be done. I feel like just napping and sleeping all day because of such demotivation. But I am trying everyday to show up and go for interviews anyway. I am hoping that I get a job and make my father proud and happy. GOALS: Job seeking, Making his parents proud, Curing his depression

LOCATION: Hyderabad, India

SMART HAPPY-GO-LUCKY

Jane Doe

FRUSTRATIONS: Not able to get a job, Having no motivation, Feeling sleepy all day PERSONALITY TYPE Ambivert

Jake Smith “I am an Irresponsible Insomniac and I want to change myself for better.” AGE: 24 JOB TITLE: Graphic Designer STATUS: Single LOCATION: Pune, India

CARELESS

BINGE-WATCHER

NO FIXED ROUTINE FOLLOWER FREQUENTLY USED APPS YourDOST, Snapchat, Netflix

BRIEF ABOUT JAKE: I am in college and I have developed bad habits from influence of others around me. I’d consider myself careless about my health as in I don’t exercise much. I am addicted to Netflix and it is really bad cause because of that I am not able to get my sleep properly. The other day I also went for a therapy in college for getting some advices from the therapists about what should be done for insomnia but it didn’t really work for me. I know what is right and what is to be done now, but I am not able to do it because of my momentum of bad habits. GOALS: Break the momentum of bad habits, Exercising everyday, Taking responsibility. FRUSTRATIONS: Lacking self-control, Addicted to dopamine-releasing activities. PERSONALITY TYPE Introvert

Mark Musk “I am in a deep trouble as I am not able to find a job and my parents pressurise me a lot.” AGE: 25

BRIEF ABOUT MARK: I am in a design college where we have to present everything that we have done in the semester to the college jury panel as an examination. I tend to get very stressed before I speak to any public event like the jury in my college. I am afraid how am I being judged and so the anxiety.

JOB TITLE: Transportation/ Industrial Designer STATUS: Single LOCATION: Mumbai, India

ANXIOUS

PRE-EXAM STRESS TAKER

DISTRACTED FREQUENTLY USED APPS Calm & Mindfulness, Netflix, WhatsApp

GOALS: Removing the fear of public judgement and criticism, Exercising everyday, Taking control of anxiety/ fear. FRUSTRATIONS: Lacking confidence, Thoughts of failure before the event PERSONALITY TYPE Ambivert

Stephen Warner “I like helping and I believe in a fact that ‘If you, yourself are not happy, you’re not really helping.’” AGE: 27 JOB TITLE: Doctor

BRIEF ABOUT STEPHEN: I am in NIMHANS working as a professional mental health practitioner. I am a psychologists and I have treated around 200+ patients till now. I am really happy that I can help others for a better mental health. As a mental health worker, it is important to be happy myself first in order to help others. I believe in a fact that ‘If you, yourself are not happy, you’re not really helping.’

STATUS: Single LOCATION: Chennai, India

HELPER

MOTIVATOR

FREQUENTLY USED APPS WhatsApp, Facebook

GOALS: Serving humans with mental health issues. FRUSTRATIONS: When people don’t take their mental health seriously. PERSONALITY TYPE Extrovert

4.4 Roleplaying Summary NIMHANS is a National Institute of Mental Health and Neurosciences Institute in Bangalore. For getting a general context over the topic of Mental Health, I booked an appointment at NIMHANS for general consultation and to meet the Psychologist working over there. Booking was done over the phone and I was asked to be on time. I went there as a patient and once I entered NIMHANS, I was asked to fill a form which consisted of mental health check-up that measured a happiness quotient out of the answers I gave to the questions.

Once the form was filled, I was asked to wait for sometime. I went and met the Psychologist. I was asked some general questions about the challenges I was facing. And then, finally, I revealed why I signed up for the mental health checkup. I was given some contacts to interact to and some insights from the psychologist which proved really helpful. It was fun and insightful experience as a Designer.

4.5 Experience Mapping Patient thought process: “I may need help”

→

Patient thought process: “Something is off.”

[because of the barriers in searching for answers and diagnose, people opt out of professional care]

REALISATION Breakdown: • Not realising soon

→

Patient noticing change in behaviour. Change of behaviour identified by friends and family too. They immediately seek to find a solution for the problem and the patients may begin to even isolate themselves.

