People with anxiety are always recommended the same meditation tracks and generic mantras. But everyone relaxes in different ways. Outta Your Head is a personalised five minute program that helps anxiety sufferers get away from their snowballing thoughts and back to feeling themselves again.
To people with anxiety disorders, anxiety attacks are all encompassing. Even though they’ve been told generic relaxation techniques in the past, it’s hard to remember them when it feels like the world is crashing down around them. When people feel ownership of something, it lights up the enjoyment part of their brain more than something that feels generic. By being able to personalise this app, this will help users feel an ownership of their program and help them ease their anxiety faster. The personalisation gives this app a point of difference, but the problem with personalisation is that it adds an element of complication to how an app works. So to make this app beneficial as possible to anxiety sufferers, I had to make sure it worked and it worked simply.
After completing my research I started to brainstorm how the UX process should work for this app. I started by mapping it out on a wall. I worked at every stage to keep the process as simple as possible. At this stage I realised that the program needed a back up option. If people were really struggling, they needed a simple way to talk to a professional. I decided to add a button that made a call direct to Beyond Blue, without leaving the app. I next moved into designing wireframes and refining my initial walkthrough of the app. Lastly I started to look at first stage UI design explorations. Deciding on relaxing colours and shapes as the base of the design, to subconsciously help the user relax quicker.
There were various things I wanted to research. These included:
• What proven relaxation techniques could be the base of the Outta Your Head program?
• How long should the program last?
• What elements of the program are technically possible to personalise?
• What other anxiety and relaxation apps are out there?
• What are they doing well and what are they doing badly?
• What colours are psychologically proven to be relaxing?
• What shapes are most calming on the eye?
After completing my research I started to brainstorm how the UX process should work for this app. I started by mapping it out on a wall. I worked at every stage to keep the process as simple as possible. At this stage I realised that the program needed a back up option. If people were really struggling, they needed a simple way to talk to a professional. I decided to add a button that made a call direct to Beyond Blue, without leaving the app. I next moved into designing wireframes and refining my initial walkthrough of the app. Lastly I started to look at first stage UI design explorations. Deciding on relaxing colours and shapes as the base of the design, to subconsciously help the user relax quicker.
I’ve recently pushed forward the UI designs to create a prototype using Adobe XD. You can find this here: https://xd.adobe.com/view/41d48397-d445-49d2-580d-4ca7f1382433-37e5/
For the nexts steps, I’d love to get developer on board that could help bring the app to life and a client that could solidify the techniques and offer a help line.