Oasis
🏆 UX Design Awards Spring 2023 Nominees
project OVERVIEW
Find your Oasis. An APP for Mindtrip and Mental Support
Responsibilities: User Research, UX/UI Design
Keywords: Oasis, Mental health, Heal, Social Support, Recovery, traumas
Duration: 3 months
“I had to clear up my messy life. By letting go of the debris and filth, I have come to a deeper, more soulful beauty and clarity like an oasis in the desert. From that place of clarity, a vision of what I could have, what I could do, who I could be has emerged if I allow my heart to become a place of compassion, acceptance and forgiveness.”
― Sharon E. Rainey
introdcution
Oasis is a mobile application for Mindtrip and Mental Support. It aims to assist people to recover from traumas, building new connections, and improving mental health. It simulated a journey from the desert to the oasis. The users need to complete every daily challenge to move forward toward the oasis. During this mind trip, the users not only can feel the changes in their own mindset but also experience the support from the community grouped by people has gone through it all.
Arrival oasis is not the end of the journey, users can give back to the community by supporting people who have not walked out of their desert, and sending encouragement to them. Your support will build the oasis community warm and send messages of empowerment and strength to people like you used to be.
user research
In order to collect the current state of user needs, I chose a combination of qualitative and quantitative research methods. For the survey analysis, the questionnaire method in quantitative research was mainly used. The semi-structured interview method and focus groups in the qualitative study were used to measure the various dimensional indicators of the study participants' demographic information and emotion management through interviews with the respondents and group members, to discover the specific status of the study participants' post-traumatic growth, to provide a basis for subsequent analysis and to pave the way for design protocol development and determination of research effectiveness. This is to supplement the quantitative information.
I recruited panel members in the form of a recruitment exercise on the internet. A total of 10 panelists were recruited through the call and this survey will use questionnaires and unstructured interviews for the brief, easily repeated measure of the Positive States of Mind Scale (PSOMS) and Emotion Management Scale to analyze their psychological state, current needs, and the neediness of their level of post-traumatic resilience. The principles of "informed consent, confidentiality, voluntariness and do no harm" were followed in the research and practice of this study. Inform patients of the purpose, methods, advantages, and disadvantages of the study before the study are conducted, ensure that the subjects give their informed consent, voluntarily participate in the study and sign the All data will be used for scientific research only and information will be kept strictly confidential.
A series of questionnaires were administered using an online questionnaire and a total of 10 questionnaires were returned, all of which were returned. The returned questionnaires were analyzed for activity evaluation and feedback from the group members.
A series of questionnaires were administered using an online questionnaire and a total of 10 questionnaires were returned, all of which were returned. The returned questionnaires were analyzed for activity evaluation and feedback from the group members.
The total number of respondents to the questionnaire was 10. It was found that the proportion of men and women was basically similar, with a high proportion of people aged 18-24 and 25-30 years old and above, with a ratio of 40% and 50%, of which respondents aged 31 years old and above accounted for 10% of the total. Respondents with an education level above high school accounted for 70% of the total, while those with an education level above high school and below accounted for 30% of the total, and 60% of the respondents were students. This shows that this group of respondents is predominantly young, with a relatively stable composition, and that the overall level of education within the unit is high, with the majority being undergraduate and postgraduate.
Based on the needs of the study, I designed the interview outline and selected five of the 10 respondents from different age groups for in-depth interviews, focusing on various aspects of their current self-emotional and anxiety management status and performance, factors affecting the quality of post-traumatic growth, and natural resilience. Before the interviews began, the interviewees signed an informed consent form and were informed that the entire interview was recorded; after the interviews were completed, the recordings were transcribed into verbatim transcripts. The qualitative data collected through reading the interviews was marked with important information, and the textual information collected was collated and categorized for analysis from a theoretical perspective.
In the unstructured interviews, it was found that most of the interviewees would be mentally stressed, anxious, and agitated due to changes in the external environment, unexpected events that lead to anxiety (or even trauma in severe cases), which affects physical and mental health, family relationships and social interpersonal relationships, while they showed an active interest in stress-reducing activities/post-trauma self-restoration, and most of the staff were very willing to try using mobile phone applications for improving such situations. The most common word from interviewees during the interview is "I want to get my life back."
user needs
Using interview and questionnaire data, I analyze the factors that influence young people's stress relief, post-traumatic growth, and natural resilience, in order to provide direction and a basis for assessing their needs. On the basis of this, I analyze the specific needs of young people in terms of stress relief, with reference to relevant research literature, in order to provide a basis for the design solution and to lay the foundations for further evaluation work.
The need for self-regulation of attention and returning to daily life. This involves maintaining attention on objects and de-self-regulating anxiety to overcome the dysregulation.
The need for meaning-making, redefining the self and treating oneself well. This involves redefining the self in terms of meaningful relationships. There are three different dimensions to the experience of trauma: firstly, the perceptual dimension; secondly, the emotional dimension; and thirdly, the cognitive dimension. In the process of de-selfing trauma, the individual is actually made aware of the emotional dimension of pain and influences the pain experience with his or her own kindness and love. To be kind to oneself is likewise to be kind to one's own beliefs, to accept, listen and feel different thoughts in order to be further kind to the client's point of view. It is therefore particularly important to help people learn to accept and embrace themselves.
