S3488913 Edwyn Chen

Design || graphics | motion | Illustrations

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Animation // Week 14

The Assets for the scenario that plays before we explain the use of the website and the walkthrough of it. 

Assets in context of the rest of the background and video.

I’ve tried my best to match the assets in and out of the video together. It’s tough but it feels consistent among the 3 different designers that were creating graphics for the UI.

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UI Finalised // Week 13

This is the UI We’re proposing to the clients. It’s very clean and very contrasted yet simple. The colour palette appeals to a younger audience and that’s beneficial for the clinic. 

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Colour and Script // Week 12

These are a select few colour schemes I came up with but there was some conflict on what ones looked best.  Turms out the clients liked the top right one best. 

We also decided to confirm a script for them too and have them record and send it back to us as the experience of watching the video and their patients heard a friendly voice would be a relief but also make the experience there feel very personalised. 

Script:

“Are you feeling overwhelmed?

Does everything feel like an effort?

Always tired?

There may be a reason for it. This bucket concept may help breakdown and let you understand why. It’s a visual representation of your mental capacity for how much you’re able to handle.

First off with this website you’ll need to fill out your name.

Next we’ll move onto the stressor list

Add struggles and issues you’re currently facing or things that may be relevant to your stress levels. This may be past experiences or potential events.

From here we move on to add them into the bucket. This will pop out a new panel with options to help you categorise. Past. Current and Future. By selecting one or more it will appear in the bucket.

You can also add some comments and adjust the water levels for that stressor with the sliders.

Back on the list of the stressors we have an icon that pop up on the side to indicate the categories you may have put them in.

Once you’ve finished and your bucket is full of your personal matters you may realise that it’s quite full and that’s perfectly normal.

Now it comes to the stress relievers. Who and how can things help you destress and get you relaxed?

How effective is it?

What are some behavioural traits that you have when the stress adds up?

Lack of sleep, for example? Add them all here.

When you’re finished you’ll see this screen. It’s the home screen. It’ll be a compilation of all the previous lists that you can adjust at any time.

We also have the menu in the top left corner. Here you can load… (Pause)  save … (Pause) and reset the buckets. These ones are pretty self-explanatory.

Capture, on the other hand, will save what your home page has with clearly labeled lists and your bucket.

And that’s all you need to know to get started. 🙂”

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Meet 4 - Mock up Presentation // Week 11

We met up with Richard again and went over a lot of the works we had. The mock up he’s seen is very pleased with. We gave him some Options to work with. The walkthrough is very easy for him to navigate. He knew what most things did and this was a very positive outcome for us. We just needed to finalise colour as Winnie’s version was very dull compared to mine. What makes it tough is that we wanted a colour palette that the clinicians were happy with. 

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Website Animations Prototype // Week 10

We all worked to find ways to create an engaging experience through the UI interface as it would make it feel so progressive. 

Elkie’s initial idea of having a gif like animation at the beginning/ on the splash page would make it fun for users. It’s a great way for us to display others struggling without disclosing their information.  Also having a few example bucket that is full of different stress is a good way to help some of the users/ patients see what potentials they have of using their own buckets. Gives them reminders but also helps them normalise a lot of their own issues. 

We’re talking about making some of the screens having a parallax effect that allows us to carry that engaging experience all the way through. 

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UI Mock Up // Week 9

Winnie and I both came up with our own UI and the different usability versions of it. We came up with one each. We took into consideration colours and animations and the way it would transition between each one step. My envision was to make it super playful and engaging through the feedback we got from the clinicians which said that the users were mainly thrown into the clinic because they were court-ordered to or hospitalised. None were there out of free will and by making the transition easy and appealing the clinicians wouldn’t have any backlash.

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UX Finalised // Week 8

Winnie and I took an initiative to try and sort out the best way to walk through the website as a patient of the clinician.

After sharing an in-depth report of what it was like working with Craig to codesign the experience of the bucket in real life.

The process we decided worked best was: 1. Splash Screen 2. Tutorial walkthrough video 3. Naming your Bucket 4. Listing your stressors 5. Categorising your stressor 6. Listing your destressors and effectiveness 7. Symptoms/ change in behaviour 8. Home screen

Menu: Load Save Reset Capture

The reason we included this process is that it’s easy to try to understand and break down. We wanted to put the users first to help understand what they need and what was the best way to go through with it each step.

