Design Opportunity & Challenge

Generalized Anxiety Disorder (GAD) is characterized by persistent and excessive worry about a number of different things, affecting 6.8 million adults. Cognitive Behavioral Treatment (CBT) specifically targets thoughts, physical symptoms and behaviors including the over preparation, planning and avoidance that characterizes GAD. Mindfulness based approaches have also been investigated with positive outcome.

Individuals should be mindfully preparing themselves for unexpected stressors rather than coping reactively. However, individuals are not taught to develop these proactive coping skills. As a result 73% of the population regularly experiences psychological symptoms of stress, while 77% experiences physical symptoms caused by stress. Identifying cognitive distortions is the first step towards dealing with anxiety.

Bloom helps you shed your prickly anxiety and nurture your inner beauty. The bloom application will not only guide you through your daily rituals, but also inform you of negative thought patterns to look out for. With bloom, you can curate a daily ritual of activities to become aware of anxious feelings before they cause an anxiety attack.

In case you are overcome with a wave of anxiety however, the bloom ring and bloom planter can calm you with a simple breathing exercise.

Project Objectives

To apply knowledge of prototyping along with research, analysis, and synthesis, to update the Bloom service design with the objective of user-testing and validating the proposed design.

Activities

Primary Research - I + Synthesis

Interview (2+) individuals dealing with anxiety OR
Interview (2+) individuals dealing with high levels of stress on a daily basis
Map out their current user journey to identify pain points and opportunity areas

Primary Research - II + Synthesis