SEEKING ANSWERS Breakdown: • Limited Resources • Stigma • Vulnerability

The quality of life gets decreased. The patient fears that they will get labelled. Patient wants to find a solution but may not have a support system to do so.

SELF MANAGEMENT Breakdown: • Suicidal thoughts • Negative coping mechanisms

Patient thought process: “Why won’t they listen to me? It’s not really a physical problem.”

DIAGNOSE

→

Breakdown: • Lack of accessibility

The search for a solution leads to a visit to doctor. They utilise various expensive medical diagnostic tools such as blood panel, EKG etc. Patient becomes anxious as no one is addressing the issue directly and feels neglectled.

Patient thought process: “Not sure if this therapist is right for me but atleast I’m getting help.”

IF THERAPY IS SUCCESSFUL

THERAPY

→

Patient thought process: “I want to help others who are going through what I have”

Patient thought process: “What a long journey it was!”

Breakdown: • Vague therapy options • Prolonged waiting times • Expensive treatment

Once the patient meets a therapists, the care is not what they desired.

RECOVERY

→

Breakdown: • Continuous regular care becoming expensive

GIVING BACK

→

Once the therapy starts resolving issues, patient feels relief. Therapy leads to self awareness. This gives them the activities to control emotions on their own such as meditation, exercising and other positive coping mechanisms. `

Breakdown: • Not getting enough time to serve back because of other responsibilities

Knowing how difficult the process is some want to give back to society.

4.6 Insights Some Insights from the research methods application — • Mindfulness of breath does treat depression but, a lot of people aren’t that motivated to sit still at one place and be aware of breathing. • Other support is vital in the treatment of recurring bad feeling thoughts. Be it, family, friends or psychologists. Preferable are psychologists as they know about Psychology.

• Yoga is one of the most effective method to help a patient go beyond mental health problems/ challenges. • The patients are already frustrated with their life circumstances in life and so they don’t want any more frustration from small things like the usage of app that helps treat depression. So it is better for the interface be clean and clear enough to understand with ease.

• Beliefs work help patients because most of the times when they’re feeling bad, their thinking and beliefs are not aligned with the truth of what is.

• Empathy solves most of the problems in terms of people having mental health issues and so, it is more effective if the app is designed to be empathetic to the users with mental health issues.

• Food intake affects mental health and so it is advisory to patients for a positive, healthy food intake.

• Psychologists themselves have to be mentally healthy before their practice of mental health treatment.

• Journalling helps in terms of being aware of thought patterns and so, it is advised to journal for people with mental health issues by the mental healthcare professionals.

• Recovered patients wish to serve back to the collective/ society by helping others come out of depression, stress and anxiety.

05 Ideation & Planning Stage I

5.1 Project Brief Redefinition To encourage users to explore their excitements and take actions on them with no insistence on the outcome. Making users discover their new passions through challenges.

5.2 How Might We? • How might we alleviate depression, anxiety, stress through the use of technology?

• How might we help the people in crisis/ emergency?

• How might we change the User’s state of being from ‘non-recurring long term bad feelings’ to ‘being excited’?

• How might we encourage the people to take the leap for the journey to recover from depression, anxiety, stress?

• How might we make the users feel relief, happiness, peace, content and also feel confident.

• How might we scale the solution for 1 psychologist to 500-1000 patients?

• How might we fill the current gaps in the existing tools for mental wellbeing?

• How might we help humans develop good and ‘delayed gratification’ habits for a more meaningful life?

• How might we improve the quality of life of people? • How might we make the users help themselves treat their depression, anxiety, stress using the application? • How might we encourage ‘patients’ to overcome the barriers to seek professional help? • How might we assess the severity of their mental health issues? • How might we create an empathetic and personalised experience for the depressed, anxious, stressed out humans?

• How might we help humans get aligned with their life? • How might we create an experience that resonates with the users with depression, anxiety, stress? • How might we expand the users’ perspective on life and circumstances with relevance to where they’re at? • How might we show the users that we care and listen to their perspective regardless negative or positive?