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Reflection // Mile Stone

Coming into this internship I knew it was going to be a big task and hard for us as our strengths aren’t going to be fully utilised considering how not many of us are strong coders. So we’re very reliant on each other to help collaborate and solve issues together so that we can push forward. 

What I learnt in regards to clients is that you shouldn’t rely on them to help decide for you. Be very proactive when it comes to communication as they may be slow and they may treat you worse. The clients don’t always know what they want and it’s hard to present work to them unless you see things from their perspective. 

Upon meeting the clients we wanted to probe and enquire to see what made them so adamant about having this online. We tried to challenge their way of thought to see if we could improve or help them reach their goals in another way as opposed to just taking orders. But we found that their simple goal of wanting to digitalise their practice of the bucket to help explain and help patients visualise their mental capacity for stress but having it digitalised makes it easy for the users to track their own progress and compare it over time. The bucket online is supposed to make the experience more engaging and help the clinicians. They essentially want a bucket translated to the online platform. 

The implications of this project are pretty huge this clinic as they’re leading the world in youth mental health. The easily accessible bucket assessment could help all psychologists and therapists internationally help explain and help destigmatise negative mental health. Craig spoke to us and made it clear that by normalising a lot of their issues they bring up it helps them become more open about it and understand that treatment isn’t something to fear. Listing and seeing their struggles visually allows them to see that they’re also enduring a lot of pain through harsh scenarios this breeds more self-compassion. This is a big issue that a lot of patients face. Self-compassion is something they need to help motivate them to approach their mental health more seriously. 

As we’ve done our research and taken inspiration from different areas we came back together with concepts that would be totally different from each other. It was good to see the different perspectives we all have on what the users may need.

Elkie had in mind that it was good to have an engaging experience, whilst Calem and ChaeYeong wanted to keep it simple and make it easier for the clinicians. Winnie and I had different takes on the issue to give it a completely different atmosphere to the bland bucket concept. When presenting all the designs to the client we all got really good feedback for each and every one of them but it was just a struggle for them to finalise a design when each and every one of them was something they could implement. We as a group need to be more critical of each other’s work so that it helps cut down time and further help out the clients as they wouldn’t have the burden of selecting a design. We should have come to them with a few solutions and given them a harsher deadline as we have a timeline of our own to follow. 

I took the role of a patient they have to get further insight into what would be best for the users. I realised that sitting down and having a personalised session with the clinician allowed me to get into the same headspace as the patients. Without, I wouldn’t have made some of the same decisions that I would have included in the UX/ UI. I found that listing the stressors that lead up to the incident made it so much easier for me as it’s a step that got me to focus solely on what’s troubling me as the clinician comforted me and talked it out with me. The list made it less overwhelming, had I jump straight into filling the bucket I would put my focus into the aesthetics of the website/ the bucket and forgotten parts of my past that may have not have been mentioned. 

Had I not put myself in their shoes I don’t think we would have had a rich understanding of what they need. Especially as someone who has had recent experience with clinicians and therapists, it’s easy to know what’s patients need. 

Recently they have decided on the two concepts that needed to be merged. Elkie’s fun animated concept with the one-page scroll and ChaeYeong’s easy to use and very personalised bucket. We put ourselves in the user’s shoes once again and tried to find ways that would make the experience a lot more simple to cut down on some of the decisions they needed to make. 

It’s a challenge working with people that don’t specialise in the area’s you don’t as I would need to cater my designs to what they’re capable of. So I may need to take on the work differently. I have made a list of the essential functions we need and then the ones we can find alternatives for other functions as well as disposable ones. 

We need to consistently communicate so that we can easily collaborate and make the project flow efficiently. This refers to both the clients as well as the team. 

Work in progress:

The existing storyboard I’m working off.

Iterations of the faces and the styles I could use. Exploring diversity.

The different Catergories and how it might look with the pop up and how it could effect the state of mind. 

One of the final pieces I've mocked up. The different tabs that pop up with very bold imagery. We’ve decided on Pastels because it’s more soothing for the users.

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My Bucket // Week 7.5

I volunteered to try the bucket myself and I wanted to sit in place of the patients and see what the experience would be like. I found that as I was starting it off the way I felt eased me into the process of the bucket best was through the listing of my problems that may have caused me to feel “overwhelmed” or “hospitalised”. I allowed me to see and get my thoughts out on the table first that would help me better understand myself. 

