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To commemorate Studio PKA turning 25, the studio team came together to create a one of a kind sketchbook to gift our fellow designers and creators in the fraternity who were an integral part of the studios growth and process.​
Role
Timeline
Designer
2 weeks
04.
Hush;
Conquer Your Anxiety
Hush is a platform that aims to provide instant temporary relief to your social anxiety needs. It helps you calm down in a few simple steps by curbing and regulating anxious feelings through various modules.
Platform
Mobile
Timeline
3 weeks

Context
Social anxiety is the fear of social situations that involve interaction with other people. It's a cycle of overthinking that can only be curbed with conscious action and reaction including long-term healthcare.
Symptoms may include excessive fear of situations in which one may be judged, worry about embarrassment or humiliation, or concern about offending someone.
But what can be done on the spot for temporary relief during these uncomfortable social situations?
The Challenge
The challenge here was to come up with a solution that targets anxiety related symptoms on the spot to be able to provide temporary relief during these social situations and help the user regulate their feelings.
Goal
From the research insights, I was able to narrow down my focus to 2 main aspects: the experience itself and the ease of interaction. Solving for these would cover my main problem areas.
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Improve experience during anxious periods
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Easy to use and interact with even in distress
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Approach
Understanding The Problem
Before I can get to defining the problem statement, I listed the various situations that cause social anxiety and what type of unique symptoms are exhibited based on my initial research. This would help me further understand the users and their experiences.
SITUATION
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Meeting people
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Interacting with authority
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Intense conversations
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Parties and gatherings
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Speaking with strangers
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Public speaking/performing
SYMPTOMS
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Nervousness
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Restlessness
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Panic
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Breathing difficulties
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Increased sweating
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Trembling
Defining The Problem
With a consolidated idea of the situations and symptoms, I could categorize this information further by creating personas to understand our target audience and how various situations give rise to different types of symptoms. This would help me define the main problem.
TARGET AUDIENCE

The Introvert

The Student

The Quiet One
SCENARIO
Attend a party of a considerable size
Give a talk in front of a large crowd
Transaction with a stranger
SYMPTOMS
• Safety Behaviours
• Panic
• Nervousness
• Escape
• Nausea
• Trembling
• Irregular Breathing
• Muscle Tension
• Negative Thoughts
• Overthinking
• Restlessness
• Avoidance
The Solution
Before getting started on the design process, it is important to understand that symptoms cannot be instantaneously treated with the same solutions. Hence it essential to come up with a solution that caters to the user and their scenarios without having to put further pressure on them. Each symptom is unique and therefore required a different approach.
Ideate
I started by analyzing the symptoms and the various ways they could be regulated. Each scenario and their subsequent symptoms were found to have a range of possible solutions on how to curb them.
SYMPTOMS
• Safety Behaviours
• Panic
• Nervousness
• Escape
• Nausea
• Trembling
• Irregular Breathing
• Muscle Tension
• Negative Thoughts
• Overthinking
• Restlessness
• Avoidance
POSSIBLE
SOLUTIONS
• Regulate breathing
• Positive self talk
• Establish surroundings
• Question your thoughts
• Engage in calming
audio/video
• Deep breathing
• Positive self talk
• Regulate breathing
• Positive self talk
• Establish
surroundings
The possible solutions I found helped outline the basic features and design principles of the product
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A breathe feature - To help the user regulate their breathing to a normal pace
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An audiovisual - To help calm nerves
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Positive quotes and sayings - To motivate the user
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A grounding feature - To help users establish their surroundings
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A writing experience - To write down thoughts and reduce emotional and cognitive load
Designing The Experience
For the final product, I emphasized the visual consistency and ease of interaction to serve the main functionalities.



An overview of the app's experience
Onboarding



Splash Screen & Sign Up



Home
Minimal quick access buttons to instant solutions during periods of anxiety
Breathe
Breathe allows users regulate their breathing pattern by syncing it with the animated visual that displays a relaxed breathing pace
Ground
Ground asks users to list down 3 things in their surroundings to help establish their current space and self to help reduce panic and stress



Visualise
Visualize lets the user choose from an array of audiovisual scenes.
It plays a calming looped visual coupled with audio to helps with nerves and restlessness.


Inspire
Inspiration is a collection of quotes, sayings, affirmations and advice to browse through for every mood to help motivate the user.
They can also be bookmarked for future reference.



Journal of Oblivion
This feature allows users to jot down their thoughts and feelings to ease stress without actually recording and storing typed information. The text disappears instantaneously when typed.
Profile
User profile with a thought of the day that updates daily.
The user's journey is stored in the form of dated stories that records the time spent on the app, the feature used most and any bookmarked content.
UI Guide


App Icon
AaBb
Type
Lato Regular
Heading 1 20
Heading 2 18
AaBb
Lato Bold
Heading 2 18
Heading 1 20
Paragraph 16
Paragraph small 14
Colour Palette
#7FACD6
#C0B9DB
#CFCDE6
#636363

Iconography

CTA


Formfield
The Process
UNDERSTAND
• Understanding social
anxiety and its
characteristics
• What are our goals
• What are our
constraints
DEFINE
What is the main problem we're trying to tackle with this product
EXPLORE
• Exploring possible
solutions
• Picking the
essential features
DESIGN
• Shaping the
experience
• Designing the
features, user
interface and
interactions
Understand
I started off my research by understanding social anxiety as a whole. What causes it, what triggers it, the situations and scenarios, etc. A long term solution like therapy was found to be of utmost importance to combat severe cases of social anxiety, whereas smaller solutions like setting goals and rewarding oneself were specified for the minimal cases of social anxiety.
​
I then went on to interview a few peers who experience social anxiety to understand what kind of situations trigger them and what are their ideal solutions to curbing the symptoms on the spot.
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​
The symptoms could be categorized into
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Physical
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Cognitive
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Behavioral
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Emotional
Since I was focused on temporary relief during anxiety-inducing situations, I noted down the possible triggers, scenarios, and solutions from my research to be able to narrow it down and design the UX of the product.
Design Principles

FUNCTIONALITY
EASY TO UNDERSTAND
ACTIONABLE
The design should be easy to interact with and serve its core functionalities
It should be easy to understand with minimal visual load for use by anyone including those in distress
It should push users to access more information to promote better mental health practices
Explore
I sketched out the basic solutions of what I wanted the experience to feel and look like. This helped me prioritise the various features and design the final solution.
Closing Notes

Working on this problem statement proved how motivating users emotionally through a digital experience can be a daunting task.
Picking and choosing what features are essential to the user is an important step when it is going to have a direct impact on them.
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Going further, features that allow users to seek help from experts directly through text/voice channels can be explored to help define a more cohesive motivational experience.
​