team Linlin Yu & Emily Cai
timeframe jan - feb 2022 (1 month)
skills Research, branding, mockups
tools Adobe XD, Illustrator, Procreate
01
Problem
How do we provide at-home mental health services using AR pets ?
Team
In my first ever UI UX project, I worked with Emily Cai (BArch ‘25) to create a dual-feature app to provide emotional support and medical help for both pet enthusiasts and patients.
Context
The concept of AR pet therapy is projected five years in the future. In this app, we explore how AR pets reduce symptoms of loneliness and even have the potential to provide therapy.
Emily Cai
Linlin Yu (Me)
Project Scope
02
Furiend for Patients & Therapists
Pet companion to keep you accountable for healthy routines.
Project your pet onto AR glasses, an Apple Watch, or on the device itself.
Final Design
Furiend for Pet Owners
In-app survey to find symptoms of mental illness. Resources, communication with therapists, and treatment plans through an AR pet.
03
User Needs
Design Drivers
Competitors
When should you take action?
(according to NAMI & Mayo Clinic)
If you have symptoms of:
Excessive anxiety
Depression
Substance use disorder
Emotional Support - Users seeking to improve mental health, self-efficacy and overall lifestyle.
Medical Help - Users with mental illness seeking free resources and affordable treatment with professionals from licensed organizations in 195 countries.
At-home care
COVID friendly
Multiple languages
Habit tracking pet customized by the user
Mental health resources provided by credible organizations
Daily habit tracker randomized or customized by the user
Make emotional support animals more accessible with one app
Affordable, accessible, and adorable
We position Furiend to be more educational and preventative compared to other apps with similar features such as Pokemon GO, which contains more graphics, but is not intended for medical purposes. Another example is Apple Fitness, which collects pure data on the Apple Watch, but is not designed for users seeking health professionals.
Sources
Feeling nervous, restless or tense. Having a sense of impending danger, panic or doom
Feelings of sadness, tearfulness, emptiness or hopelessness
Feeling that you have to use the drug regularly — daily or even several times a day
Research
Why mental health?
04
Personas
70% of market - Pet owners
Storyboards
30% of market - Patients (NAMI, CDC)
Target Users
Cady & Cody, 80
Purr-vention mode
Brings a lost companion to life
Assists with emotional well-being
No access to real person monitoring
Ray, 46
Purr-tection mode
Health improvement tips according to Apple Watch
Psychiatrist finder for depression and addiction
24/7 access to a therapist
Kenny, 17
Purr-vention mode
Resources to learn a new language
Habit tracker
Help with school work
05
Branding
Explorations
Logo & palette
06
Prototype
01
ar pet
purr-vention mode
emotional support, pet company
purr-tection mode
01 allow therapists to monitor patient's progress through pet and user interaction
02 daily reminders - habit tracking (toggle on/off)
03 daily health report - sync to Apple Watch for physical health data
app setup
purr-vention mode
families, pet owners, pet design, self care
purr-tection mode
professional help, survey & resources backed up by NIH & WHO, 24/7 access to therapy
04
02
Sketches (Click to enlarge)
profile setup
language
map of flags, 195 countries
basic info
name, age, contact info
linking devices
Apple Watch, activity band
warning
list of phone numbers for crisis response, call 911 for immediate help
consulting/therapy
search for doctor
by specialty, demographics, reviews
talk with clinical psychologists
text, voice call, facetime, hologram (in-app for the platform to monitor)
health database
upload physical examination & health records (confidential)
03
07
Design Features
Furiend is a health and wellness app designed with a light and dark dual feature to address emotional support and medical help:
Purr-vention mode
by emily cai
Enhances mental health and lifestyle, featuring an interactive hologram pet projected through a phone, pair of glasses, tablet, or watch.
Purr-tection mode
by linlin yu
Provides a hub with resources for treatment through virtual and hologram meetings with professionals from NAMI and health organizations in 195 countries. The app pairs with health-monitoring devices like Apple Watch and shares this data with therapists & psychiatrists to help them better understand patient needs.
Tools & devices
Glasses personalize the experience
Watch measures heartrate, blood pressure, sleep cycles and exercise
Phone/tablet gives portability and shareability
Collar allows interaction with a really far away pet in real time.
Pet display
Different ways of customizing and displaying your cute pet!
Furiend in action!
Takeaways
01 I need to narrow down my user group to a specific age range - a product cannot “work for everyone”.
I had my mind set on the goal to satisfy everyone’s needs—teenagers, the elderly, adults, patients—but upon pitching this product to stakeholders and mentors, I realized that personalized care requires a target audience. Is this a serious app or is it for kids?
02 Prototype quickly to generate more options.
My low fidelity sketches weren’t so low fidelity. An app needs multiple rounds of iterations and feedback from user testing to ensure it is the best version that it can be. How can you be so sure of one idea when you don’t have multiple for comparison?
03 Consider real patients’ and experts’ input.
Since mental health is a heavy and sensitive topic, I must carefully consider all factors: security, social repercussions, and standard rules to creating a platform for people who are vulnerable. For this project, this part was thoroughly lacking, because I had trouble reaching out to my target users. I believe the next iteration of this project will feel and become less gamified.
Thank you for viewing my first UI UX project!