Background
During my Advanced Design Thinking for Transformation class in the Design Innovation program at UW-Madison, our class was given the task to address a new or amplified issue that was caused by COVID-19. My team and I decided to focus on the mental and physical wellness of adolescents who had to learn how to cope with the everchanging world around them in addition to the current changes that are naturally occurring. Our project aligns with the human centered design thinking method.
We initially began our project looking at how studies show a decrease in adolescent wellness checkups, more severely in certain areas and demographics. When we dug deeper into the issues we found that the healthcare and insurance systems are broken. While we may not be able to fix the system directly, we can help those affected by its brokenness live a healthier life.
Empathize
We started our research by interviewing adolescents, parents, and teachers to gain better insight on the perceived wellness of the adolescent population. Our interviews remained broad as we were looking for a holistic view of health and where the adolescent may feel they are lacking in resources. Below are some of the impactful quotes from those interviews.
Adolescents
Parents
Teachers
Common Themes From Adolescents
- They start focusing on health too late
- If they are focused earlier, it was only due to sports and necessary reasons OR parents took care of their health
- They want(ed) earlier intervention of something or someone to help them understand how to maintain their wellbeing
Common Themes From Teachers & Parents
- Coordination between multiple schedules for shots, checkups, and other visits makes it difficult
- As the adolescents are getting older, they get busier; which makes it hard for the parents to bring attention to their wellbeing and health
- Parents did not always know exactly what to look for or talk about specifically with their child; sometimes they assumed the school was their child’s resource for that
Research
We continued the empathize phase by delving deeper into the common themes that were expressed by the adolescents and adults through observation and contextual research.
TikTok & Fortnite Observations
Applications and games such as TikTok and Fortnite may appear harmless and fun for an adolescent, but there is an underlying harm affecting those who use it.
These harms include but are not limited to:
- Oversexualizing women and men at young ages and in general
- Promoting “beauty” over health
- Targeting weight loss tips and tricks causing insecurity with their developing and changing bodies while possibly inducing unhealthy eating habits
- Long extended period of use causing lack of sleep and disrupted sleep schedules
- Late night gaming and scrolling may lead to binge eating
Contextual Research Physical Health
(According to the World Health Organization)
- 75 percent of our nation’s youth do not get 8+ hours of sleep on a school night
- 21% of the adolescent population is obese
- Only 41% of adolescents get 60 minutes of activity 5 days out of the week
Contextual Research Mental Health
(According to the World Health Organization)
- 21 percent of our nation’s youth suffers from a diagnosable mental disorder that causes impairment, but 80 percent are not identified and do not receive help
- Nearly 50% of mental health conditions begin by age 14, and 75% of them occur by age 24
- About 3 in 4 children aged 3-17 years with depression also have anxiety (73.8%) and almost 1 in 2 have behavior problems (47.2%)
Define
We utilized the common themes and research to define the problem and formulate a how might we question to best address the issues that face adolescent heath. We decided to target the age range of middle school to high school (11-18) mainly because this was the age range where adolescents begin to take more ownership of their health.
How might we encourage adolescent ownership of personal health while providing sustainable equal opportunities, resources, and accessibility?
Ideate
Initial Ideation
Focusing Ideation
Solution Selected
We started out by writing down all possible solutions that addressed our how might we in the Miro interface. We then grouped all of our ideas based on who it impacted or targeted (adolescent, parent, teacher) and what area of health (mental, physical, both).
When focusing our ideas, we wanted to find a probable solution with a high impact to empower the adolescents to take ownership of their mental and physical health.
The opportunity area that we decided to move forward with addressed both mental and physical health with personalized subscription boxes. Each student would be able to access information on health topics and try samples of different products. The box was also inspired from the students who recalled getting free samples during their health talks as the highlight of the experience. In addition, teachers assured that students are thrilled when they get to pick out their own samples during health days.
Prototype
As we began prototyping, I took on the role of UX designer. While at the time I lacked the core understanding of UX fundamentals and this was not my strongest area, I utilized this opportunity to learn new tools and get feedback on how to improve within this area of prototyping. From this initial prototyping, I received professional industry feedback and improved on the app design in the next iteration.
