CheerU is a mental health app designed to help college students become more aware of their emotional states and manage their mental health more effectively. Our team aimed to create a tool that facilitates emotional awareness, and self-expression, and provides constructive feedback to support students during the transitional phase of young adulthood.
Many college students are unaware of their mental health conditions and emotional changes, making it difficult for them to cope with stress. CheerU aims to improve mental state awareness and offer resources for managing emotions effectively.
Our process began with a project proposal. We conducted extensive user research, including interviews and competitive analysis of existing mental health apps. Findings were organized into user personas and an affinity diagram, which led to a storyboard for our key features.
We came to the mission statement:
"Through designing a mental health app, we aim to provide a tool that allows users to consistently monitor their emotional states and get professional help so that college students can effectively improve their mental health."
User flows and sketches were made for each key feature to map out a coherent app navigation. Picture 1 shows the user process for daily streaks and connecting with a healthcare professional. Picture 2 demonstrates how the user would interact with the personalized guides feature.
In the Lofi prototype we emphasized the flow of features and a comfortable, intuitive layout. It consisted of five main parts: Onboarding, Home, Guides, Therapy and Profile. Onboarding's goal is to create a smooth and immersive introduction to walk the user through the app. Home page emphasizes streaks and daily health tracking data to motivate consistent use. Guides includes a tree of goals selected by the user according to their interests, each with its own series of exercises for the user to complete, allowing for a personalized experience. Therapy connects first-time users to healthcare professionals through a questionnaire, or alternatively gives the option to add a therapist that they already know, establishing live communication through chatrooms. Lastly, profile provided users with customizability in their avatar and app color themes, along with other settings.
User tests were conducted with this Lofi model and the feedback indicated still a lack of intuitive navigation. Users were confused about the guides feature and the home page functions. Thus, our later iterations focused intently on making the app user friendly, as well as tying together some of the features in the home page (further discussed below in Feedback & Improvements).
Lastly, the above Design System was created for the Hifi prototype around the theme of uplifting, warming, and rich in color and mood. We decided on a darker color theme to evoke the emotions of comfort and emotional depth, in order to create an inviting and immersive experience. However, one weakness that I will note is that the pink palette may be deterring to a portion of the audience due to its strong stereotypical association with the female gender. We are planning to address this problem with the support of further user testing, though it is important to keep in mind that the color theme is ultimately customizable.
