Mindful
A wearable device and companion mobile app for monitoring stress levels and providing customized support from mental health professionals.
Context
This project was a class project focused on addressing the issue of students’ mental health. Over the course of 12 weeks, we took a design-thinking approach to this problem, following the steps of empathize, define, ideate, prototype, and test. Our goal was to create a solution that supports and improves the mental well-being of students.
Extreme mental stress has become a critical issue that students worldwide confront. There are 180,000 people in the U.K who die each year from some form of stress-related illness (Meridian Stress Management Consultancy in the U.K.). Stress also accounts for about 75% of all doctor visits where physical complaints include: headaches, back pain, heart problems, upset stomach, stomach ulcers, sleep problems, tiredness, and accidents (Center for Disease Control and Prevention of the United States). Furthermore, 90% of all visits to primary care physicians are due to stress-related complaints (Occupational Health and Safety news and the National Council).
Design Team
My Contribution
- Research
- Survey
- User interviews
- Workshop facilitator
- Data analysis
- Design Iterations
- Prototyping
- Arduino works like prototype
- Augmented reality prototype using Unity
- Usability testing
Design Process
Empathize
Non-obtrusive observations
As a start we did non obtrusive observations in different parts of the Georgia Tech to identify the behavior patterns of students. We mainly observed that it’s not possible to identify specific any individual signs of mental stress. But later behavioral patterns started to appear especially in places such as library, study areas and exam halls.
User interviews
To get a better idea of the issue, we conducted one-on-one interviews with Georgia Tech students. In total, we interviewed six students from different schools. Then we transcribed the interviews and analyzed them using an affinity map. Later we developed several concepts based on the insights.
Affinity map
Define
Health personas & User Stories
Ideate
Design Requirements
Based on the insights from the affinity map, personas, and user stories, functional and nonfunctional design directions were identified.
Functional Requirements
- Monitor stress levels
- A method for long-distance friends to send some gestures
- User must be able to use voice input/command
- Tools to manage stress
- Suggest activities/ methods cope with stress
- Rapid destresser
Non-Functional Requirements
- Community
- Not stigmatizing
- Improve communication/interaction with friends
- Suggesting activities and tips from experts based on users’ preferences
- How to keep stress in different lives separate
- Directly connect with mentors/ experts in real-time
- Mood check-in
- Interpersonal connections – buddy system
- Building goals
- A method for long-distance friends to send some gestures
- Self-esteem booster
Refined Design Direction
Conceptual Map
Co-Design Workshop
The workshop was designed to harness several key insights from the users. Preferred placement for a wearable device, the physical appearance, the type of the device, preferred materials and spontaneous ideas related to positive expression were collected.
Tasks
- Placement preference for wearables
- Shape/ Form preferences
- Preference on wearable types
- Spontaneous ideas related to positive expression
- Material selection
Photos from the workshop
KEY TAKEAWAYS
- Smaller products were preferred
- Wrists, necklines, fingers, upper arms, ears, and waistlines were most agreeable locations
- Participants were excited and cheerful throughout the process
- Participants preferred sketching, sticker choices, and word associates to express ideas
- Themes around food/cooking, nature/escape, and friends/family were most common
- They were apt to share their ideas and explain there thought processes
Main Findings
- Wrist location is most desirable
- Users would like wearable location versatility
- Users prefer personalized products
Technology
EDA is a sensor that detects the electrical variations occurring on the surface of the skin due to changes in sweat secretion.
EDA is one of the best and most widely used discriminative signals along with the heart rate signal for measuring stress.
Prototype
Arduino prototype
In this prototype, a potentiometer was used to represent the input changes from the EDA sensor.
Wearable device - Sketches & prototype
Mobile app - Sketches | Lo-Fi Prototypes | Me-Fi Prototypes
Final design
Wearable device - Sketches & prototype
Mobile app - Sketches | Lo-Fi Prototypes | Me-Fi Prototypes
Usability testing
<span data-metadata="">Evaluation Goals
Understand how real users interact with the product and make changes based on the results.
- Identify usability problems
- Collect quantitative and qualitative data
- Determine participant satisfaction with the product
Defined Tasks in usability test
Findings
- Offer a greater range of form and color options
- Reexamine research findings and run more user tests for the physical prototype
- Make physical device wearability an easier process
- Consider material interest leaning toward metals, woods, and plushes
- Produce a softer, rhythmic alert system
User Experience
- Wrists and body appendages as wearable locations preferences affirm research
- Product system easily followed and validates many earlier findings
- Too few test participants
- Conflicting user feedback
- Physical prototype materials and appearance require redesign
- Personalization could go further