My Oasis
Conceptual Project
My Oasis is a social platform designed to connect adolescents with personalized mental health resources tailored to their interests. The platform aims to provide information on mental health conditions and various support methods.
Role: Sole UX Designer
Platform: Mobile App & Responsive Website
Duration: 4 months
At A Glance
Challenge
Adolescents face a unique and pressing mental health crisis, often amplified by the very tools designed to connect them, social media. While awareness of mental health is growing, accessing resources remains a challenge for many young people due to a lack of knowledge, financial barriers, and limited availability. Adolescents often struggle to find mental health resources that are both effective and relatable. Many available options feel generic, inaccessible, or out of touch with their unique needs and interests. This disconnect leaves young people feeling unsupported and less likely to seek the help they need, highlighting the importance of creating tailored solutions that truly resonate with them.
Goal
The goal for My Oasis was to design a platform that not only educates but also empowers adolescents by making mental health resources personalized, accessible, and engaging, all while fostering a supportive digital environment.
My Oasis sought to bridge this gap by providing accessible, personalized mental health resources in a way that resonates with young users.
Outcome
The final product, My Oasis, delivers a platform designed to meet adolescents where they are, focusing on their real needs and interests. This app and responsive website provide a supportive social space where users can explore mental health topics, discover tailored resources, and find relatable solutions. Key features include saving favorite resources, learning about various mental health conditions, connecting with peers, and exploring diverse methods of support, all crafted to empower young users on their mental health journey.
-
I have a love-hate relationship with social media. While I use it daily and certainly see the benefits of it, I also easily see the negative impact it can have on people, especially the youth. I wanted to take on a project that dealt with social media and speak to some of its negative effects on society. I narrowed it down to the impact on adolescents’ mental health since we are further into the technology era, with more children growing up using cell phones and computers from a younger age. Stories of young people struggling with mental health issues, and sometimes harming themselves or others, really hit home for me. I felt compelled to explore ways to address this growing problem.
While I haven’t personally experienced many mental health challenges, I’ve seen their effects on people close to me. Watching them navigate their struggles and search for solutions has left a lasting impression. It also pushed me to dig deeper, research mental health conditions, and explore methods of support.
These personal experiences and observations inspired me to take on this project, with the goal of creating something meaningful that could make a difference.
Discovery
To effectively tackle the mental health issues that young people face, I started by doing some background research. I wanted to get a solid understanding of mental health as a whole, including statistics, trends, and data, especially regarding adolescents in America. The findings gave me a deep sense of empathy for the millions of people navigating mental health challenges. I gained insight into various conditions, available resources, and the key factors driving the growing mental health crisis among adolescents.
While social media offers many positives in terms of staying connected with others, negative effects can develop with multiple studies showing strong links between social media usage and negative mental health conditions. For example, constant comparisons to others' “picture-perfect” lives can lead to feelings of inadequacy, low self-esteem, and heightened anxiety or depression. It’s a tough reality of our internet-driven world, and it’s clear we need to step up and support each other. That’s where My Oasis comes in, in an effort to reimagine how we approach these challenges and create a space that prioritizes mental health and connection.
“Lack of Awareness: While most Americans do try to seek out treatment, there also is a large portion of the population who have wanted to but did not seek treatment for themselves or loved ones (29%)– in part due to not knowing where to go if they needed this service.”
“Furthermore, younger Americans (i.e., Gen Z and Millennials) are less sure about resources for mental health services, compared to older generations. This younger generation was also more likely to find it too hard to figure out legitimate resources online. Instead, many turned to unreliable resources for information, including Facebook, YouTube and Twitter.”
Analysis
Additional research consisted of user interviews, competitive analysis, and online reviews of existing apps. Overall, this research allowed me to understand the pain points of users and learn what users were looking for. I've learned that many teens don't know where to look for help and finding resources that fit their interests is pivotal. Also, many adolescents are social media users and would like a social community within their mental health journeys.
Competitive Analysis
I explored a few websites that provided mental health resources and did an analysis. I found that there was an apparent gap in the market for a website tailored to fitting what teens would look for in mental health help. None of the websites studied had any social features, and some resource categories were not provided at all. As a result of this analysis, it’s clear there is an opportunity to create a platform to address users’ needs.
