Elio

Elio is an AI powered personal development app designed to help those feeling immobilized by hardships or depression create positive, actionable changes personalized to their interests and goals.   

TYPE
Passion Project

MY ROLES
UX Researcher
Product Designer
Illustrator

OUTPUTS
IOS Based Mobile Application

TEAM
Individual

METHODS
UX Research & Design

TIME
8 Weeks

According to Our World in Data, 264 million people in the world experience depression. Depression leads to unhealthy coping behaviors that can instigate feelings of hopelessness, complacency, or mental paralysis. The catch 22 is that it takes actionable change to empower ourselves and ease depression. On top of that, our stories are all so powerfully unique.

How can we create a single solution that aids in positive behavior change for the vast variety of experiences people have? 

THE SOLUTION

Elio is a mobile application that aids in the discovery of possibility when hardships bring our lives to a stalemate. 

Elio facilitates initial engagement in new experiences by lessening the key obstacles that make rewiring our brain for change, challenging. –And it does so through personalized solutions, making it easy for people to craft the right pathway for themselves.  

Intrinsic Discovery  

Research participants shared that stress and hardships have at times been so consuming that they have forgotten what makes life meaningful to them. 

Elio initiates new beginnings by helping people reconnect to their inherent selves. By providing the ability to discover and organize images onto vision boards, users can simply begin setting goals on the intuitive level.

Intrinsic Discovery - Hover, tap or click for video controls.

Guided Beginnings

The market proves that vision boards are not a new idea. However, turning visions into realistic plans is a real challenge when already feeling overwhelmed. My research revealed this as both a core user need and opportunity within the market. 

At the heart of Elio, is the ability to ease the friction found in simply beginning new things. It uses image recognition to offer simplified and structured experience based on users' vision boards. 

Guided Beginnings - Hover, tap or click for video controls.

Users have the flexibility to select a suggested experience or they can create their own. Based on the SMART goal technique, each journey offers three simple steps, location-based resources, and a habit that users can add to a built in routine planner. Users can experience a feeling of realistic possibility again and use a trajectory they can trust.

Guided Beginnings Continued- Hover, tap or click for video controls.

Cultivated Efficacy

Another opportunity found in my research is a way to fuel sustainable change. In Elio, users have the opportunity to keep a memory log of photos when completing tasks. This enables a way to review their own experiences and build self- efficacy through reflection on their success.

Cultivated Efficacy - Hover, tap or click for video controls.

Data & Decisions

Beginning with
Behavioral Interventions

Initially, I assumed this project was about behavioral interventions to build resilience. A preliminary literature review informed me that resilience, while innate, in many cases, still needs to be learned. My assumption was that there is opportunity in immediacy - for example, helping people choose the right response in an argument. How could I help people choose the right resilience strategies in the heat of the moment?  

My beginnings consisted of determining if there are any themes in how people cope with difficult situations. I conducted a survey and held retrospective, contextual conversations regarding a time when the participant felt their favorite health and wellness app failed them. 

I went as far as crafting behavioral archetypes and experience maps from my qualitative data and recognized the immensity of this space and the varying coping mechanisms that exist within.

Commonalities participants had were:  Their reaction times varied greatly ● Emotions were often difficult to distinguish during reaction times. ● Not one emotion proved more difficult to deal with than others. ● Using unhealthy coping mechanisms reduces feelings of self worth.

ARTIFACTS FROM PRIMARY RESEARCH INCLUDING ARCHETYPES AND EXPERIENCE MAPS

COMPETITIVE ANALYSIS DETAILING ALREADY EXISTING BEHAVIORAL CHANGE FEATURES 

Mood Rings & Color Palettes

My data prompted the notion that a behavior intervention tool may be best geared toward a more specific user group. I assumed I either had to narrow my target audience to specify more defined scenarios (helping people before they do self-harm cutting for example) or conduct more research to see if I was tackling the right problem that was valuable to the diverse user group I was considering. 

I decided that failing fast would be my best approach to find the right answer. Aftering brainstorming, I tested some behavior intervention ideas with participants.

MIND-MAPPING HELPED ME CONNECT IDEAS ACROSS DOMAINS

CONCEPT TESTING - 1. A WEARABLE DEVICE SUCH AS A MOOD RING THAT DETECTS STRONG EMOTIONAL STATES AND SUGGESTS ALTERNATIVE REACTIONS 2. A DIGITAL GRADITUDE BOARD FOR REFLECTION DURING DIFFICULT MOMENTS 3. A MOBILE APP THAT OFFERS EXPERIENCES FOR DIFFERENT EMOTIONAL STATES REPRESENTED BY COLORS 

I found I wasn’t looking at the right problem in the first place. My conversations showed me that my initial ideas concerning immediate behavioral interventions lacked value.

The reasons being:

• It's difficult for users to adopt the use of such interventions when emotions are heated.
• While it's valuable to have help in expanding one’s reaction time, it seems to lack efficacy.

