Living as an international student for my master's was very challenging and really made me realize the importance of looking after mental health. I struggled with loneliness and sleep issues especially due to the sudden shift in the environment and societal pressure that celebrates normative lifestyle and behavior. Talking with people of my age group made me realize that I am not the only one facing these challenges and this motivated me to get into the depths of this problem. MindMate was my capstone project and I worked on it 0-1 to bring the idea to existence.

My Role (solo)

UX Design and Research

Timeline

Nov 2022 — Mar 2023

THE PROBLEM

Young adults find it difficult to handle stressful situations and increasing pressure, affecting their mental health, academics and sometimes life itself.

Background: Why this Problem?

The original problem space I started working on stemmed from my personal experience as an international student: the absence of a tailored roadmap or checklist to ease the transition from one’s home country to the USA. However, through research and brainstorming, I recognized that

The core issue behind students’ struggle is the lack of mental preparedness for life changes.

Thus, the idea of creating a platform to help students foster strong and healthy mindsets emerged, enabling them to navigate even the most challenging and uncertain situations successfully.

The solution overview and Business Opportunities

This platform can benefit educational institutions, healthcare providers, and mental health organizations, offering a value-added service that boosts their brand and attracts more students.

1. Personalization

Provides personalized mental health resources and support, tailored to the specific needs of individual students.

2. Evidence-based

Utilizes evidence-based information by mental health professionals, ensuring its credibility and effectiveness.

3. Community-driven

Gives a sense of community among students, providing peer support and a safe space for sharing experiences.

Understanding student users

I wanted to know first-hand from students about the mental challenges they faced during their academic life, if they worked on it and what approaches/ mental health practices they use in the short or long term. Hence, I surveyed to shortlist users further to take their interviews.

I surveyed 98 students who were working on their mental health — 78% mentioned they want to manage their mental health better than they were!

I interviewed 8 individuals between the ages of 18 – 45

• who were either full-time or part-time students

• who were struggling/had struggled to take care of their mental health

• Who were facing mental health issues and/or working on mental well-being

“It took a panic attack for me to realize how stressed I was and how much my mental health was compromised”

“Getting adjusted in a new environment was very challenging for me.”

“Started doubting my own past decisions when stress increased a lot.”

Some of the quotes from user interviews I conducted

Discovery: Understanding competitors

To see the existing solutions related to mental health catered towards students, I performed a competitive analysis.

The two relevant competitors were:

Personalized experience was missing

Too many features distracted from the main focus

A simple cue of daily mood tracking greatly helped build habits easily

In all competitors:

To make sense of all the information collected through research and identify the main ideas coming through the information, I did affinity mapping of all the information collected.

This affinity mapping helped to form 4 key groups in which all information could be categorized:

1. Effects of poor mental health on students

2. Reasons for students’ mental health issues

3. Triggers that helped users identify extreme stress

4. Key approaches users found useful to deal with stressful situations

Analysis of Research

The analysis of research I did before this point helped me create a user persona that I could keep in mind while designing the rest of the product.

Designing Solutions

To ideate all possible solutions, I maintained the focus on key insights from my research, respective HMW and creating a simple, intuitive, and personalized app that would help students manage their mental health effectively.

Highlight

Key Insight 1: Late Attention to Mental Health

Students paid attention to their mental health only when the stress and anxiety started showing through physical signs like, panic attacks, shivering etc.

HMW help students pay attention to mental health in their everyday lives instead of waiting till issues get severe.

Solution: Having daily mental health exercises suggested based on their daily check-in inputs