What is Ally?
Ally is an App that is created for helping people who are suffering from anxiety or panic attacks. It makes the user feel they are not alone with their anxiety. With the Ally app, they can feel they are being taken care of when they need it, anywhere and any time.
01 Why do I want to design Ally?
1.1 Real life stories
Many people in the world suffer from anxiety and panic attacks, including myself. I still remember the first panic attack, I felt all the stress of life pressing down on me and I couldn't breathe. It was terrifying, I didn't realize what was happening until it was too late. I wanted to design something to help others in the same situation recognize what is happening and take steps to improve.
1.2 Finding the problem
Anxiety and panic attack are the most common mental health problem in the U.S. People often don’t recognize the onset of a panic attack before it begins.
1. People do not know when a panic attack will come during the day.
2. People often time feel they are alone when experiencing one.
3. People do not know how to deal with panic attacks.
02. Solution Hypothesis
2.1 Designing Goals
The problem, is that people don’t realize a panic attack is beginning until it is too late, and don't know that they need help. Psychologist Gary Klein called this phenomenon Pre-mortem. I believe that providing a method of intervening before a panic attack takes its hold will help people suffering from anxiety. There are 3 aspects of this solution:
1. Helping people catch the anxiety before it gets worse
2. Providing ways of alleviating the symptoms of an attack
3. Helping people managing their emotions
03. User Survey & Affinity Diagram
3.1 User Survey
Before diving deep into design, I came up with a user research plan and question list and send it to 10 people who have anxiety problems. This was to understand the problem better and prepare for insights
3.2 User Survey Insights
3.3 Affinity Diagram
After collecting all the initial research, I wanted to know what's the most important way Ally can help.
I have created 3 user tasks based on the user survey insights. There are two scenarios:
1. Emergency situation (users have enough time to do activity) Let’s go for a walk; If (users don’t have time?) They can select to do the breathing exercise.
2. Daily Meditation Practice. This is a scenario where user feels they want to practice their mindfulness meditation. When finishing each section of meditation practice, users earn a badge. After 21 days they can earn a free new class.
04. Flow Chart
4.1 Information Architecture
4.2 Wireframe
05. Target Audience & Use Case
5.1 Persona
5.2 Use Case
06. User Testing & Interactions
6.1 User Testing
In order to test "onboarding-select activity", "home" and Task success. I conducted 3 round user tests with following questions and first round results were shown below:
6.2.1 Interaction - Onboarding Process
The onboarding process is unique because there are 3 touch points: 1. connect with you wearable; 2. select your Ally AI assistant; 3. select your favorite relax activity.
6.2.2 Interaction - Home_Select/Add or Remove Relax Activity
Ally knows that user's main focuse is to relax. So when a user first opens the app they can quickly select their favorite relaxation ativity. Users also can add or remove relaxation activities.
6.2.3 Interaction - Meditation
Ally users might also want to improve their anxiety by using mindfulness meditation. In addition to providing support in an emergency, Ally offers daily mindfulness meditation sessions to help people improve their anxiety over time. To encourage this healthy habit, users can get badges and free meditation courses by meditating frequently.
User task 2 video: Breathing exercise
Style Guide
High Fidelity Design
Full App Prototype
I use Marvel as Ally prototype tools. I embed it on this page. Try it out.
If you didn't see aboving prorotype just try this link:
Concept Video
Achievement
