Type

Product Design
(Personal Project)

My Role

UX Researcher / Designer
Visual Designer

Timeline

10/2022 - 01/2023

Skills

Research, Wireframing, Prototyping, Usability Testing

FearLess – The One-Tap Solution to Panic Attacks

Building an app and smartwatch experience to provide immediate support and personalized guidance during panic attacks.

Project Overview

Overview

Mental health issues have been a growing concern worldwide, with millions of people struggling to access adequate care and support. Despite increased awareness, the stigma surrounding mental health remains a significant barrier, preventing many from seeking the help they need. Inspired by my own experiences and the desire to help others in similar situations, I created this app to address these challenges by providing a supportive platform that empowers users to take control of their mental health journey.

The Problem

Many people with anxiety and panic disorders face a lack of immediate, effective tools to manage their symptoms.

Target User

Main: People with panic disorder.
Secondary: Any person who is struggling with mental health issues.

The Goals

Design the simplest and quickest journey to get the first aid during a panic episode.
Help to reduce the frequency of panic attacks.
Help to reduce stress and anxiety over time.

View The Solution

Research

Interview

I conducted virtual interviews with 5 people in the app's target demographic to get a comprehensive understanding of user pain points and to provide insightful solutions, as well as to see whether my first draft features' concept resonates with users.

Key Findings:

Coping Strategies: Participants often rely on meditation, therapy, yoga, listening to calm music, and playing sports to manage anxiety.

Use of Apps: Many use apps like Calm, Headspace, and iBreathe for breathing exercises and mood control, showing a demand for digital tools.
Managing Panic Attacks: During panic attacks, participants focus on breathing, seek quiet spaces, think positively, distract themselves, call for help, or meditate.
Challenges in Tracking: While most see the value in tracking panic episodes, they struggle with time, forgetfulness, and lack of convenient tools.
Desired App Features: Participants want a comprehensive app with calming elements, gamification, and easy tracking tools, allowing them to monitor triggers and frequency.

Competitive analysis

During my exploration of mental health apps, I compared their offerings to my own experiences managing anxiety and panic attacks.

With a focus on enhancing the user contribution experience on the website, we conducted interviews with two users: female donors aged 40 and above (our core target audience). The aim was to gain deeper insights from their viewpoints, allowing us to better understand their behaviors and preferences towards making contribution to a non-profit organization via website and refine our approach accordingly. We also sought their opinions on the current RAI website for initial feedback.

These are the questions we asked them:

Key Findings:
None of the current apps fully address the need for immediate, flexible support during panic attacks while also offering long-term tracking and resources. This gap in the market underscores the opportunity for FearLess to provide a holistic solution that combines real-time panic management, personalized tracking, and comprehensive mental health support—all in an accessible, user-friendly format.

Persona

Based on the interview results, I create 2 personas to build empathy with target users and identify exactly what they need from product I am designing. The main differences between 2 personas are the state of being professionally diagnosed, treatments and their attitudes towards their problems.

Empathy Map

I created the 2 empathy maps based on the personas to fully look into users' mental health issues through their lens. The maps are served as the purpose to bridge the understanding of end users.

How-Might-We

After gaining a comprehensive understanding of users' thoughts and actions, I generated possible solutions how the product can help users improve their mental state in general.

Pain and Gain Points

Listed below are the pain points and detailed features that can be designed as solutions to fulfill the stated objectives.

Card sorting

The main goal of executing card sorting is to make sure that users are able to clearly navigate throughout the app’s flow and identify concepts, words, and definitions that may be unclear or missing. Three of the five participants from the previous interviews continued to participate in this remote closed card-sorting. Following the completion of a card-sorting exercise, the final category structure is shown below. The most significant difference between the final structure and my intended structure is the terms selected to make it clearer and easier for users to comprehend.

User flow

I picked 5 main tasks and created the user's flow from the app's launch to the discovery of all of its features and tasks. Also, this user flow can help me create a clear path for users to achieve their goals and it can also be used to evaluate usability testing in the following steps.

