Christine's Portfolio

Blossom

Designing an accessible tool that empowers students to de-stress through quick daily routines and gain practical knowledge for managing stress and depressive feelings

My Role

UX Designer

A team of 5

Team

3 months

Timeline

User Research,

Usability Testing,

Wireframe,

High-Fi Prototype

Skills

Problem

Unmet Student Demand for Campus Mental Health Support

In the United States, there is a significant unmet demand for mental health services among colleges and universities; roughly one-fifth to one-third of students experience mental health symptoms. Although seeking therapy is a standard treatment, there is only one therapist for every 750 college students, with an average wait time of 4 days, which shows the imbalance of mental health resources and the demand from students.

Since it is a sensitive topic and people often feel uncomfortable talking about their struggles, many students lack knowledge of mental health, which causes misconceptions about it.

Thus, we seek to address and advocate for mental health awareness through design by providing reliable knowledge through an easy-access tool that would allow college students to achieve mental stability.

Since it is a sensitive topic and people often feel uncomfortable talking about their struggles, many students lack knowledge of mental health, which causes misconceptions about it.

Design Process

Research

User Surveys & Interviews:

To develop a better understanding of what challenges students are facing with mental health problems and how we can improve their experience, we also conducted interviews with students and professionals and created a survey that receive 72 respondents.

User Surveys & Interviews:

Competitive Analysis:

We researched some existing digital and in-person solutions that are available for college students. While we saw some great services that are provided to students, there are also limitations with those solutions.

Competitive Analysis:

1. Digital apps:

Since the counselor mentioned that journaling is a good way for people to manage stress, we decided to focus our research on some journaling apps. We analyzed two mental health journaling apps: Reflectly and Daylio

1. Digital apps:

Mental Health Counselor at UW

Due to the understaffing problem, the mental health counselor at UW often prioritizes students who have more severe illnesses than the other students

The mental health counselor at UW pointed out that journaling is a tool that can help manage one’s mental health

College Students

69.4% of our survey respondents said they don’t have a journaling habit even though the counselor mentioned it is a great way to help people manage stress

Students often use Google to search for answers about their mental health and the results increase their anxiety and depressive feelings

Students pointed out that they experienced long wait time when they sought out helps from the counselor, and often they did not receive help on time

2. Mental Health Counselor:

Another existing service, UW’s LiveWell program, offers on-campus mental health resources such as peer health and suicide intervention but is only available from 9 a.m. - 5 p.m. on Mondays to Fridays. The availability of UW’s LiveWell program is a significant weakness because it is a service that may not adhere to students’ schedules. Also, there is a small finite amount of counselors available for each student, meaning the wait time for in-person mental health guidance is long.

2. Mental Health Counselor:

Research Insights:

Students hope to have an accessible, easy-to-use tool for mental health services, as well as more reliable sources to answer their mental health questions
People have different habits for journaling; thus, we should offer multiple options to cater to their preferred journaling method
Other than some mood-tracking and analysis features, there aren't other mental health resources in the apps.
Getting help from mental health counselors can be time-consuming, and students might not be able to get the help they need immediately

Research Insights:

Students hope to have an accessible, easy-to-use tool for mental health services, as well as more reliable sources to answer their mental health questions
People have different habits for journaling; thus, we should offer multiple options to cater to their preferred journaling method
Other than some mood-tracking and analysis features, there aren't other mental health resources in the apps.
Getting help from mental health counselors can be time-consuming, and students might not be able to get the help they need immediately

How might we

How might we provide mental health relief for college students that is accessible and fits naturally into their daily routines?

Persona

Initial Design

Based on the research and users' needs, we created our initial design which includes three key features: daily activity, media resources, and journaling.

User Testing

Incentives and Personalization Are Essential

With our first version of animated Figma prototypes, we conducted 5 usability tests with college students. The purpose of the tests was to assess the usability of the app’s interface design, information flow, and information architecture. Our user testing revealed:

Our current implementation lacks a system that gives users the incentive to use the app daily
Interviewees found that distinguishing between the guiding question and journaling page is important for their specific roles
Daily activity can create a more personalized, interactive activity

Testing & Improvement

We made 3 design changes using the valuable feedback from our user tests and interviews.

3 Main Improvements

Adding Predefined Categories to Guiding Questions page

Added predefined categories to the guiding questions page, instead of relying solely on a free-response text box.

This design decision reduces friction by allowing users to choose from options instead of always writing.
Resulted in a more accessible and personalized journaling experience, giving users flexibility between writing or selecting.

Changing the order of daily screens

Restructured the sequence by placing the mood check-in first, before the video and activity.

This enables the app to adapt content based on the user’s emotional state.
Creates a more relevant, supportive, and user-centered experience that strengthens connection with the app.

Adding a reward system

Added a flower-based reward system where users earn one petal each day after completing the daily activity and check-in.

Designed to create motivation through progress and a sense of accomplishment as the flower blooms each week (7 petals).
Introduced a streak feature to reinforce consistency and encourage long-term daily engagement.

Final Product

Blossom, a mobile app to help students to destress and build a healthy daily routine

Daily Check-in

The daily check-in feature allows the user to document their mood. Users can easily record their attitudes by having the three emotion buttons instead of writing their emotions. With this information, at the end of each week, the app can recommend different resources such as videos, podcasts, music, and exercises that catered to the student’s feelings of the week.

Daily Activity

The daily activity feature includes an activity to help people destress. The app would randomly give the users one activity to do for the activity, such as stretching, listening to a song, or coloring. These exercises are small activities that take users just a few minutes. The app will present proper activities tailored to a given emotion based on their current mood.

Video of the Day

The video of the day feature provides users with a one to two-minute video that focuses on providing the user with advice and tips. The video can provide quick and concise educational information to the user. The video will be related to the user's current mood they input. They can also skip the videos by clicking on the Skip button.

Petals System

The petal system encourages the user to use the app daily on the home screen. Users can get the most value from the app features by ingraining this reward system. The feature allows users to earn a petal every time the user logs in and complete their daily activities. Users who consecutively log in to the app will achieve a complete flower with seven petals, showing the continuous progression of the week.

Mixed Medias (Article/Podcast/Video)

The Learn page stores a collection of databases containing various articles, podcasts, and videos. These resources are provided for users to learn about specific topics regarding mental health. These sources are from credible resources to help young adults gain more knowledge and avoid misleading information.

Journaling - Main Page and Random Prompts

The journaling main page has a weekly calendar in which users can select the date to see their mood entry for the day. The users will also see a line graph of their last week’s mood progress to keep track of their mood.

By clicking on the journaling button, the users can choose to do a random prompt for journaling. The random prompt has predefined categories to allow users to easily answer the prompt by selecting a range of options. The users can also add their own categories.

Journaling - Make an Entry

The users can also choose to make an entry for journaling. They have the option to do it using texts, pictures, drawings, or audio recordings.

Resume