The need for social support. Social support is the material, emotional and informational assistance and support that individuals receive from friends, relatives, or meaningful others through interpersonal interactions. This support meets the daily needs of individuals in stressful situations and enhances their resilience, thereby maintaining their physical and mental health. Individuals need a strong social support system and other means of expression to recover or grow from negative life events such as trauma. This can be very beneficial for post-traumatic growth and can help us tap into unacknowledged inner strengths and enhance post-traumatic natural resilience.
Looking into papers: A Classic Mechanism
Through collecting, collating, summarizing, and analyzing the historical literature, the theories, and development of the enhancement of natural resilience in recent years, the research and implementation programs on the enhancement of emotional management were understood. A classic mechanism is based on Dr. Susan Spicer's trauma healing research, into three stages: Stabilization, Overcoming Dysregulation, Reconnection & Integration, and Posttraumatic Growth.
Information Architecture
Oasis’s information architecture is shown on the right. Four basic functions: Journey, Diary, Message, and Setting. The Journey tap is the main part of the mobile application. It is a task-based daily challenge activity, divided into “Desert “and “Oasis “parts. Users will first only access the “Desert “part, and follow the task instruction to do a daily challenge. A basic task set is last for 21 days. During the days, users will receive affirmations from the users who already finish the 21 days challenge.
Those affirmation messages will send to encourage users to keep on. When a user finishes the 21 days challenges, he/she will feel the positive changes in their daily life, which it means he/she already arrive at “Oasis “. Then they can access the “Oasis “ part and enter the community, to view the posts by challenge taker, send affirmations to them, or start conversations.
Every day’s challenge request user uploads a photo to complete. Its records the user’s journey and effort during the 21 days challenge. It will automatically be generated into a personalized diary. Users can view the diary and share them with the community.
features
Mind Trip: Daily Challenges
Daily challenges help you complete a small but can improve your life thing, which can regain a sense of safety involves creating a secure and predictable environment where you are free from physical and emotional injury and have established a degree of emotional stability.
Oasis Dairy
During daily challenges, you are asked to upload photos to mark your completion. It not only marks your completion of daily challenges but also generates your personalized "Oasis Dairy". It helps you to breathe deeply and allows your chest to open, letting light into a dark space.
Community Support
When you finished all the daily challenges, you will feel changes more positive in your life, which means you arrive at your oasis. Then you can guide others towards the oasis by sending affirmations to motivate those who still struggled in their desert. There’s tremendous power in the Oasis community. It’s communal care and healing.
Visual Experiment
In the visual experiment, to enhance the immersion of the desert-oasis journey. I designed the scenario illustrations to simulate the process, from desert to oasis.
I draw on similar design elements from the real desert, these basic elements include desert, sun, cactus, etc., which is also the main design idea of Oasis: in the social network nowadays, people are like a bunch of cacti in the desert, too lonely and full of thorns, we need a refreshing oasis. The icon also symbolizes the desert and the user's journey through it to reach the oasis.
Oasis’s goal is to assist people to recover from traumas, building new connections, and improving mental health. Comfortable visuals reduce the user's eye strain. Mobile application design should not be just about aesthetics. It should also provide a great physical experience for the user.
In order to present a comfortable visual effect, I use natural colors, soothing images, and simple layouts in the application UIs. They include natural illustrations, colors with a calming effect, and simple light elements.
High-fidelity Prototype
Content is the core function of Oasis, and the carrier of the content is the typography. The same content with different typography brings users a very different feeling. Typography conveys the artistic temperament of the entire interface visuals, which is formed by arranging and combining design elements such as composition, text, and color to form aesthetically pleasing picture content.
A user-friendly lead page introduces users to the value proposition and how the product will improve their lives. Oasis’s onboarding pages aim to convey the idea of the application and reflect the main purpose to users: a digital journey from the desert to the oasis. It quickly establishes a strong emotional connection with the user, clearly demonstrating product features while easily making the best first impression and thus enhancing the product's image.
In Oasis, the first step in recovering from trauma involves reestablishing feelings of safety and stability. The goal of this stage should be to improve life on a daily basis and not continue to re-live the trauma.
Daily challenges help you complete a very small but can improve your life thing, which can regain a sense of safety involves creating a secure and predictable environment where you are free from physical and emotional injury and have established a degree of emotional stability. To achieve this purpose, the UIs tend to be a round angle, and tender graphics, to list the tasks.
During this journey, users are not alone. People from the Oasis community will provide support: holding space for love, care, reflection, laughter, crying, feeling what they’re feeling, or for whatever else they may need. Users can receive encouragement and affirmations from them every day.
There is a diary function in Oasis application. Users are asked to take photos to record their Oasis journey. It not only marks their completion of daily challenges but also generates their personalized "Oasis Diary". As time goes by, Oasis helps users to breathe deeply and allow their chest to open, letting light into a dark space. The UI design follows timeline design principles, the records are categorized and sorted based on time, and then displayed to the user in the most suitable form. Its UI design will add to the fun and friendly experience of the Oasis diary as people browse and read.
what's next?
This project has been selected along with 32 other nominees in the “New Talent” category among 400 participants, for the UX Design Awards Spring 2023. I will continue thinking about the project's future direction and connect with the startup that works on a similar track!
What I have learned?
How to effectively use the advantages of mobile to innovate treatment models for post-trauma recovery in order to maximize treatment outcomes has become an issue that requires attention. HCI and UX research can greatly contribute to three broad factors thought to underlie resilience: returning to daily routines, social support, and meaning-making. Its Virtual, Metaphors, and Social network-based features greatly foster the social support factors and meaning-making process. Its value is aligned with SDG3, which is universal and for all people, rich and poor.