• How might we transform the user’s negative limiting beliefs to positive, aligned beliefs? • How might we help the mentally stable and healthy maintain their mental well-being? • How might we inherit the current therapy techniques in the app? • How might we gamify the entire experience and make it rewarding? • How might we help users self-diagnose their mental health issues? • How might we make the people take practical approach to treat their depression, anxiety or stress? • How might we create an experience where humans find their preferred passions, goals, motivations, values, decisions, habits, vision, environment? • How might we make humans know the fact that there is benefit to depression? • How might we make users know & believe that there is more than enough happiness for everyone? • How might we encourage the users to have growth-mindset instead of a fixed-mindset?

• How might we empower users to support friends in their vulnerability and enable them to be vulnerable themselves? The How Might We’s helped in clarifying the vision of the project and set a direction to the desired one. It also pin pointed the ideation points to do the design thinking more on.

5.3 Ideating & Brainstorming Solutions Idea 1 An application with ‘how you’re feeling, User’ slider button. According to the mood, the User will get challenges. Challenges will be suggested and it will be based on what all the user enjoys doing. From exercising to going for an outing, every possible and things will be offered to the user that will make the mental health better. Idea 2 Similar to idea 1 with some changes, the user will be asked ‘What all problems are you facing in your life as of now?’ and then he will be offered action plan for tackling that particular problem with a specific duration like 3 days, 21 days, 60 days and so on. Idea 3 Using a flight analogy, if the user is depressed and he wants to be happy, a flight analogy like - DEP to HPY flight he will be taking. And the journey from DEP to HPY will depend on the recovery program he is recommended.

Idea 4 Making the app a tribe forming idea where the users can support each other in their journey of recovery. Limitation - loopholes/ challenges like internet hatred might arise from this particular solution. Idea 5 Patients/ users will get assistance from guides/ heroes through the medium of an app on their recovery process. Heroes/ guides will be in direct contact with patients and psychologists. They will arrange appointments. Multiple ideas like these were discussed in the brainstorming sessions till we get to a final prioritisation of design solution(s).

5.4 Possible Solutions Ideating solutions (activities/ exercises) to positive mental health — — Working out, running — Listen to music — Real open conversations — Go for an adventurous outing — Help someone (Look for someone in need of help in your environment and help them.) — Appreciate someone with genuine compliments) — Play around with pets — Yoga exercising — Read a book — Go for a power walk — Replacing bad habits to good ones (Replace Netflix with Exercising) — Take a relaxing nap — Workout — Gift something to somebody — Practice mindfulness & breathing/ Meditate — Dance — Take a shower — Clean up the room — Get a massage & relax — Connect to a long lost friend (someone with whom the relationship has ended on a wrong terms) — Call a friend /Meet a friend — Connect to a stranger — Journaling

— Go for photography — Play a game/sport — Spend some alone time — Be mindful/ meditation — Make art — 10 Ideas a day (creative ability) — Clean up your car — Read a random quote — Watch a TED talk — Book a Sunshine workshop — Dopamine fast — Learn a new skill — Social media detox — Self reflection — Know about yourself more … — Find a mentor/ life coach — Figure out your goals/ motivations — Visualising Success — Listening/ reading positive thoughts — Investigating thoughts and feelings/ emotions. asking ‘why am I thinking this way’ and ‘how does it make me feel bad’. — Knowing what you value and following that. — Realising Self-worth/ Self-esteem

5.5 Insights Some Insights from the ideation methods application — • People want more discoveries of who they are as an individual by finding their new passions yet they don’t know how it’s to be done. • People with issues of mental health want to feel cared for and being attended to how they feel. • The ones who are even healthy (mentally) also are sometimes clueless about ‘what to do’ and so they want some challenge to complete for their own good. • People wish to open their hearts out and they don’t because of fear of being judged mostly. • People should be able to realise that they’re going through challenging times and it will get healed and better times are coming. They should be able to know/understand that they have depression/ stress/ anxiety and they will have to seek for help/ support somewhere. Reaching out to counselling is itself a challenge.

• Since time is less and work is more for the psychologists demand for psychologists is very high as there are many people who go through mental health challenges in India but the supply is less. • Not being aligned or clear about ones goals, motivations, values, decisions, habits, vision, environment, etc. makes a person feel bad most of the times.

