Product Design, Branding
June - August 2023
Ember: Leveraging AI for Personalized Mental Health and Mindfulness Resources
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As a Viget Visual Design Intern, I led a personal project's strategy, research, and design. I conceptualized Ember, a mental health and mindfulness mobile application that leverages AI to connect people with researched-informed resources made uniquely for them.
SUMMARY
TIMELINE
Three Months (June-August 2023)
ROLE
Visual (UI) Designer, Product Designer
SKILLS
Wireframing, Information Architecture, UX Research, High Fidelity UI Design, Branding
TOOLS
Figma, Figjam
Create a product for young adults that makes accessing mental health and mindfulness resources easier, more fun, and more effective.
DESIGN CHALLENGE
As part of my internship with Viget, I had the opportunity to embark on a personal project. As someone who studied psychology and design in undergrad, I am passionate about finding uses for design to improve people’s lives, specifically in the realm of personal wellness.
DESIGN SOLUTION
Ember: Reignite your inner flame
Ember honors the uniqueness of each person’s mental health and wellness journey by recommending personalized resources such as credible articles, curated playlists, meditations, and breathing exercises.
DEFINE PROBLEM & RESEARCH
With the emergence of intelligent integration across diverse industries, I grew curious about how emerging technologies will intersect with the mental health sphere.
With a robust amount of existing mental health and mindfulness services on the internet, it can be daunting for people to know where to start or what to trust. I am passionate about equitable health care, mindfulness, and self-improvement, which led to the formulation of Ember. This application generates personalized mindfulness exercises and redirects users to credible resources for their mental health needs.
PERSONAS & USER INTERVIEWS
Are people open to sharing their feelings with an AI Chatbot? Research says yes, with some conditions.
Privacy matters: Users are more willing to trust an AI if there is transparency about data use
It is important for users’ that the profile set up is not time-consuming
Users value understandable content that is easy to access
Users tend to enjoy auditory experiences such as music and videos
Users need an incentive to continue to use an application
Personalized exercises on the go. Time is of the essence. Not everyone has time to browse through articles on the internet or choose the perfect meditation.
This product is created for the audience of 18-26 year olds, because of the stressful life transitions often experienced at this time. I had the goal of reducing cognitive overload and providing them with an engaging, non-intimidating experience that they can use anytime.
Audience: 17-24 year olds experiencing major, stressful life transitions
Context: Product easy enough to use on-the-go, in busy or private environments.
COMPETITIVE ANALYSIS
Differentiating the user experience by utilizing an AI chatbot that recommends personalized resources.
There are a multitude of meditation and mental health applications that currently exist including Headspace, Calm, and Breathwrk. Additionally, I researched existing AI chatbots for mental health such as Wysa and Woebot.
INFORMATION ARCHITECTURE & WIREFRAMES
Prompts: My goal was to find a way to balance freedom of expression without overwhelming users on how to start, so prompts guide the experience.
Key Features
Introductory quiz to better understand user
AI Chat - Redirects and generates the following: Articles, playlists, meditations/breathing exercises, videos
Categorized collections of exercises for users to browse.
Tracking feature to measure personal progress.
VISUAL DESIGN AND BRANDING
Taking inspiration from earth’s elements: A grounding, calming, and personal brand.
Voice and Tone Words: While creating this brand, I began with voice and tone words to create a trustworthy and calming experience. This led to themes such as modern but not impersonal, casual but not dismissive, and playful but not unreliable.
I was captivated by the associations that different earthly elements take; The grounding and heavy nature of earth, the flowing and light aura of air, the fluid and rippling effects of water, and the passionate and powerful light of fire.
Instead of taking the mechanical, impersonal “tech” route that is commonly seen surrounding AI design, I explored typography and color around the evocative characteristics of nature that have an inextricable connection to human emotions. I searched for fonts that are both soothing, accessible, and uniquely expressive.
Why Ember? An ember is the burning wood that lingers at the end of a fire. Eventually, the ember’s glow diminishes until the fire has turned to ash. Sometimes, however, the flame reignites, and shines brightly, anew.
I saw this as a unique metaphor for our wavering emotions and mental states. When we feel like an ember, holding onto our last bit of energy, with rest and time, we slowly come alive again. This is what Ember is for - assisting people in the rest that can awaken our internal light.