Next step was transferring them into the bucket. This step was a little bit hard as it’s hard to determine the amount of stress it provides in your life! But the fact that I could change it made it easier and less stressful. When filling up the bucket and having it overflow, it was a great visual to see that the bucket was overflowing as a representation if my mental state. It allowed me to connect with it and be comforted by the clinician with words like “If I had been in your situation this may have been me too. It’s a lot to handle.”

Listing the supporting/ protective factors allowed me to feel safe and have some realisation that there are some things going for me. It also helps you list coping mechanisms for me to better help myself in the future. 

Analysis of the bucket session: - The list really helped!! I can’t stress that enough. It makes it so much easier to think when all your thoughts are all laid out.  - We can categorise the different stressors. - I think it’s best to have it at a standard amount first and then be able to change it later.  - I know not all the patients will have a lot of coping mechanisms so it won’t be the same. It may feel daunting when they know they don’t have a lot going for them. 

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Craig the Clinician // Week 7

Meeting Craig was very beneficial for us! He’s one of their head clinicians that came down to RMIT for us to pitch for. He started off by probing our minds trying to understand what we’ve taken from the brief.

In summary: The website is a place for the clinicians and their patients to work together to track their progress over time. It’s also a good way to help understand their situation better by visualising and listing their troubles. It validates all of them and it shows the amount of stress and the capacity they have for stress. The bucket also allows them to have more self-compassion as people are constantly thinking they should be able to cope. In reality, it’s not like that and they need to see that it’s a lot for them to deal with. 

TEMPLATE FOR THE BUCKET SESSION CURRENTLY: 1. “I know that you have to be here. Are you willing to try things to make this experience more pleasurable or beneficial for you/ make use of your session?”

2. “Would it be helpful in looking at the reason you got into the hospital?”

3. “Is there any more? Maybe write a list of them.”

4. “Sometimes it helps when we draw a bucket to understand this concept.”

5. “Any behavioural changes that could have contributed to it?”

6. “Anything that helps you get through your day/ supporting you?”

7. “If I was in your situation I may have been hospitalised for it too.”

A lot of Socratic questioning to help them delve into it without having the psychologist interpret it for them. Also being selective with word choice allows us to be sensitive with their situation. 

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Refine Draft // Week 6.5

Working to improve the work I looked at making icons for different categories. 

The categories I decided to settle with were: - Past: Experiences in the past that haven’t been resolved that have resonated into more parts of your life.  - Present: Perpetuating situation and things you’ve been experiencing recently.  - Future: Pressure and anxiety you’re feeling about future events of possible scenarios coming up. 

These categories do sum up the 5P’s pretty easy and make it easier for the users to understand. 

I made a few iterations of the icons/ masks we could use. Ranging from a more simplistic style to a more artsy and abstract style that consists of just one stroke. 

I experimented with the different expressions I could use for the face also. As the head fills up some more the face could change from being a happy/ neutral face to something more anxious and distressed. 

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Meet Too // Week 6

After last week where we improved on some ideas we had, Richard decided to pay us a visit. We presented our updated him with our progress with paper cut-outs and drawings of what our concept would be. 

I presented my head morphing design and Richard took it on pretty well as he said it has strong imagery that the users can connect with. We had feedback to think about quantitative values and etc. 

The verdict was that we shouldn’t include numbers and quantitative values whilst thinking about stressors because it’s not something you can actually put a number on. 

Think about the taps and how they could function. Strong pressure or multiple taps? Should we have the water drop down as the tap flows? How do users adjust their water levels?

Richard raised some questions we also thought about as we pitched our designs: What browser is it going to work on and how interchangeable is it? Is a login or save function possible? What languages can we access?

We also thought deeply about some questions for him: What are common stressors people suffer? Can we have some authentic examples? Could we please experience the bucket from the perspective of the users?

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First Draft // Week 5.5

We used this week to focus on trying to produce a draft and mock-up to present to each other to seek where we could improve/ merge ideas.

I delve into graphics for the designs and how the open head concept could look for a replacement of the “bucket”.  I took inspiration from the pinterest board I created.  But in the end I felt the style that could resonate with the clients the most would be a more subdue and minimal style that is basic for the purpose that we wanted it to be organic so it didn’t feel too structured but also because of the simplicity it didn’t confuse or deter the users from using it.

I came up with a storyboard that incorporated this head that morphed into the bucket as these 2 visuals are interchangeable. 

