Anxiety is the most common mental illness in the United States, yet some studies suggest that as few as 39% of sufferers receive any treatment, largely due to barriers of time and money. For my degree project I aimed to design a free or low-fee mobile application based on principles of cognitive behavioral therapy to be used by lower to middle class anxiety sufferers ages 15-30 in the United States. Currently free-to-download applications exist to try and help this portion of the population but none are designed for anxiety and almost all require steep monthly subscription fees. Most center around meditation or other breathing exercises. Currently Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT) is one of the few effective ways of treating the root causes of sufferers’ anxiety. It works by identifying how patients perform negative thought patterns. Recognizing that a digital platform is not yet able to accurately replace a trained therapist - I wanted to make a program based on CBT available remotely and accessible to people of all levels of society. This project will focus on the most common subset of anxiety; Generalized Anxiety Disorder (GAD).
The poster meant to promote and intrigue users in my Senior Design Thesis (also called "Degree Project") in preparation for presenting at the yearly MassArt Design Symposium. My thesis centers on anxiety and technology and how mobile applications can hopefully help anxiety sufferers who cannot afford traditional therapy cope with their mental illness on a day-to-day basis.
Cole Userflow:
The following user flow is based on a model user referred to as "Cole" who is a male, 18, Texas resident, diagnosed with GAD 2 years ago. Cole is lower class and can’t afford formal therapy. He needs help feeling less isolated, coping mechanisms, and help dealing with mostly short-term stress.
Amanda Userflow:
The following user flow is based on a model user referred to as "Amanda" who is a 22 year old female, Connecticut resident. She was diagnosed GAD 3 years ago, she is upper-middle class and can afford formal therapy. She needs breathing exercises due to panic attacks, and help dealing with short-term & job related stress.
Alex Userflow:
The following user flow is based on a model user referred to as "Alex" who is a male, 24 year old Minnesota resident, diagnosed GAD 5 years ago. He is middle class but can’t afford formal therapy
. He needs time management help, an introduction to application as a new user, and help dealing with mostly
long-term stress.
UI Kit:
This library of elements was used to bring the wireframes of the project into finalized screens. The colors are meant to create a fun, optimistic space based on user input that other existing mobile applications felt "too serious".
