UX Lead — Interaction Design, User Interviews, User Flows, Product Management
Alex Hagstrom, UX Researcher
Kevin Lin, UX Designer
Annie Ko, UI Designer
Erwin Olimpo, UI Designer
3 months, product pitch June 2023
Overview
eMotion is an emotional momentary assessment (EMA) mobile app that uses push notifications to prompt users to document their emotional experiences throughout their day.
This app was designed with the UCSD Design Lab and supervised by public health professionals for UCSD Health’s return-to-learn program, which aims to facilitate a smooth transition back to in-person campus activities after the pandemic.
I led a team of 5 student designers to conduct discovery research and define MVP features to guide our hi-fidelity prototype deliverable. We presented our work to members of the California Public Health Board and were considered the top product among 3 other student teams.
Highlights
Extracting trends between emotions and behavior to inspire healthier habits.
Context
A difficult return to routine.
In 2022, as UCSD began offering classes fully in-person for the first time since the pandemic, clinicians noticed a rise in mental health crises in students. One contributing factor was the abruptness of returning to daily routines and activities in-person.
Fact Check
Transitioning back to in-person school brought a wave of unfamiliar social interaction and responsibility that added to pandemic mental-health struggles.
Center for Collegiate Mental Health Report, Fall 2021.
Problem Space
Turbulence ahead, brace for impact.
Through user interviews with San Diego county residents, we discovered that people struggle with maintaining their healthy routines when unexpected emotional “turbulence” occurs. Our interview questions focused on how the pandemic had affected people's ability to maintain healthy routines and stick to goals.
Too busy to notice. From working during the day to family commitments at night, interviewees didn't find time to reflect on their habits and routines.
Lack of external support. Staying accountable for personal goals and identifying emotional triggers was difficult without friends or family to encourage them.
Lack of documentation. Even if people did happen to notice unhealthy routines or habits forming, they didn't document it in a journal to refer back to later.
User Research
We conducted 12 semi-structured Ad-hoc interviews along neighborhoods adjacent to SD Metro trolley stops. Sampling was conducted in both Northern and Southern county in order to gain a more representative sample (generally more wealthy/caucasian in North, more racially/economically diverse in South).
Map of interview sites around San Diego county.
Opportunities
An eMotional challenge.
eMotion helps people understand the associations between their emotions and daily activities to create healthy habits that enable them to do more of what makes them happy.
Service Blueprint
No stone left unturned.
I decided to create a service blueprint in order to understand the intangible aspects of tracking emotions we might've missed in our user interviews.
Findings
We realized that the emotion tracking process heavily relies on timely and non-invasive push-notifications to deliver reminders to log users' daily moods.
Service blueprint for the emotion tracking experience.
Solution
Effortless mood tracking and goal setting.
eMotion uses a 3-stage workflow to help users track, identify, and take action on both positive and negative mood associations.
Onboarding
To educate users who have never used a journaling or mood tracking app before, we created an onboarding flow to personalize privacy and notifications settings.
Track
Users log their emotions via emojis, text and audio input. eMotion can also integrate with frequently used apps to encourage users to track their emotions as they perform routine tasks. This non-intrusive interaction method ensures that users regularly document how they are feeling.
Identify
Associations display corresponding emotion data to remind users how they felt in the moment. Users are then prompted to set a goal for each association. This helps users identify downward spirals, or, healthy habits, and find motivation to do something about it.
Act
Users create actionable steps to ensure they make steady progress. eMotion also provides suggested actions in response to unexpected events that may impact certain goals. Once a goal is completed, users can celebrate by sharing a badge with friends and family. These features enable users to overcome frustrating obstacles and follow through on their goals.
Iteration
Connecting cause and effect.
The main challenge we faced was determining how to assign tangible value to emotions. Our solution was to assign positive or negative sentiment to emoji input and verify with text and audio input. However, our public health mentors didn't understand what data our emotional-behavioral associations were being drawn from.
Impact
A novel approach to improving health.
Mentors
Grateful for the guidance from Dr. Eliah Aronoff-Spencer, Steve Cranston, Dr. Robert Schooley, and Don Norman.
Learnings
Telling stories through data.
Encourage user initiative. By creating actionable goals from mood associations, our product enables users to realize the full value of eMotion. This concept applies to all products where success depends on how motivated users are.
Seek industry specific guidance. During our 10 week design sprint, we received feedback every week from the doctors and public health professionals who designed the CA Notify COVID-19 app. This mentorship was invaluable to refining our product's features and health-centered approach.
Leverage unique skillsets. As UX lead, I learned how to bring out the strengths of my designers to create a high-quality product in only 10 weeks. I encouraged my team members to lean into their respective strengths in interaction design, visual design and user research; this allowed me to contribute my own expertise in data visualization and product discovery.