Design & Testing

Logo Design

I conducted virtual interviews with 5 people in the app's target demographic to get a comprehensive understanding of user pain points and to provide insightful solutions, as well as to see whether my first draft features' concept resonates with users.

Medium-Fidelity Wireframes

Because of the constraints of this project's timeline, I decided to focus on building wireframes of 3 of the app's main features. Below are the 3 tasks that I based my wireframes on:
1. Open FearLess from home screen to get the first-aid instructions for a panic attack
2. Access the automatic first-aid instruction via Apple Watch
3. View the stats of a past panic attack

Usability Testing

I conducted usability testing with two users using medium-fidelity prototypes to evaluate the app's user flow, layout, and clarity of language. Key Findings:
Intuitive Design:
Both users found the design intuitive and straightforward, enabling them to follow the first-aid recommendations easily.

S.O.S Button Concerns:
The "S.O.S" button was perceived as alarming, potentially causing anxiety, especially on the lock screen, as it might evoke thoughts of contacting 911. A redesign is needed to maintain functionality without causing discomfort.

Feedback on Terminology:
Some keywords and phrases require refinement to ensure clarity and better user understanding.ConclusionThe testing validated the overall design's effectiveness while identifying areas for improvement, particularly the S.O.S button and certain terms. This feedback will inform the next design iteration.

Visual Styles

Color

I chose the light tone color to avoid a high contrast. The dark background is meant to help users concentrate on following the guidance, particularly during a panic attack when it is very difficult to maintain concentration.

Typography

Taking into account the target users' diversity in terms of age, gender, and culture, I chose Gilroy, a geometric sans-serif font family that is neutral but still elegant to grab user's attention. This font family also serves for the simple and clean look.

High-Fidelity Wireframes

#1

Panic Attack Journey

This feature supports users through every step of managing a panic attack, from launching the app to following guidance for overcoming the episode, journaling the experience, and reviewing detailed statistics afterward. The design emphasizes simplicity and ease of use, ensuring that users can effortlessly navigate the app even in moments of distress.

#2

One-Tap Panic Relief

Understanding that focus can be severely compromised during a panic episode, the app features a "one-tap" journey for immediate assistance, particularly via a Smart Watch. When a panic attack occurs, users can simply tap the S.O.S button, and the app will instantly detect and record heart rates while guiding them through their preferred first-aid technique. Users can customize these techniques in the "First-aid Technique Preference" settings, ensuring they receive the most effective support.

#3

Detailed Episode Insights

This feature offers users comprehensive data on their panic attacks, including the number of episodes on specific days, the duration of each attack, heart rate details, and journal entries related to those episodes. By reviewing this information, users can identify patterns and trends in their panic attacks, comparing their personal data with the average number of monthly episodes to gain deeper insights into their mental health.

Thoughts From the Professional

I had the opportunity to speak with Nancy Pham, a licensed therapist who has a Master of Public Health (MPH) degree, in order to assess the app's functionality and practicality. Here are some kind words from her:

Nancy Pham - Therapist

This is absolutely a great idea of coming up solutions for mental health issues. I love the way we can reach the aid effortlessly and how the app is customized for each person based on their own experience in treatment techniques. I hope this app will be available soon so that I can recommend it to my patients.

Final words

Given my knowledge of the seriousness of mental health issues, I do not go against seeking professional help. Having gone through different types of treatment before, I want to channel my experiences into something positive by creating this app with the intention of supporting me and other people in the efforts to feel better every day. As the scale of this project is within my first UX class, there are still limitations in the design process, such as the inability to collect data from varied target users. Nonetheless, thanks to this project, I not only gained UX skills, but also a deeper understanding of mental health, which I have found to be invaluable in my ongoing battle with panic and anxiety disorder. With its potential, I really hope to have the chance to put this idea into practice in the near future. Finally, I acknowledge that the whole idea of dealing with mental health issues is absolutely terrifying, and that our natural human instinct is to run away from it, which is not a good idea since the problem is still there. However, I do have trust in our strengths to overcome these uneasy times, because when we face it more, we'll fear it less.