06 Design Decisions

6 Design Decisions Concept Prioritisation out of multiple design solutions from Ideation Stage I — Sunshine app platform as a whole will be tied to three different stakeholder — Patient, Hero/ Guide and Psychologist. The patient will be given a choice of two recovery programs with a 60 days and 120 days period and for the free users, the app will be open to access with some limitations of paid resources. The app will be asking users their lifestyle choices/ tastes/ passions etc. upon onboarding. The app will be designed with gamification in mind and it will be reward-based. The app will be consisting of 4 different bottom navigation bar buttons — Dashboard, Challenges, Care and Profile. Dashboard — The Dashboard will consist of all the progress that the user is making in short. It will also show the appointment schedules with psychologist. Mood graph, ‘journey completion till today’, ‘new habits the user inculcated’, ‘everyday challenges completed’ — all will consist in the dashboard.

Challenges — In challenges, user will be offered ‘suggested exercises and activities’. ‘Exercises’ in challenges will be about specific exercises related to most-used psychological therapeutic techniques like CBT, ACT etc. To give an example, exercise for thinking only positive thoughts for 3 hours. The exercise will be limited to 1 per week and can be skippable but it will be highly recommended to get them done because of the benefits it has over the user’s mental health condition. ‘Activities’ in challenges will be about solutions that keep mental health in a good condition and also boosts up the moods of patients. For example, exercising, cooking food, cleaning the room etc. Free users will be able to access this part of the app, but not the exercises. Activities will not have any limits. A feature to suggest new activities will be made available in the app for a more inclusive and abundant set of activities to choose from.

Care — The care tab will be about user and hero communication. The communication of chat (typing) feature will be limited to 300 words everyday. And if the user wants more words to communicate, they will have to redeem it with reward points. While texting, the app will predict the replies and suggest options for the reply and if not the user will be able to write his own message in the message box. Most of the hero-user communication will happen over voice and not written texts because of speed and ease of flow over the voice communication. The appointments review feature will be under the Care tab where the user will be able to check all the previous appointments happenings and reviews with psychologist. Care will also be having an emergency button in case the patient is in emergency, he can use it. Profile — The profile tab will be about general settings of the user. It will also consist of items like editing interests that were filled while onboarding, the reward points, terms and conditions, etc. It will also consist of a feature to share progress with family and friends for a more holistic recovery process of patient. The heroes will ask atleast once for the user’s mood and how they’re feeling. And suggest them advice. Also they will connect busy psychologists by scheduling quick online appointment when the user is not in a good condition.

In this way, the hero will make sure the user’s mental health is in a good and proper condition. Also, the psychologist will advice hero in their work and also moderate and keep track of their work. Psychologists, since they have less time and more work, they will delegate some of their work like following up with the patient’s activities - if he/she has done it or not - to the heroes.

07 Ideation & Planning Stage II

7.1 Use Cases Aryan’s Use Case — Aryan is a new user of Sunshine app.

Gauri’s Use Case — Gauri is an existing user of Sunshine app.

- Aryan is heading towards home by metro and comes across a poster of Sunshine app - He downloads the app from app store as he scans the QR code on the poster. - He’s been depressed since few months and needed some help without disclosing it to his friends and family. - He opens the app, completes on-boarding and gets connected with a ‘Hero’. - The hero asks him questions like ‘how are you feeling?’ ‘why are you feeling depressed?’ and all - Aryan answers one by one. And he gets a task to get done by Saturday. Also he gets an appointment with psychologist on Saturday. - After the appointment with psychologist, Aryan gets really enthusiastic about the journey to recovery from depression as he finds hope. - The psychologist expects to complete 9 tasks in the week until the next appointment. - Hero asks if Aryan has done the task for the day and also asks questions like ‘how are you feeling?’ everyday.

- Gauri, from Ranchi, Jharkhand is going through anxiety and depression and she is using Sunshine app to treat it. - She’s struggling because of one main reason which is that she doesn’t know what she wants to do in her life. She is exploring career options but nothing seems worth-pursuing to her. She wants to do something different. - She has opt for Sunshine - anxiety and depression treatment sessions. - She has completed 3 sessions out of 8 sessions till now. - She almost had lost her hope but then, she downloaded the Sunshine app. - Now she is recovering. Everyday, she goes out for a run, finds something new to do and does something new. - She logs on to Sunshine app & enters whatever she did on that day including her own mood. - Coach helps her get motivated to do certain tasks when she doesn’t feel like doing it. - In 2-3 more sessions, she won’t need that motivation as she had gained momentum of doing the activities.

