Mind Garden
UIUX 2022
Figma, Photoshop, Illustrator
Group Project with Jia, HsinMin
My Role in The Group: Research, Interview, Definition, Prototyping, Video, UI, User Testing
Our inspiration stems from the economic and social disruptions caused by the Covid-19 pandemic, which have led to an increasing number of people experiencing mental stress. Consequently, there is a growing demand for psychological support apps.
Introducing Mind Garden, a nurturing plant game designed to assist users in organizing their thoughts and alleviating stress. The app aims to help individuals identify the underlying causes of their stress through targeted questions. With the guidance of Professor Tang Xuanhui from our university and Taco Chen, the design director of FOURDESIR, I actively participated in the entire design process. This included initial research, user interviews, project scoping, and the creation of both low and high-fidelity models, culminating in the final testing phase.
Introducing Mind Garden, a nurturing plant game designed to assist users in organizing their thoughts and alleviating stress. The app aims to help individuals identify the underlying causes of their stress through targeted questions. With the guidance of Professor Tang Xuanhui from our university and Taco Chen, the design director of FOURDESIR, I actively participated in the entire design process. This included initial research, user interviews, project scoping, and the creation of both low and high-fidelity models, culminating in the final testing phase.
Planting Manual with “7 Directive Questions”
Difference between General Questions and Constructive Questions
Generally, the general questioning method is more like simply asking things clearly (ex: What did the impact on you bring by this problem?), but the constructive questioning method is more optimistic, making it easier for users to develop helpful content (ex: What actions did you take when you encountered problems before? What the way is the most suitable?).
Garden & Memoirs & Public Space
The visual style under my responsibility is grounded in rational responses, aiming to instill a sense of tranquility in users. By blending abstract and simple lines with muted brightness and low saturation colors, the intention is to provide users with a stable environment for identifying and addressing stressors.
This visual approach not only excels in creating a calming atmosphere but also facilitates users' swift comprehension of function buttons and interaction modes, streamlining their overall experience. The use of abstract geometric figures adds a light touch without overwhelming, drawing users to engage with this app.
This visual approach not only excels in creating a calming atmosphere but also facilitates users' swift comprehension of function buttons and interaction modes, streamlining their overall experience. The use of abstract geometric figures adds a light touch without overwhelming, drawing users to engage with this app.
Storyboard
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Inspiration
The Influence of Covid 19
The economic and social upheaval triggered by the Covid-19 pandemic has had a devastating impact, leading to an escalating number of individuals grappling with mental stress. Data collected by Sensor Tower underscores the rapidly increasing demand for psychological support apps. The necessity for stress relief and mental health assistance has become more pronounced.
Research indicates that pressure is an ongoing and dynamic process, subject to continuous change. Faced with external pressure-inducing events, individuals mobilize both internal and external resources, responding to pressure through cognition and action.
Various theories highlight that coping with stress is a deeply personal endeavor, often requiring moments of solitude and self-reflection. The crucial need lies in altering individual thought patterns.
How Might We
help people, under pressure,
to reduce their stress brought by external factors through playful design.
The economic and social upheaval triggered by the Covid-19 pandemic has had a devastating impact, leading to an escalating number of individuals grappling with mental stress. Data collected by Sensor Tower underscores the rapidly increasing demand for psychological support apps. The necessity for stress relief and mental health assistance has become more pronounced.
Research indicates that pressure is an ongoing and dynamic process, subject to continuous change. Faced with external pressure-inducing events, individuals mobilize both internal and external resources, responding to pressure through cognition and action.
Various theories highlight that coping with stress is a deeply personal endeavor, often requiring moments of solitude and self-reflection. The crucial need lies in altering individual thought patterns.
Research indicates that pressure is an ongoing and dynamic process, subject to continuous change. Faced with external pressure-inducing events, individuals mobilize both internal and external resources, responding to pressure through cognition and action.
Various theories highlight that coping with stress is a deeply personal endeavor, often requiring moments of solitude and self-reflection. The crucial need lies in altering individual thought patterns.
