Day By Day: An Expression Board Game
Emotional intelligence board game aimed at developing a strong foundation for problem-solving skills for parents and children
Day By Day is an engaging and interactive emotional intelligence board game designed to support children and their dedicated parents to cultivate a profound comprehension of emotions and feelings while equipping them with effective strategies to deal with impromptu events.
Timeline
Nov 2022 - May 2023
Team
1 Product Manager
2 UX Designers
2 UX Researchers
Tools
Figma (Prototype)
Figjam (Research)
Google Suite
Role
Sketching, Wireframing, Iterative Prototyping, User Testing
Overview
Gamified Mental Health Journey
Unlock achievements and rewards as you complete each chapter, and track your progress on an interactive journey map.
Mental Health Journey Guide
Follow our simple tutorials to level up your plant avatar, earn water drops, and unlock exciting rewards.
Personalized Onboarding
Answer a few quick onboarding questions to tailor your chapter tasks and daily activities to your needs.
THE PROBLEM
YouTube Shorts makes it difficult to access quality, related content for a casual browsing experience compared to its competitors.
HOW MIGHT WE…
streamline Youtube Shorts' discovery and recommendation features so that users can seamlessly find and engage with content aligned to their interests?
RESEARCH
Scoping the Problem
Before diving in, I dissected the project scope to clarify target goals and identify what was feasible within the 10-week timeframe. By breaking down the “How Might We” statement, I uncovered smaller, more focused subproblems to tackle systematically.
What are the motivations behind doing therapy for users?
How are mental health challenges defined?
What does it mean to "comfortably afford" therapy?
What are currently barriers that users face with digitalized therapy?
Interviewing
During interviews, we explored users' methods of identifying emotional triggers, preferred modes of self-reflection, challenges with digital tools, and motivations for staying consistent in therapy.
These were the type of questions we asked:
What are some small habits you rely on for stress relief, and what makes them effective or challenging to maintain?
When life gets busy or overwhelming, what usually prevents you from continuing your mental health routines or practices?
What beliefs or perceptions do you have about mental health that might influence whether you seek out help or stick to self-care practices?
User Pain Points and Takeaways
By leveraging the Roundglass user database, I conducted over 10 interviews, uncovering key pain points and takeaways related to time and cost constraints, limited interactivity, and a lack of consistency to engage with traditional solutions.
"It's always to keep it simple and understandable."
We learned that individuals with mental health concerns can find overly complex interfaces, onboarding system, and guiding resources overwhelming. Especially when it comes to comprehension and reading, which is why it is important to keep all text in the application easy to read.
“Most mental health apps feel like a chore"
Instead of providing relief, they often create another obligation on a person’s daily to-do list, ultimately making the experience feel more like work than a supportive tool for mental health. They also seem to miss engaging and rewarding elements that mental health users may seek for.
Competitive Audit
The beta version of the Reframe app lacked structure and user flow, which significantly limited its ability to deliver an effective user experience. To address this, I analyzed competitors to identify essential features that make a mental health app engaging and impactful.
Here are things I observed as successful in other products for user retention:
With further research on other products, I learned that gamification boosts user retention and enhances learning. significantly. By integrating these, Reframe can stand out from competitors as an approachable, educational, and effective CBT platform for improving mental health and fostering emotional well-being.
Wireframing
Redesigning the Home Screen
After conducting a thorough audit of competing products, we identified the need for Reframe to make a strong initial impression on users, fostering trust and increasing engagement. Consequently, we've decided to begin by addressing the home page, as user feedback has indicated confusion with the current design.
Redesigning the home screen with a creative, engaging flow focused on interactive mental health tools and personalized experiences was the best course of action to improve accessibility and user satisfaction.
Identified Opportunities For Main Features
To redesign the native app experience, we aimed to achieve the following objectives:
Through multiple iterative exploration rounds, we gathered user feedback and used data-driven insights to refine and deliver the optimal solution.
I also used a prioritization matrix to categorize the needs based on users' necessity and priority. Given our timeline, I recognized that we needed to prioritize necessary feature rather than the "nice to have" ones. So, I decided on the product's MVP features.
After researching and narrowing down a few MVPs to be finalized within 10 weeks, I conducted hybrid card sorting to design an Information Architecture that aligns with user expectations.
Final Thoughts
We conducted extensive usability testing with existing Reframe users, gathering direct feedback and making iterative design changes to address their needs.
Refining Tutorial Screens for Clearer Guidance and Less Overwhelm
Initial Concept
Before Usability Testing
Although the graphics were engaging, placing the tutorial screens immediately after onboarding overloaded users with too much information at once.
Proposed Solution
Simplified Tutorial Screens
Providing an on-demand tutorial option helps users digest the gamification techniques at their own pace, whenever they want and prevents information overload.
Reevaluating the concept of the explore page and improving the intuitiveness
Initial Concept
Before Usability Testing
Users find the therapy categories unclear, making it difficult to understand what each option offers or what happens next upon selection.
Proposed Solution
Improving Searching Experience
Each module highlights a distinct type of content , making it immediately obvious what to explore next and improving overall navigability
FINAL PROPOSED SOLUTION
Introducting Reframe!
Home Screen, Rewards and Customization, and Profile
The home page features a growing plant avatar that reflects your progress, along with daily activities, mood check-ins, and a link to your mental health journey. Earn water droplets from tasks to unlock avatar customizations in the rewards page, and track streaks and completed activities in your profile.
Consult with Professional Psychologists
Users find the therapy categories unclear, making it difficult to understand what each option offers or what happens next upon selection.
Daily Mood Check-In and Journal Log
Users find the therapy categories unclear, making it difficult to understand what each option offers or what happens next upon selection.
Tailored Chapter Tasks for Growth
Users complete tailored chapter tasks to foster personal growth, guided by their onboarding preferences.
LEARNINGS
Opening up and being transparent while communicate effectively with engineers and manager
Initially, I struggled to share my ideas with my manager and engineers, fearing they would be dismissed. Over time, I became more transparent about concerns and feasibility, which strengthened our communication and collaboration.
Understand when to incorporate micro-interactions and playful elements into digital experiences, while knowing when to scale back for simplicity
I found myself getting caught up in the fun interactions and overlooking fundamental principles, which I then had to revisit later in the process.
Learn to balance creative ideas with practical feasibility
While my internship was granted with lots of creativity and freedom, it's crucial to remember the business needs and technical requirements to ground ourselves. When narrowing down the features and ideas, alongside our manager, having objective metrics helps unify and justify the reasoning behind our design even better.