I Matter
A one-touch and fuss-free pendant that records users' daily emotions to assess their overall mental health.
Role: Product Owner, Creative Concept, Creative Development
Duration: 5 weeks
Tools: Arduino IDE, ESP 32, Figma, Procreate, Expert Interviews, User Research
Context: Passion project
I am an avid
dairy writer
dairy writer
My habit of writing diaries began in 2006. Since then, I have had the luxury of reading the thoughts of my younger self and witnessing the metamorphosis that has trailed in my personal growth.
I have noticed that after a long day, I tend to forget what happened and how I felt. I then delay documenting the day and end up forgetting about it the next day.
As a result, I sometimes lose track of my progress.
& a memory archivist
I spoke to my friends who have a habit of documenting daily events and found that they face a similar problem. They usually brush it off, but it bugged me for a long time — I'm a passionate memory archivist, you see.
To understand how documenting events can impact one's mental health, I spoke with professional therapists and people who attend therapy sessions to find out how these sessions work.
I learned that therapists would walk through the week with patients to identify specific events that trigger certain emotions. To identify positive stimulants, therapists would review events for which patients have gratitude.
Journaling is often given as an assignment to stimulate and enhance self-awareness and mental clarity, and therapists can develop specialized ways to help patients through their ways of self-expression and identify biased beliefs, if any.
Note: A therapy session is personal and subjective, these insights are gained from the primary and secondary research that I have conducted, and could greatly differ for everyone.
Insights & Opportunities
Active practice of mindfulness to reduce instances of auto-pilot mode, rumination, and wandering mind
Simultaneous tracking of daily events and emotions can allow the therapist to track progress
Document interactions and events that are meaningful to the user can enhance mindfulness
Key Considerations
Wearable → Physicality stimulates presentness
Interface → One-touch, fuss-free, instantaneous
Small → Not bulky, easy to carry out on all occasions
System Compatibility → Link with existing mental health/diary apps
Target Audience
Medical Use:
A tool for mental health professionals to document their patient's mental health and for users taking psychological treatment to report emotional changes
Personal Use:
Users interested in journaling, and keeping track of their emotions throughout the day
The Idea
A pendant that records users' daily emotions and voices in real-time to assess their overall mental health and review their thoughts and feelings during therapy sessions.
Product Ecosystem
Pendant
A pendant that allows users to record how they feel at the moment at a click (or multiple clicks to express the intensity of emotions) of a button.
We are currently exploring allowing users to also record their voices and the pendant will recognize the key emotion word that users use.
The pendant will also remind the user to record their emotions after a certain time span, according to the user's preference.
Phone App
To sync with the activities of the pendant. It creates journals for the user's daily emotional change and allows them to analyze their weekly and monthly emotion chart. Users can add details to their recorded feelings in the app as well.
How It Works
Pendant Features
Record Emotion Intensity
We have more than :) and :( in our lives.
Inspired by DailyBean, varied emotions can be interfaced depending on the number of clicks on either side of the pendant's surface.
Record Voice*
Press 2 seconds, pendant vibrates to indicate recording start
Press 2 seconds, pendant vibrates to indicate recording stop
During recording, the user needs to record their main key emotional word
Press multiple times to showcase the intensity of the emotion described
*For further exploration
Internet of Things (IoT)
There are five major electronic components in this IoT device:
Push Button: Controller
Microphone: Record audio
Vibration Motor: Generate vibration
Microprocessor: Process and save all the data and give corresponding feedback to all other components
Bluetooth Module: Transfer data to the phone via Bluetooth
Sensor Logic
Prototyping
Record Emotion Intensity
Users can press and hold to activate the pendant and tap on it depending on the intensity of their emotions.
When recording an emotion, they are unable to try to record another emotion until they press and hold to successfully record the first emotion.
prototype 1.mp4prototype 2.mp4
This project is a work in progress, but on pause temporarily, feel free to chat with me to find out more! We are very excited and motivated by how receptive users have been to the product concept thus far and will pick this up soon.