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Resume
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(2024)
Design a healthy social media platform to alleviate loneliness in young adults.
SOLUTION
Compa, a 30-day multimedia platform with daily tasks fostering self-expression and meaningful connections.
KEYWORDS
mental health, social media, connectivity, selfexpression, UX Design, UX Research.
MY ROLE
User Researcher, Design and Development (Interviews, Surveys, Prompt Design, User Testing).
The one feeling that most of us would experience in our lifetime might be loneliness. Loneliness makes people feel empty and unwanted. Even though people experiencing loneliness might want to connect with others, their state of mind makes it more difficult for them to form those connections. It can seriously impact our health:
39%
Increasing the risk of premature death
Increasing the risk of premature death
↑
Leading to higher rates of Alzheimer's, depression and anxiety
Leading to higher rates of Alzheimer's, depression and anxiety
18-24 yr old feeling the loneliest
Nearly half of Americans experience loneliness, with young adults aged feeling the loneliest
Nearly half of Americans experience loneliness, with young adults aged feeling the loneliest
During the pandemic, I graduated from film school and was forced to focus on finding a job in my field, which seemed impossible at the time. Like everyone else, loneliness, anxiety, and boredom got the best of me. Worse still, most of my close friends had to abruptly return home, without properly saying our goodbyes.
One night I posted a question on Instagram to see what people were up to: "If you could change the color of the sky and grass, what would it look like?" To my surprise, 28 people replied.
I remember enjoying seeing that playful side of us. Some people even wanted to meet each other based on their answers and I loved the fact that we came together to hear each other out. The question might have been silly, but for a brief moment, we felt connected and there was joy. Months later, this experience inspired me to join a 48-hour virtual competition addressing “wellness during the pandemic.” I proposed the concept of the PNPL app, an online community platform that uses multimedia to answer prompts, allowing users to connect anonymously and without judgment. The idea resonated with over 80 people, making PNPL a finalist.
But then again this was only a virtual competition. I didn't want to abandon something that I felt people had a glimpse of hope in. Last semester I started researching how loneliness has changed since the pandemic, and it turns out that it's an official health crisis. As of last year, the U.S. Surgeon General, Dr. Vivek Murthy declared loneliness a public health epidemic in America.
After interviewing practicing therapists and researchers, I discovered that loneliness has been an ongoing issue since before the pandemic. Studies have shown that one of the main causes of loneliness in young adults is their unhealthy relationship with social media. Many patients yearn for an ideal future and constantly compare themselves to others online, leading to feelings of inadequacy and FOMO (fear of missing out). Therapists highlighted three key factors to help patients overcome loneliness:
disproving cognitive distortions they could have about themselves, having a supportive network
And receiving appreciation from this network. This led me to ask: If I'm proposing yet another social media platform where people don't feel the need to compete or feel excluded, what would that look like?
What would a healthy social media look like?
Inspired by these questions, I propose Compa, a platform that focuses on practicing self-value and forming healthy connections.Over a 30-day period, users complete small daily tasks designed to encourage self-expression and expression through multimedia formats.
Instead of focusing on a large network, the user testing grounded me in crafting prompts as a means of self-expression and challenging negative self-beliefs, addressing the first factor described by therapists: disproving cognitive distortions
10 Participants for lofi-prototype
24 Participants for surveys
9 Particpants for developed protoype
Pain Point #1: Evolving User Preferences for Prompt Depth
11 participants in initial survey revealed clear preferences:
- Prompts like "What is one passion you have that not many people know about?" rated as highly enjoyable.
- More personal questions such as "Who are you closest to in your family?" consistently rated least enjoyable.
During lo-fi testing with highly-rated prompts:
- Participant A suggested changing "If you could change the color of the sky and grass, what would it look like?" to "If you could change the color of the sky and grass to how you felt today, what would it look like?", reasoning it would increase curiosity about others.
- 4 subsequent participants preferred the revised prompt when presented with both versions.
A follow-up survey with 6 participants confirmed broader preference for the revised, more self-reflective prompt.
Based on this feedback, a second lo-fi prototype was developed:
Another example is how this prompt changed from "What's your favorite song?" to "Share a guilty pleasure song" to encourage storytelling and reduce assumptions based on musical taste.
Participants in the second lo-fi prototype testing:
- Expressed preference for the revised prompts.
- Were comfortable with their anonymous answers being shared with other participants.
This evolution highlights a key challenge: While initial surveys indicated a preference for less personal prompts, iterative testing revealed users' desire for prompts that foster connections through measured self-disclosure. This contradiction underscores the complexity of designing engaging yet comfortable user interactions, and the importance of multi-stage user testing in uncovering nuanced preferences.
Pain Point #2 Limited Creative Expression
Users found the color-changing scale for the "If you could change the color of the grass and sky to how you felt today" prompt “too engineery,” restrictive and unengaging.
I sat on a bench at Travers Park in Jackson Heights with a sign that read, “How has loneliness felt to you since the pandemic?" As the studies predicted, the 3 people who approached me were between 22 and 24 years old.
Participants tested both low-fidelity and digital prototypes.
Some of the Key feedback included:
- Desired for a less structured experience for color selection
- Questioned using a graph to represent sky colors, noting that emotions and skies aren't monochromatic
- Preferred manually mixing colors to express complex emotions
- Enjoyed viewing and reflecting on other users' drawings
They questioned why they would use a graph to change the color of the sky, when the sky doesn't have a solid color, just as our complex emotions could be represented by many colors and tones. They preferred the process of thinking about, picking, and mixing colors themselves.
The solution was to create a more immersive and intuitive, freeform interface, allowing users to express their emotions, and I’m still challenging myself as a designer to reimagine how we explore colors and how to give the user more control
Pain Point #3: Community Connection vs. One-on-One Pairing
The initial concept of pairing users with a single partner for the duration of the experience was met with resistance.
- In 4 surveys with a total of 24 participants, the majority preferred "Have different partner every day you sign on, with no expectation that you need to sign on continuously (lower commitment)" over "Have one partner that you learn more about and get closer to over a longer period of time?"
- Users expressed significant interest in viewing and engaging with responses from multiple community members.
Solution implemented: After completing a task, users can share their response with three categories:
- Most in contact with
- In contact with for the past 2 weeks
- The entire Compa community
This solution provides users with the flexibility to engage with a broader community while still maintaining some level of connection with frequent contacts.
This is the demo of one particular prompt that received the most votes in surveys. This was done with React js and P5.
On a personal level, this journey has felt like a community journal, another way to remember and process feelings. I learned that people were open to navigate their loneliness along with a community because it brought a sense of belonging and encouragement. Designing this project in response to the interviews reassured me that society has wrongly stigmatized loneliness, overlooking the potential for beautiful personal growth that comes out of such transformative periods.
Moving forward, the next step is to explore non-competitive sharing strategies to avoid replicating the pitfalls of traditional social media that can exacerbate feelings of loneliness and inadequacy. By fostering a supportive community and encouraging authentic self-expression, Compa aims to provide a space where users can broaden their perspectives and feel a sense of belonging
Compa is not a tool to fix our loneliness, but a space to broaden perspectives and foster belonging during challenging times. It's okay to feel lonely at times, and a little push can go a long way.
Thank you for stopping by <3!!