View All Work

Product Design(Personal Project)

UX Researcher / DesignerVisual Designer

UX Researcher / DesignerVisual Designer

Timeline

Research, Wireframing, Prototyping, Usability Testing

Research, Wireframing, Prototyping, Usability Testing

FearLess – The One-Tap Solution to Panic Attacks

FearLess – The One-Tap Solution to Panic Attacks

FearLess – The One-Tap Solution to Panic Attacks

Building an app and smartwatch experience to provide immediate support and personalized guidance during panic attacks.

Project Overview

Project Overview

Project Overview

Overview

Overview

Overview

The Problem

The Problem

The Problem

Many people with anxiety and panic disorders face a lack of immediate, effective tools to manage their symptoms.

Target User

Target User

Target User

Main: People with panic disorder.Secondary: Any person who is struggling with mental health issues.

The Goals

The Goals

The Goals

Design the simplest and quickest journey to get the first aid during a panic episode.

Help to reduce the frequency of panic attacks.

Help to reduce stress and anxiety over time.

View The Solution

Research

Interview

Interview

Interview

I conducted virtual interviews with 5 people in the app's target demographic to get a comprehensive understanding of user pain points and to provide insightful solutions, as well as to see whether my first draft features' concept resonates with users.

Key Findings:

Coping Strategies: Participants often rely on meditation, therapy, yoga, listening to calm music, and playing sports to manage anxiety.

Use of Apps: Many use apps like Calm, Headspace, and iBreathe for breathing exercises and mood control, showing a demand for digital tools.

Managing Panic Attacks: During panic attacks, participants focus on breathing, seek quiet spaces, think positively, distract themselves, call for help, or meditate.

Challenges in Tracking: While most see the value in tracking panic episodes, they struggle with time, forgetfulness, and lack of convenient tools.

Desired App Features: Participants want a comprehensive app with calming elements, gamification, and easy tracking tools, allowing them to monitor triggers and frequency.

Competitive analysis

Competitive analysis

Competitive analysis

During my exploration of mental health apps, I compared their offerings to my own experiences managing anxiety and panic attacks.

Persona

Persona

Persona

Based on the interview results, I create 2 personas to build empathy with target users and identify exactly what they need from product I am designing. The main differences between 2 personas are the state of being professionally diagnosed, treatments and their attitudes towards their problems.

Empathy Map

I created the 2 empathy maps based on the personas to fully look into users' mental health issues through their lens. The maps are served as the purpose to bridge the understanding of end users.

How-Might-We

After gaining a comprehensive understanding of users' thoughts and actions, I generated possible solutions how the product can help users improve their mental state in general.

Pain and Gain Points

Listed below are the pain points and detailed features that can be designed as solutions to fulfill the stated objectives.

Card sorting

User flow

I picked 5 main tasks and created the user's flow from the app's launch to the discovery of all of its features and tasks. Also, this user flow can help me create a clear path for users to achieve their goals and it can also be used to evaluate usability testing in the following steps.

Design & Testing

Design & Testing

Design & Testing

Logo Design

Logo Design

Logo Design

I conducted virtual interviews with 5 people in the app's target demographic to get a comprehensive understanding of user pain points and to provide insightful solutions, as well as to see whether my first draft features' concept resonates with users.

Medium-Fidelity Wireframes

Medium-Fidelity Wireframes

Medium-Fidelity Wireframes

Usability Testing

Usability Testing

Usability Testing

Visual Styles

Visual Styles

Visual Styles

Color

Color

Color

I chose the light tone color to avoid a high contrast. The dark background is meant to help users concentrate on following the guidance, particularly during a panic attack when it is very difficult to maintain concentration.

Typography

Product Design
(Personal Project)

UX Researcher / Designer
Visual Designer

UX Researcher / Designer
Visual Designer

Main: People with panic disorder.
Secondary: Any person who is struggling with mental health issues.