According to Edweek.org, between March and October of 2020, Mental Health emergency visits increased 24 percent for children ages 5 to 11.
In order to address this issue, I designed a mental health application that teaches coping skills and positive reactive strategies for various emotions, targeting children as young as 2.
UX/UI Designer, Content Creator, UX Writer, UX Researcher, Information Architect, Visual Designer
Figma, Adobe Photoshop, Canva, Miro, GoogleForms & Zoom
There are mental health products developed for children which allow them to sift through emotions and see different coping skills for each one. However this type of product only exists in print media, requiring parent involvement for children who can't read independently, and preventing customization of coping skills provided.
The target audience for this project is children ages 3-13, their parents, and anyone in need of a delightful way to cope with difficult emotions.
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Wren is a tablet application for children that teaches age appropriate coping skills for various emotions. It provides children will the tools to independently regulate difficult emotional states.
Using the SWOT method, I analyzed the strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats of three products; Mood Flip Book; My Moods, My Choices; and Thought Spot. The purpose of this was to learn from others' mistakes, discover what features users find most important, and find where this new app will fit into the market.
The key takeaways from my competitive analysis were...
I created a survey using Google Forms which screened respondents on the criteria of "parent of child(ren) between the ages 2-10". I collected 72 survey responses and completed interviews with 7 of these parents.. The surveys primarily gave me insight into the tablet use, reading level, and emotional regulation abilities of children, while the interviews focused on what the parents wanted the app to provide their children, and what their current emotional reactions look like.
In response to how their children react when angry, sad, or frustrated, parents mentioned their children...
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The first persona I created was one of a parent. I based Felicia off of my 4 interviews with parents. After Felicia, I created 3 personas of children based upon the behaviors, frustrations, and needs presented in the results of my survey.
I created 4 user flows to satisfy the 6 user stories. For the parental side of things, I created an onboarding flow which addresses the screen reader function, access to emotional trends through email, and avatar selection which allows multiple children to use the app with separate profiles. Next I created a user flow for customizing coping skills.
For the kids side of the app, I created a favorites flow in which user could access their favorite coping skills easily, and a coping skill flow which leads the users to a coping skill through the associated emotion page.
Utilizing the structures of these flows and the necessary additional pages to make these flows work, I created this site map.
For the integrity of the project, I wanted to use coping skills that were provided or approved by professionals.
I consulted with Therapist and LPC, Daniel Rovak, and Board Certified Behavior Analyst Meghan Jean who each provided coping skill suggestions and/or approved coping skills I provided.
From there, I collected graphics from Canva to represent each coping skill, eventually changing the colors of the images to fit with the color palette of the app (see Branding).
I reached out to graphic designer Caitlin Janiszewski who created the star of the show, the face of the app, Wren. Additionally, she created the nest featured on the onboarding page.
Using Figma and Adobe Photoshop, I created a collection of illustrations that were used across the app. Each emotion page features it's own unique cactus across a desert landscape.
Lastly, I created the egg icons which would represent each emotion.
Designing accessibly does not require visual sacrifice, just empathy and creativity.
Before wireframing for this app, I decided...
After implementing Branding, I needed to take further action in ensuring accessibility, specifically regarding color contrast. Throughout most of the app, the text color was an off-white, on top of one of these colors, or vise versa. When checking with a color contrast tool, I discovered that all of these contrast ratios were severely below the acceptable threshold. The first 2 hardly passed, applicable to only WCAG AA for large or bolded text.
In order to resolve this, I utilized the darkest color in my palette, on the lightest color in my palette. This solution passed accessibility contrast standards through WCAG AAA.
I conducted usability testing with 2 parents on zoom, instructing them to complete 2 user flows while narrating their experiences in real time. This was to gain insight on the onboarding flow and the customizing coping skills flow.
Both parents completed both flows with ease, however it was brought to my attention that an oversight had been made.
There was no "add" button to finalize the customizing coping skills flow, and no way to choose which emotion page this skill would go on.
With the assistance of and permission from their parents, I conducted usability testing on 4 children within the age range of my targeted audience.
The two younger children, both 6 years old, used their parents for reading assistance twice (which was allowed due to the screen reader feature which could not be prototyped), but found the images incredibly helpful in pointing them in the right direction as well.
They completed both user flows (accessing a coping skill page through the favorites menu & accessing a coping skill from an emotion page) successfully, and provided fun feedback.
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