67 Neeraj’s Use Case — Neeraj is a coach on Sunshine app.

Nitin’s Use Case — Nitin is a psychologist working with Sunshine

- Neeraj wanted to do something more meaningful in his life and so he went through the intensive program of Sunshine and cleared the test with flying colours. - He got a certification of a coach at Sunshine. He has gone through depression in his past which is why he wants to help people in need. - He wishes that Sunshine app existed when he was going through some real tough times. He - wanted support but couldn’t manage to get it. - Neeraj has been assigned with 3 patients who are battling with depression and stress in his town. - He keeps everyone (patients) accountable by asking ‘what they did that day?’, ‘how are they feeling?’ and other questions. - He also checks everyone’s’ moods and progress everyday. He’s got connected to Dr. Nitin Deshmukh who has 25 coaches under him. - Neeraj updates Dr. Nitin about the patients he’s been assigned to regularly and he also asks for advice when he’s unsure of what has to be done.

Nitin is a professional psychologist practicing psychology for over 10 years. He wanted to reach more patients and so he decided to collaborate with Sunshine app. He has got 25 Sunshine coaches under him and over 100 patients. Everyday he conducts CBT sessions with patients on a mutually scheduled appointment and checks progress of his patients. The coaches share remarks on each and every patient to Nitin so he knows how his patients are doing and what is to be done in terms of therapy sessions for recovery. Use cases helped in the clarity of types of situations and circumstances that they might go through while using the app. The user’s tasks, goals and needs were understood through this method.

68 7.2 User Journey Mapping MATT

Awareness

Consideration

Gaining momentum

Active Improvement

Freedom

GOOD FEELINGS

FEELING

BAD FEELINGS

PROGRESS →

THINKING

“Oh I’m depressed and I need help.”

“I’ll download the Sunshine app. Lets see how it is helpful to me.”

“I’m loving this. It’s such a great app to heal yourself.”

“Oh yes, I love my life. I never thought I would be this happy in my life ever.”

“I’m have completed the sessions and challenges. Finally. I’m recovered atleast 90%, if not 100% and I’m so proud of myself.”

DOING

Seeks help

Comes across Sunshine . app and downloads it.

Actively goes for sessions and does challenges.

Continues to go for sessions and doing challenges.

Gets recovered 95% and decides to give back to Sunshine community. Goes through an induction program for being a Hero

SITUATION — Matt is frustrated with his life and he wants some kind of support to help improve his mental health. He wants a way to get out of his everyday mundane life and make it more interesting.

69 7.3 Empathy Mapping

What does the person Think and Feel? Persistent bad feelings like fear, sadness, grief etc. Thoughts“I think I won’t ever be fine again.” “I am a failure. I’m not so good. Who am I to want good feelings and good life?”

What does the person Hear? “It’s not a depression. There’s no such thing as depression. It’s just that you’re not following your everyday routine.” “Don’t think too much that you have depression. The more you think it increases.” “Professional help is all a business. You are well-educated, don’t fall for all this.” “You are not alone.”

JEFF

What does the person See? Circumstances are not proper for the individuals going through depression so they only tend to see what’s negative and they don’t even know they are ignoring the positive side of circumstances which might be joyful.

What does the person Say and Do? “I want some rest. Please let me rest.” “I want a professional help. I want to sign up for a therapy program.”

Pain Seeking answers and not getting them. No support/ serious help from the environment.

Gain Gains are only perceived gains here. Like, Sympathy from others being a victim. Wanting to get out of the depression quick is the want.

70 7.4 Contextual Inquiry - Flow Model FAMILY & FRIENDS • wishes well for the user. • Sends analysis and progress done on app to family.

• Tracks progress of the user. • Makes sure user makes everyday progress.

HERO/ VOLUNTEER • Helps treat depression of users. • Assists psychologists and users in their tasks.

• Communicates with volunteer about the issues he/she is facing. • Asks for help

• Asks for the progress done out of support and care.

SUNSHINE USER • wants to get out of depression, anxiety, stress. • undergoes with challenges.

• Moderates activity and interaction between patients and users.

Asks for help in special cases for treating/ advising users.

• Goes for therapy sessions to psychologists

• Advices user • Takes therapy sessions

PSYCHOLOGIST • treats depression, anxiety and stress • gets an overview of activity and progress.

