Survey
Goal: Discover if lowering stress can be a social experience
Participants: 42 adults
Open to Talking About Your Stress?
Why yes?
"I need to vent"
"I'd like sympathy"
"I want advice or help"
Why no?
"I can deal with stress on my own"
"I don't want to bother anybody"
"I don't think my stress is a big deal"
What Would You Do If a Friend is Stressed?
Talk to them
Ask and listen
Cheer them up
95%
of all participants would do a variation of these three responses, including the participants who said no to the first question.
What if the Friend Doesn't Tell You, But You Know They're Stressed?
78%
of all participants would still reach out to the friend,
though more subtly
Check in casually
Lighten the mood
Ask if they're ok
Conclusion
When it comes to stress, either your own or a friend's, the number one action is to engage with somebody and talk.
Would You Do a De-Stressing Exercise With a Friend?
What does it depend on?
"If I have time"
"Who the friend is"
"The type of exercise"
Why definite yes?
"I care about mental health"
"I like trying new things"
"To encourage my friend"
Which of These De-Stressing Activities Would You Do?
Conclusion
- The type of activity introduced is very important!
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- The top two activities, Going for a walk and Getting creative are more active and easier to do with somebody else.
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- Getting more sleep is a well known solution for better health and everybody sleeps anyway.
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- The less popular options either take more time or are more unfamiliar and inactive than the more popular options.
LifeBeat
The Product
LifeBeat is a wearable device that tracks both physical fitness and overall stress. The companion mobile app features health logs, visual graphs, and measurement-taking.
The Challenge
Discover whether reducing stress can be a social activity and design social features into the existing mobile app.
Project Timeframe: 3 weeks
Ideation
After analyzing some competitors and the survey findings, I created an affinity board to organize three main user functions.
Friends List
- Connect through your phone's contact list
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- View your friends' stats (steps and overall stress)
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- Customize what info your friends can see
Encouragement
- Send note of encouragement to friends who are stressed
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- One-way message so there is no pressure to engage in conversation if the friend doesn't want to
Challenges
- Step Challenge to move around
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- Sleep Challenge to encourage longer sleep
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- Active Time Challenge for people who do other forms of exercise
High-Fidelity
Encouraging Friends
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"Encourage" button appears under friends who have recorded high stress
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Send encouragement in the form of one-way communication just for a gesture of care and concern
Start a Challenge
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Three types of challenges: Step Challenge, Sleep Challenge, and Active Time Challenge
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Invite friends and set challenge parameters
Challenge Details Page
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Join challenges sent by your friends
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View everybody's current progress in the challenge (not shown in example because the challenge hasn't begun yet)
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In-challenge chat encourages friendly competition