Case Study
Write your thoughts, Let AI handle the rest
InnerSight is an AI Journaling app aimed at helping individual’s who may struggle with everyday mental stress. InnerSight’s goal is help people gain some “inner sight” into their inner emotions and mental state, allowing them to discover what could be their potential mental stressors and triggers, and what they can do to help de-stress.
InnerSight was developed over the duration of 4 months along side a team of 6 developers and designers. In this project, I acted as the team’s UX/UI and graphic designer. Tools I utilized during the development of this app included Figma and Adobe Illustrator.
Everyday mental stress can take a toll on us, and in today's currently environment, mental wellness resources and help has becoming increasingly more expensive and inaccessible. People who may experience symptoms such as anxiety, anger, frustration or sadness may be confused why they feel the way they do and may have trouble forming healthy ways of dealing with their emotions.
When working on the design side of the development process for InnerSight, we divided the process into 4 parts: Research, to first understand who we are making this app for, Define, to identify what we want our app to solve and do for our audience, Ideate, brainstorm and come up with ideas of how our app will solve these problems, and finally the design stage, where we start designing the app with all of the other factors in mind.
The InnerSight app target’s young adults ages 18 - 30 who may struggle with mental stress and may not have any formal diagnosis’s or therapy. InnerSight is not a stand-in for therapy treatment or medical diagnosis’s but aim’s to help alleviate mental stress and provide users with awareness.
To gain a better understanding of our target audience, we conducted a survey comprising 32 questions focused on exploring participants perspectives on mental stress and journal writing. The survey was structured into three distinct sections. The initial segment asked about participants' past journaling experiences and habits, the second delved deeper into their experiences with alternative digital journaling or writing applications, and the final section sought insights into the activities participants preferred for alleviating stress.
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One way I helped to make InnerSight's content more engaging and fun was by creating animal mascots and incorporating them into the app's interface. The mascot's acted as users "animal guides" and showed users how to navigate the app and presented users with AI recommendations and insights.
The mascots also serve as visual graphics depicting various activities and exercises users can be recommended. Such graphics include:
Amaya is a 24 year old full time student studying at BCIT. Her day starts by leaving home in the early morning to reach school by 8 am and leave school by 4pm. When she arrives home she uses her time to do her homework and assignments. Amaya lives with her single mother and younger brother in a middle income household.
She is also diagnosed with anxiety and depression, but due to her lack of income, cannot afford frequent therapy or medication. As a result, Amaya uses journalling to help channel her emotions and feelings when she feels stressed.
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Through this project, I gained a deeper understanding of the importance of knowing our target audience and the diverse ways people use journaling to express their emotions and feelings. My research uncovered various forms of journaling and identified key pain points that hinder its wider adoption. I also learned about the significance of usability and interface customization in creating a welcoming and enjoyable writing experience for everyone.
Working on the development of InnerSight challenged my skills as a UX/UI and Graphic Designer. Initially, it was difficult to find ways to make the app more interactive and personalized for each user. This challenge led to the creation of the InnerSight Mascots, which added a personalized and spiritual element for users.