71 7.4 Contextual Inquiry - Sequence Model

→

Trigger: Get better, improve the quality of life.

Completes the challenges.

→

Sends progress to well-wishers.

→

Completes the journey of recovery.

→

Feels recovered energised and fresh.

Gets to know about Sunshine app because of campaigns.

→

Describes the problems and what he/ she is feeling to the Hero.

→

Accepts to take the therapy sessions and challenges.

→

Gets challenges as suggestions.

→

Gets connected to the hero and a psychologist.

→

Goes through onboarding in the app as a patient.

→

Downloads app from QR code.

→

Intent: Treating depression, anxiety and stress with the help of support.

Keeps using the app for challenges for maintaining well being.

72 7.4 Contextual Inquiry - Cultural Model

Heroes

Family & Friends (well-wishers)

“How are you feeling today? What challenges did you complete today?”

“I support you and care for you.”

SUNSHINE USER

Psychologists “I’d advice you to do these challenges till you come next time for the therapy session.”

7.5 Features listings and Prioritisation • Assessment test for depression, anxiety, stress. Plus, how would you like to take the test - call; text; online MCQs. Happiness quotient test; Knowing their concerns; conflicts. • Emergency Call-to-action • End-users: Subscription based - challenges plus, hero and psychologists support and free service based - only challenges • Number of steps taken- steps tracking when taken walking activity challenge (dashboard status) • Mood track/ mood slider on ‘how are you feeling at this time today?‘ • Update of what the users are doing and for proof that they’ve done the activities assigned by the psychologists for the hero. • ‘Where the interests of users lie’ question for relevant challenges. - ‘what all interests you?’ • ‘I’m feeling lucky button’ for the challenges that will get randomized.

• Judgement-free; 100% confidential. Empathetic communication. Self-destructing message; empathy-focused plus solution focused reply. — For knowing about limiting beliefs. For knowing conflicts and concerns. Idea modified: exercise in challenges • Reward system. • Hero - user communication: way to avoid typing too much - voice recorder; short call; text; … ; limit of 300 words everyday. If the user wants more, the reward points will get deducted to send another 300 words. Messages can be self-destructed. • Involving family/friends in the process. — Sending the status and progress of patient’s well-being. • Gifts — Since the app is family connected, feature for wishlist where in the users can wish for 3 things that they want with some price limit for each. The family gets notified for the gift that they want. The features brainstorming sessions helped in streamlining the design concept.

7.6 Information Architecture — Task Flow SIGN UP

WELCOME SCREEN

TEST REDIRECTION HAPPINESS QUOTIENT TEST

SUBSCIPTION PLANS

FORGOT PASSWORD

ONBOARDING SCREENS

IN-APP FUNCTIONS

DASHBOARD

CHALLENGES

CARE

PROFILE

` PICKING INTERESTS & PASSIONS

DASHBOARD

Check mood log Check journey completion Check everyday challenges Schedule next appointments

EXERCISE

Pick exercise to complete

ACTIVITIES

Pick activity to complete

CHALLENGES

Message Hero/ Psychologist CARE

View last session highlight

EMERGENCY

PROFILE SETTINGS PROFILE

- SCREENS Check reward points Share progress with family

- TASKS

7.7 UML Diagrams Use Case Diagram

<<extend>>

Create account Select interests

USER

<<include>>

Complete challenges Browse challenges

<<include>>

DEVELOPMENT TEAM refined browsing using filters

Subscribe to a plan Message users HERO

Message heroes Iterate & deliver updates Manage users in database

PSYCHOLOGIST

ADMIN

77 Sequence Diagram HERO & PSYCHOLOGIST

USER

DEVELOPER

APPLICATION

Recommend challenges Complete challenges Message users Reply back

Give feedback Iterate & deliver updates

Manage users in database

ADMIN

08 Prototyping

8.1 Sketches of Screens

8.2 Design System Theme — Logo of Sunshine Project —

Colours — Whiteish Orange #FDF8F6 Orange #FF9933 Light Magenta #FDDBF7

Font — Segoe UI; 14 pt.