MECE
Interview
Insight
Coping with stress requires clarifying and dealing with problems.
Most testing users consider pressure is negative, influencing their conditions from many aspects.
We hope to cut to the chase from the long term- seek possible solutions.
In the short term, this helps users to think more thoroughly when encountering problems.
In the long term, this helps users build better skills when dealing with problems,
To relieve mental stress, the most suitable way is to focus on changing the inner way of thinking.
For this purpose, it is necessary to help the target group to clarify the problems encountering when the incident occurs.
Target User
Objective Group
- Short Term: Clarify and Analysize Problems
- Long Term: Develop good attitude and ability to face and deal with problems
20-25y, students and new graduates
- Self-regulation is poor;it is hard to solve problems on their own.
- Find it hard to turn stress to a positive thing and feel difficult to manage it.
Group Goals
- Short Term
- Clarify the problem
- Guide users to think comprehensively about the incident
-
Long Term
- Encourage to think actively
- Cultivate problem-solving ability
- Develop the ability of multi-thinking to strengthen stresss resistance
Core Idea
- Problem-focused coping
- Emotion-focused coping
These two coping mechanisms all include the adjustment of internal coping, during which people change their perception of the event or situation and re-evaluate. Through data collection and research, we found that guiding users to think about problems can help them alleviate their psychological pressure. Specifically, answering directive questions can change the user's inner reflection process, expand their perspective of thinking, and shorten the time it takes to find a solution.
The process of making clear of the trigger of negative emotions and combing through
negative feelings is just like the process of growing a plant, which requires thinking and
patience.
Recent studies also show that people who spend time cultivating plants have less stress in their lives. Plants soothe human beings and provide a positive way to channel their stress into nurturing. Therefore, we determined the interaction design mode for our App. Users' answer to each question corresponds to a step of planting plants.
Recent studies also show that people who spend time cultivating plants have less stress in their lives. Plants soothe human beings and provide a positive way to channel their stress into nurturing. Therefore, we determined the interaction design mode for our App. Users' answer to each question corresponds to a step of planting plants.
Structure
Clarify Thoughts and Feelings by Planting your plant
After users describe the stress they are suffering, they can get seeds. Users need to complete the answers to the questions so that the plant will grow from the seed.
There are 7 types of directive questions corresponding to the planting conditions required for 7 kinds of plants. After the planting condition is met, the plant could be harvested and be added to the plant collection.
After users describe the stress they are suffering, they can get seeds. Users need to complete the answers to the questions so that the plant will grow from the seed.
There are 7 types of directive questions corresponding to the planting conditions required for 7 kinds of plants. After the planting condition is met, the plant could be harvested and be added to the plant collection.
User Testing
Basic Info
20-25y, suffered from mental stress in the past three months
Test Procedure
Intro of App > Background > Free Operation
Assignments
Plant plants, Record, Transplant, Leave messages to encourage others,
Interview, Fill out the form about UI design
Improvements
Users feel limited due to too many questions. > choose 1 from 3 questions
There could be some changes in the shape of flower. > add new types of lower
It is hard to understand why the user needs to pick the color for stress.
Find it hard to understand the connection between plants and the answer. > Add explanations
Do not understad the icons and ways of planting. > Add titles
20-25y, suffered from mental stress in the past three months
Test Procedure
Intro of App > Background > Free Operation
Assignments
Plant plants, Record, Transplant, Leave messages to encourage others,
Interview, Fill out the form about UI design
Improvements
Users feel limited due to too many questions. > choose 1 from 3 questions
There could be some changes in the shape of flower. > add new types of lower
It is hard to understand why the user needs to pick the color for stress.
Find it hard to understand the connection between plants and the answer. > Add explanations
Do not understad the icons and ways of planting. > Add titles
Reflection
Our biggest problem is that we often defined functions too complicatedly, resulting in the central parts being unable to be fully presented. Through these processes, I learned how to grasp the key points of the problem more accurately and practiced how to provide interaction and connection in real life.