Heyday Box
The Heyday box was created to be gender neutral in appearance and comes with test samples of age appropriate healthcare items and different informational items that are requested from their specific profile. Each box would be tailored to the individual. The QR code at the top of the box would allow the adolescent to scan the box and get more information on the contents of their box. Each box would be sent out on a quarterly basis through the schools to ensure that every student is able to receive one. The name Heyday was inspired by its meaning of the stage or period of greatest vigor, strength, success, which is everything we wanted for these adolescents.
Heyday App
The app interface is a calming green with fun, age appropriate text. The app then gathers the student’s school email, age, identifier, hobbies, and classes. The adolescent would then click on each of the three areas of wellness to delve more into specific topics that they want to get more information about. These three topics include mental, physical, and emotional wellness.
Heyday App
The next screens show what the three topics may then dive deeper into depending on the student’s age and how they identify. Each button will allow them to explore each topic and add in the educational and/or samples to their specific box. Once they have completed each, the adolescent can return to the app to find more online resources.
Test
Desirability
The Heyday box was extremely desirable for not only the adolescents, but also for the parents and teachers. When reaching out to our past interviewees, they were excited by the idea but questioned how we would address everything someone in that age could be experiencing, especially across the different areas of health.
Feasibility
The Heyday box would rely on partnerships with schools, CPG health and wellness producers (Proctor Gamble, Unilever, Pfizer), local wellness centers in order to fund and distribute the boxes quarterly. The boxes could be a goodwill marketing move for CPG health and wellness companies to get their brand in front of potential new customers, enticing these companies to want to donate.
Logistically the boxes could either be assembled in a warehouse where the materials are stored or assembled quarterly at the school itself. This would rely heavily on the amount of funding and product donations.
Viability
The Heyday box could be viably funded through donations or partnerships such as give a box get a box. Distribution would rely heavily on the schools to ensure each box is given to the correct student.
Iterate
After testing the Heyday concept with adolescents and industry professionals, it was clear that there were issues that needed to be resolved. The main issue was that trying to encompass all possible areas of mental, physical, and emotional health that someone experiences may be too vast for the Heyday quarterly box. We decided that moving forward we wanted to target the building of positive metals habits in adolescents. We reconstructed our how might we to reflect this new direction. In addition, we took key components from Heyday and prototyped a new application.
How might we introduce and build positive mental wellness habits in middle & high schoolers?
Prototype
Euonia (you-know-ya)
Eunoia is a journey to mental resilience and illness prevention, through a rewarding wellness application, while also teaching mental health in a fun and personal way. The Eunoia program will start in the 6th grade to target pre-teens entering into teen years. Eunoia focusing on building the positive mental habits of breathing techniques, meditation, and journaling while rewarding the individual for their growth journey.
We decided to name the app name “Eunoia” as it is pronounced like you know ya, inferring that mental health is the key to knowing yourself. Eunoia also means well mind; beautiful thinking.
Eunoia App
Sign-in Page
Within the sign on page we included school email as the program could be directed by the schools. We also used a cleaner layout and format so that the app is more accessible to read.
Home Page
The Home page shows the progress of the growth and how close the user is to rewards.
Activity & Progress Page
The activity page shows the three different activities that an adolescent can choose to pick.
The progress page shows how many days they have participated in each of the three activities.
Inside Each Activity Page
Each activity page would appear as the screen shots on top. It would display the day you are on for that activity and a video of the activity featured below.
Once an adolescent reaches 30 days on an activity, they can redeem virtual incentives or incentives defined by the school.
Test
Desirability
Eunoia combines the reward driven participation that the targeted middle and high schoolers enjoy alongside the app functionality that appeals to this age group. When we discussed this app with the past interviewees, they were excited by the game and earning possibility aspect and also appreciated how simple it was to start. Teachers looked at this as a great tool to use to help guide students to learn better mental health habits outside of school.
Feasibility
The only constraint would be the development of the app which requires funding. Once that is completed, it is up to each school to decide whether they want to adjust for their own preferences (rewards, ID type, etc) or stick with the default option.
Viability
The new application can be driven by the schools themselves, which would allow the rewards (virtual or physical) to be chosen on the district level. Since it is also reliant on the app itself, the school can use it with specific grade levels to test before implementing with the entire school.