Sunshine Orange #FF9933 Green #128807 Yellow #FFD120

Typography — Poppins Aa Bb Cc Dd Ee Ff Gg Hh Ii Jj Kk Ll Mm Nn Oo Pp Qq Rr Ss Tt Uu Vv Ww Xx Yy Zz 0123456789

Moodboard —

8.3 Final UI Screens

The Uniqueness of this design solution is that it encourages user not to focus on the problems but solutions so that they can heal themselves with relevant support from heroes and psychologists. Sunshine app is a comprehensive solution which contain all other app features, still is different than them. The methods followed helped us in idea generation and insights gathering. The limitation of the project was the availability of user group/ sample size since it is a sensitive topic, people are not ready to share about it. Most of the designs that are conceptualised are not tested in the field but internally validated. Since the freedom of the design of this graduation project was given to me, I was responsible for everything — all the methods, techniques executed and the final interface as well. The deliverables were approved and validated by the mentors.

09 Testing

9.1 Heuristic Evaluation Testing 1

Visibility of system status Yes. All the active states are clearly represented with the neumorphic design language.

Recognition rather than recall Yes. User don’t have to remember much in the app. All the things are already represented.

Match between system and the real world Yes. There is a match between system and the real world as in it’s part of the program to attend the appointments with doctors.

Flexibility and efficiency of use Yes. All the target users can use the application in an efficient manner.

User control and freedom Yes. There is absolute control over the application for the user.

Aesthetic and minimalist design Yes. The theme of the app itself is strategised and ideated as aesthetic and minimal

Consistency and standards Yes. Consistency is maintained throughout the application.

Help users recognize, diagnose, and recover from errors Yes. Errors can be easily resolved, if user comes across any.

Error prevention Yes. There are hardly any error pop outs in the application and so they are prevented

Help and documentation Yes. There are info buttons where user might feel confused.

9.2 User Testing Usability Testing was conducted once the prototype was fully functional and final. I was conducted for learning more about the future iterations to be done in the app. User 1 — “Overall the app is well designed and is simple. It’s an easy to use app and the colour scheme usage is good. The concept of Heroes is nice since it’s about an immediate help to the users with mental health issues. They need an immediate support to be supported by. The prototype can be more detailed because I liked to go through the app and would have loved if it was detailed with more screens. Great concept though.” User 2 — “I liked the whole passion and how you are involved in the project. The concept is really good and has a future. I liked the Zomato rider like person which is the ‘Hero’ in the app. The more patients, the more lightly psychologists will take their patients and so the concept of ‘Heroes’ can solve this problem. Overall, the prototype is well-executed and good. I liked the buttons of bottom navigation bar. Also the information is well-represented. Incredible concept.”

User 3 — “Onboarding makes it clear enough how the app is and how to use the app. The design is nice and clean. I liked the minimal style of the app (which is my favourite style). While listening to the concept I thought it might be a bit complex to use it but the prototype is well-executed and kept easy to understand and use. One of the good features is the Hero asking ‘how are you feeling’ which makes the app empathetic and the user will feel cared for. Truly innovatie concept and fabulously executed.”

10 Conclusion

10.1 Conclusion Working in a studio company was a fun experience. Since it was one of my first glimpses of the professional design industry, I am grateful to have had an experience to work at Studio Fra, Bengaluru. Personally, I liked the way things worked out in the studio. I was given all the creative freedom to explore and test ideas as if it was a ‘UX lab’ and then the solutions were validated collectively and collaboratively upon what makes more sense to execute. I learnt a lot about adapting to a new city and environment during my internship. But most importantly, because of the domain I was given to work on, a lot of Psychology insights were grasped by me which I was curious about. The domain knowledge I have touched upon will help me in the future practice of User Experience Design.

Through this project, I was able to go deep and immerse myself in the subject which proved to be beneficial. On this project, with connecting and collaborating with the right people I feel this concept has a future since it has a potential to aid and assist a large number of diverse users with mental health issues to heal themselves mentally and others to keep their mental health maintained.

10.2 References [1] https://www.psychiatry.org/patients-families/ depression/what-is-depression [2] https://www.medicalnewstoday.com/ articles/296579 [3] https://my.clevelandclinic.org/health/ articles/11874-stress [4] https://www.medicalnewstoday.com/ articles/296579 [5] https://positivepsychology.com/psychodynamictherapy/ [6] https://www.psychologytoday.com/intl/therapytypes/psychodynamic-therapy [7] Research report: Mental health problems among students [8] Research report: The Students’ Mental Health Status