Ally - Mental wellness app created with integration of Artificial Intelligence in a multidisciplinary agile hackathon project
I participated in a hackathon focused on ‘AI for good”, we worked in a cross functional team and created a groundbreaking app from scratch that harnesses the power of Artificial Intelligence. This app is all about fostering connections and monitoring mental wellbeing, enabling people to stay close to their loved ones.The link of the App:
My contribution:
UX Research
User Interviews
Affinity Map
Market Analysis
Usability test
With collaboration of:
3 UX Designers
3 Software Engineers
Prototype of the mental wellness app ALLY
I initiated the research process by identifying the target users
We wanted to design a wellness check app that helps user to be organized and keep the connection with their friends and family seamless even if they are very busy in their daily life. I wanted to learn about user’s behavior, frequency of contacting with their loved ones and hence I conducted six interviews to understand participants’ experiences, emotions, challenges, and desires to handle the emotional aspects of keeping contacts with their close friends and family. 
Comprehensive research revealed user’s important aspects of keep connected
The most important aspects are emotional support, encouragement, and validation within close friends and family are foundational for maintaining positive mental well-being of individual user and their near and dear ones.
When individuals feel emotionally supported, understood, and loved, it significantly contributes to their sense of belonging and self-esteem, and mental wellness.
User Quotes show us how users struggle to keep their own emotion under control and feel helpless when they want to help:
“I struggle to strike the right balance while providing support to my near and dear ones without being too attached emotionally.”
“When any of my friends reaches me for advice, I am not always in a mood to help. I want to help but often struggle to figure out what are the proper words to say.”
“I often for my friends and family’s special days and later feel guilty of not wishing them or making them feel special on their special day.”
“I like to get advice from someone I trust and will not judge me while I seek advice.”
Affinity map was created by analyzing the user interviews
I analyzed the interview data by reviewing interview transcripts and identifying common themes, pain points, and needs and created affinity map to visualize patterns and prioritize the most significant insights.
Affinity Map helps our us to understand user needs and goals
Common user demands emerge from an affinity mappings
Reliable resources and tips
Discuss problems with someone close
Different coping mechanisms
Able to communicate in multiple ways to support friends and family
Maintaining their own mental health
Persona
“I know I should reach out to people more, but I feel overwhelmed with my own life and never know exactly what to say.”
Details: Business analyst, NYC
Pain points:
Struggles to keep balance between work and family.
often feels frustrated for not keeping contacts with her friends and family.
The problem statement is defined by user research
Overwhelming amount of information when searching for help
Searching for results isn’t helpful
Not sure what to say to help others
How might we...
Help users to get resources and tips to help others without being overwhelmed with information?
Find a balance between giving and receiving support?
We understand the importance of being present for the highs and lows in people's lives.
That's why Ally helps foster those connections by tracking interactions, suggesting content to forward to friends and family & integrated AI to assist you when you're not quite sure how to best support your loved ones.
We did competitive analysis with mental health and CRM website before started our sketching
Use the insights from affinity mapping and personas to create initial sketching followed by user flow
We started creating wireframes for the app
By focusing on features and interactions that address the identified user needs and pain points.
Iterate on the wireframes, incorporating feedback from users and conducting usability testing on early wireframes to refine the design.
Testing with 3 users revealed that...
100% of users found the updated design easy to navigate.
1 user said didn't feel personable/too formal.
1 user wanted to give feedback to the AI responses.
Quotes from Usability test
"The webpage looks great
"Will the advice be helpful to address the problem?"
"Can we add reviews and ratings?"
Translated the finalized design into a functional app
Once usability test was done we made few changes and collaborated with developers to translate the finalized design into a functional app, ensuring alignment with the intended user experience and features
From the judge
Glows:
Grows:
“I loved the user feedback. “
“There was also a good comparative analysis.”
“Great way of showing takeaways from affinity map and user research.”
“Think of areas of warmth for the user. “
“Think of integrations (apple watch).”
“This seems like an overwhelming place to come from, feeling responsible for everyone’s feelings and having to track relationships all the time.”
Final Thought based on judge’s comment
Our design team is working on the responsive design keeping the smartwatch integration in mind and we are closely working with developing team.
Our user research process directed us towards the user frustrations and desire which made us created an app that keeps track of everyone’s feeling.