Existing App Reviews
While doing my competitive analysis research, I was also introduced to some mobile apps targeted at helping people cope with mental illnesses. I browsed a few of them and took a look at some reviews from users, primarily those who gave less than 5 stars in order to see areas of improvement.
Insights
After gathering data from my research and analysis, including user personas I’ve been able to discover some of the main challenges for adolescents in regards to mental health and finding resources of help.
Finding 1
Lack of Awareness
Without a proper understanding of mental health issues, adolescents may struggle to understand their symptoms and what they're feeling. Lack of awareness can also result in limited knowledge for adolescents about the necessary mental health resources available to them.
Finding 2
Negativity of Social Media
According to reports, nearly two-thirds of teenagers use social media every day, and a third use it “almost constantly.” Spending so much time on social media can make you feel lonely and isolated from the real world, potentially leading to mental health problems, “FOMO,” self-doubt about your appearance, and more.
Finding 3
Legitimate Resources
As a result of not knowing where to look for help, many young people find it difficult to find legitimate resources. This leads many to turn to what they know best, social media, and often find unreliable sources of information there.
Sketches & Prototypes
I created sketches and low-fidelity prototypes for both the mobile app and website that represented the main user flow of selecting what mental health condition you’re feeling and then resources of help. I included screens showing a description of the disorder along with screens describing the resources.
I performed user tests to see how users responded to the prototypes and main user flow. After analyzing the findings from the usability studies, I refined the prototype to include more social features and create more of a community feeling for the platform.
Refinements
During my usability studies, I noticed two key areas that could use some improvement and refinement. These unmoderated studies, conducted during the prototype stage, were super helpful in staying aligned with the main user tasks and keeping their needs front and center.
Social Media
Users kept comparing the app to social media so I took more of a social approach to the app’s design. I wanted to add more social features and incorporate more of a community feeling by showing other users who have interacted with the resource.
Community
I found it important to continue on with the social side of things and decided to show user comments on the resource screen. Also, I removed the “Let’s Begin” & “Add for later” and instead created an actionable footer with start buttons and bookmark buttons.
Goals
With the challenges identified I set out to achieve the following goals with the My Oasis platform. The main goal is to create a platform that educates and empowers adolescents by offering personalized, accessible, and engaging mental health resources, while also promoting a supportive digital environment.
My Oasis sought to bridge this gap by providing accessible, personalized mental health resources in a way that resonates with young users.
GOAL #1
Create a Social Community
Creating a social community of users who go through mental health issues and seeking help would be of benefit and not leave many feeling alone and isolated. Providing adolescents with a digital environment to feel welcome and supported in receiving help would be important.
GOAL #2
Educate and Explain
Teach and inform adolescents about mental health conditions and the symptoms involved. Furthermore, highlight different resources that can help with the conditions and explain what makes this a great resource of help.
GOAL #3
Reliability
To steer young people clear of unreliable sources of information on other social media sites, create a centralized platform describing mental health and resources of help. Also, explain why the resources are beneficial to give more validity to why they are listed.
GOAL #4
Tailored Help
Categorize resources and methods of help in order for users to better search through what they feel would work for them the best. Users can browse categories that interest them and find methods of help for their conditions.
Responsive Website Design
In addition to being a mobile app, My Oasis was designed as a responsive website. I had to create optimized screen layouts and functions for mobile, tablet, and desktop website screens.
Final Thoughts
Working on this project was a rewarding and eye-opening experience for me. I learned so much about the importance of mental health and how difficult it can be for some people to get the necessary help. From the statistics involved and circumstances that make it more difficult for some than others, working on a project like this is inspiring to learn about the why and put the necessary effort in to help attempt to “solve” the problem. As stated earlier, while explaining why I chose this project, although I have not had many experiences with mental health issues, others close to me have. Working through creating a platform like this inspires me to approach helping others in a similar matter, exploring different resources to align with their interests.
Some users saw the potential for this app and website to have a positive effect on their lives and help them manage their mental health problems. One quote that stuck with me was “This is so helpful! I know a few young kids who would benefit so much from this type of site.”
Mental Health is Important!
Check on your family. Check on your friends. Check on whoever you think is struggling.
Thank you!
Sources