1. Stress head which you can visually see with the overflowing head. 2. Has people yelling at him. 3. Gets stressed and overwhelmed. 4. Head/ stresses pop.  5. Head morphs into a bucket. 6. Catches all the items with the bucket. 7. Bucket fills up and hands help alleviate stress. 

We presented this to each other and helped each other improve on their designs.  After our discussion, we realised that the icons I created for the stressors may alienate some of the users as not all their stressors are able to be categorised. Eg. Parent’s mental illness is taking a toll on them. Worried about them constantly and also needing to take physical care of them.

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Research // Week 5

I wanted to take some precedents and see what I could learn from all of them together. I went on sites such as: https://headspace.org.au https://www.mindblank.org.au https://mentisassist.org.au https://schools.au.reachout.com https://www.youthbeyondblue.com

There was a common theme amongst all of them. They weren’t too flashy in terms of colour. It was very muted with accents of one of 2 colours that were taken from the logo. It seems like the ones that had the liberty to use colours were drawn to blues. I assume because it’s a calming colour and the colour that’s associated with depression that people have used it. I see that a lot of them use photographic imagery of people seeking support or more. 

In the case of ReachOut. Youth Beyond Blue and Talking Minds NZ we see that they have pure illustrations that depict their brand and cater towards their younger target audience.

The colours all seem to be very soothing to look at as opposed to high contrast with complimentary colours. 

I started a Pinterest and have been frequently pinning inspirational illustrations or colour palettes. The colours I’m drawn to are pastels as they’re soothing and they all seem to work well together. 

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Brainstorm // Week 4.5

As the person leading the graphics department, I wanted to explore the ways in which I could make the design more customised for people with mental health. We broke the brief down and found ways to explore different sections of it with stylistic preferences/ different representation of the bucket: This includes the: - Thermometer - Plate “too much on my plate” literal - Cake - Bridge - Overflowing head - Burning fire - Volcano

Another way we could categorise the different stressors is: - Past  - Present - Future Other potential stressors/ vulnerabilities are: - Genetics - Historical Risk Factors - Intellectual Stress  - Family - Friends - Community / Societal - Identity - Work - Uni - Trauma

I took the liberty to start a pinterest board for everyone so that we could gather our thoughts and inspiration in one location.  https://www.pinterest.com.au/edchen0203/internship-2018/

Some colour palette inspiration.

Some illustration styles we could make use of. 

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First Meet // Week 4

We travelled all the way over to Orygen’s clinic in Parkville. There the 5 of us met Richard and Phil. These men toured us around their facilities and sat us in their lounge and explained the detailed of the project and what they’d like from us. They want us to work on providing an online/ digital bucket experience that their clients can access and edit. This already sounds like a massive hurdle for us as we think that it would involve coding to grant access to a server and be learning to create accounts so that the user’s. Privacy may be an issue! We need to ensure that if we are able to incorporate it that information is safe!

Their requests: - Functional Website up and running - Digital Bucket - Save Function - Informative video

I proposed that we use a quantitative system to determine what every stressor accounts for in their bucket. Either by a questionnaire or some other route. We came to the conclusion with the guys that it was too formal and it would be a little too demanding and an unpleasant yet disjointing experience as in real life it’s hard to determine how much percentage wise these stressors would impact your ‘bucket’.

We found that there were different categories in which we could classify the stressors. One method the clinicians have proposed were the 5P’s which already exist in the medical field.  5P’s: - Presenting problems - Predisposed factors - Precipitating events - Perpetuating factors - Protective factors

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Team Up // Week 3.5

The group of us figured out our strengths and weaknesses so that we could all begin exploring ways in which we could best meet the needs of the client. 

Coding: Calem Chae Yeong Elkie Visuals: Chae Yeong Elkie Winnie Ed Motion Graphics: Winnie Ed

We began exploring ways in which we could better understand the client. So we read more about what they’ve achieved. 'Psychosis' is a term used to describe a number of psychological symptoms that impact on a person’s understanding or perception of reality. OYH started off in 1984 to aid people who had experienced an initial episode of psychosis to recover but also understanding more about schizophrenia and psychosis in the process. It has become the world’s leading research and mental health organisation that focuses on the youth. 

We brainstormed ways in which we could tackle this project together as a team as we decided that we would be better focusing on colour palettes and different illustrative styles. Before we met up with the clients the next week we also prepared a lot of questions for them to gain a deeper understanding of what they truly want and their client clinician sessions.