Several participants did not believe a wearable could yet be smart enough to understand their unique emotional needs. For example, participants doubted that a device could understand the difference between an anxiety attack and a run in the park.

At best, users felt in the moment behavior interventions could work well with a more targeted group of people. To suit the varying experiences they have, they wanted to focus more on a different, yet collective problem - chronic obstacles.

The Chronic Obstacles are: 

01

A Missing Sense of Self.

“You know, after a while my mom and I become one person. I know she needs someone to take care of her but I spend so much time worrying about her I don’t remember what it’s like just to me me.” -P2

Design Goal: Help people lessen feelings of adversity by reawakening a sense of vitality through the re-discovery of their interests and values. 

02

Feeling Overwhelmed

“I know that I want to go back to school one day and get my master’s but at my age I just don’t know where to begin with that.” -P4

Design Goal: Help people achieve goals by breaking down their goals into manageable steps. 

03

A Lack of Self-Efficacy

“I always loved music and it used to be such a relaxing thing for me to do - play the piano. But it’s been so long and with my stress I don’t think I can concentrate  on re-learning how to play again.” - P1

Design Goal: Help people believe in their abilities by prompting the celebration of small successes they can build upon. 

04

A Need for Personalization

"What's good for me may not be good for my husband. I enjoy being around people to make me happy but he prefers to be alone. That's his best environment for dealing with stress. -P4

Design Goal: Give people the agency to choose pathways they feel is right for them.

An Intelligent SMART Goal Builder

Early design work included user environment design planning and several iterations of sketches and wireflows. I eventually set out to test a mobile app concept that included the following:

Vision Boards

A way to search images and build upon them with vision boards

Journeys

A data-driven system that analyses vision boards and offers goals and organized, manageable steps to achieve them

Boosters

A library of readings, meditations, and audio files to encourages working toward goals with motivation runs low

Moments

An archive of user’s small successes or steps they have taken toward their chosen goals

EARLY SKETCHES

 WIREFLOWS USED IN TESTING

User Testing

I first wanted to test this idea for value. I shared the sketches with participants and holistically, it was well received.  In particular, participants valued having a clear pathway to achieve a certain goal laid out for them. They also appreciated how the app can be personalized. Users felt the idea of boosters was helpful but not as innovative. Many had apps that contained meditations for the same reasons.

Creating More Value With Rituals

Testers felt the home screen was underwhelming and redundant. They also felt that having all these tasks and habits from different journeys was diffifult to manage.

To ease these feelings, I crafted a means for users to integrate tasks and habits into daily rituals on the home screen. This feature acts as a cognitive prosthesis for planning and provides more value.

Differentiating Vision Boards
& Journeys

Initially, Users could access journeys from the same card as their vision boards. This confused users as they were unsure what the difference was at first glance.

To clarify, I created separated cards for each that are connected through proximity in the horizontal scrolling mode.

Tranquility, Simplicity, and Spark

Elio is about discovery, possibility, growth, celebration. It is also a tool to help those in hardship recognize these aspects of life, so it’s important to balance the design with tranquil elements.  To convey these contrasting impressions visually, I used a complementary soft pastel palette that still remains WCAG accessible. I used blue and yellow to represent a balance of tranquility and spark.

The app's illustrations and colors have a vintage feeling, so I paired them with the Art Deco influenced Josefin Sans font and Lato, a universally welcoming font.

MOODBOARD 

Illustrating New Memories

I explored many illustration styles and found one that the nostalgic style of vintage travel posters evokes a sense of discovery and adventure, and is calming nonetheless, as it holds soft palettes and simple geometric shapes. I replicated this style and drew pictures from various first person perspectives to replicate scenic, yet simple memories. These scenes act as a motif for creating positive memories in the future.

Reflections

Problem solving with existing interaction patterns and components is a key skill.

For this project I worked with the Apple Human Interface Guidelines to create an IOS ready prototype, which I then customized with  my own visual aesthetic and illustrations to create a customized identity. Working with an existing set of interaction patterns is an essential skill for product designers as most companies work within the constraints of a component library.

What this project taught me was how to think in terms of existing patterns, make decisions as to which pattern would fit with the given use case and when it is more valuable to slightly break a pattern or create a new one entirely.

Strategic planning is just as important in visual design.

After working through the base interactions, I built a visual system for this application. Creating a visual strategy document, moodboard, and several iterations helped me rationally understand my visual plan and its purpose. Building a style guide based on brand principles also helped me remain within my chosen visual system. Without these tools, it was easy to sleep into an eclectic style due to shifting moods and ideas. The best piece of advice I learned in terms of visual design is to simply. Always simply.

There's always a good time for coffee talk. ☕️ 

I am currently seeking full-time or contract opportunities. 

Feel free to reach out to say hello: amy.n.asadi@gmail.com
Or connect on: Linkedin. 

© 2022 Amy Asadi