RELEASE

Release is a multi-functional stress relief app that aims at not only relieving anxieties but also being a go-to application for users to prevent any future anxieties as well.

The Challenge:

Designing an effectively calming app for young adults that reduces the stress of their day-to-day lives all while simultaneously preventing future stresses as well as remaining easy to use.

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The Solution

This app is designed to be a comforting and inviting solution for young adults to reduce feelings of stress and anxiety in their lives. From regularly updated meditation playlists and various in-app journaling options to daily gentle reminders and soothing meditation games, this app eloquently merges various stress-relief tactics into one place where users can go to every single time for their stress relieving needs.

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User Profile

In order to gain an accurate perspective on the target audience for this application, the user profile associated with Release is named Sanvi Kumar; a 19 year old college student whose primary stressors are school, friends, her homelife, and her job. Everything about Sanvi and her association with the application are detailed including her hobbies and major life priorities to what time of day she would likely use Release at.

Design Method &
Application Research

The design method chosen for the construction of Release was composed of 5 steps: Understand, Research, Analyze, Sketch, Prototype, and Iterate. Once understanding the issue sought to solve, various research was conducted prior to the construction of the app including research over common stress inducers, calming application features, soothing colors, equity-based design, what makes the most popular stress relief applications successful, as well as a local survey asking peers of all ages to name what brings them stress as well as the ways in which they relieve stress. Once having documented my research -which can be found through the Blogs and Assessments pages- the next steps to the design method were conducted through various iterative tests by me and by my fellow peers.

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Low Fidelity Screens & Page Flow

The low fidelity wireframes initially established were first sketched out in a journal then were moved onto Figma and later onto Sketch; where the majority of the designing took place. The idea behind the initial wireframing was to ensure that the general layout and flow of the pages were in a seamlessly comprehensible order for users to easily understand.

Mid Fidelity

During the mid fidelity stage of the design process, the general layout of the application was solidified while further information was added to supplement the user story. Other additions during this phase include the addition of buttons and pop-ups as well as added colors and icons.

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Details

When first researching and designing the calming elements for Release, there were several details to the app that required more care than others. For instance, several icons within Release were manually designed such as the emotion buttons and navigation bar icons to ensure that every detail down to the smallest icons were conscientiously meant to create a relaxing environment for users. Another element were the color palettes used. Based off of the various research conducted, earthy tones were found to be the calmest colors for users to engage with in an app, therefore, a multitude of different palettes were tested in order to achieve the most earthy and soothing palette that worked for all users. Lastly, another detail focused on within the app was the artwork used. For this portion of the application, local artist Aniah Vincent contributed her art for the meditation and gaming covers which included various earthy images utilizing the palette of the app. Overall, each and every detail surrounding the design of Release

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Final Design

Since the mid fidelity phase of the design, very few subtle changes were made such as the incorporation of the app title name throughout the application as well as adjustments to the meditation and gaming pages.