DINO-saur Wellbeing
DINO-saur Wellbeing is a mobile applications which was brainstormed and developed by a group of UNSW students towards the end of the COVID-19 pandemic. With many face-to-face rituals turned virtual due to health risks, this application served to address concerns of engagement and wellbeing in the classroom. Developed for young children and schools, the application aims to provide children with the ability to engage with peers remotely, whilst expressing their emotions and wellbeing for teachers to oversee and respond if necessary.
Problem Definition
How we can help students navigate their emotions in a remote learning environment that disconnects the interpersonal relations of students and teachers.
Our research revealed:
Students social and emotional well-being has a long term impact on success, health and employment
13.9% of young people meet the criteria of a mental disorder
31% of young people seek help
Online schooling has made it hard to interact with teachers and peers
It is hard to express social and emotional needs online
There are a lack of resources to keep mental health in check
Development
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Development 〰️
Design Research
To begin the UI/UX design phase, it was important that a clear direction for design was developed, thus design research and planning was commenced. Pinterest was utilised as the main source of inspiration for the projects UI & UX designs.
In creating a Pinterest board to collate UI/UX inspirations the following criteria was considered when adding resources to the board:
Is the design appealing to primary school kids?
Is the design an existing wellbeing application?
Does the design showcase an innovative gamification element?
Does the design encompass an innovative design for UI elements that may be useful for this project?
Design Planning (Branding)
Project branding is a fundamental feature of a brand or product which makes it visually successful and is achieved during the design planning phase of development. Utilising the resources gathered from Design Research, planning was conducted using Milanote to annotate desired features from resources gathered and to develop an overall mood board for the direction of the applications UI and UX design.
In conducting this planning, I was able to develop and finalise brand design elements for my project's solution, such as interface features and a colour palette where a kid friendly palette was utilised in hopes of engaging students.
It is also important to note that the 60-30-10 colour rule was considered for the finalisation of our application and brand’s colour palette to ensure a visually aesthetic and navigational wireframe design was achieved.
Gamification Design
With a gamification component being a key medium of engagement for a young user demographic it was important that a level of gamification was introduced into the project’s solution. By leveraging the Design Planning resources, a children centred gamification element was designed.
Developed through collaboration with the Scrum Master and BA
Dinosaur theme and kid friendly graphics make the app engaging to children
Final app achieved after multiple propositions to developers to ensure achievability
Wireframe Design
To complete the development of an MVP for our project solution, the development of a mobile application wireframe was necessary. Figma was the online tool utilised to develop and design our wireframe for a finalised design of our application’s complete user interface for both types of users.
In this stage of development, not only was I able to leverage my design skills to develop a visually aesthetic interface design, but I also utilised my familiarity with Figma to prototype the application through flows. This then provided the developers with a complete understanding of the applications user experience design to ensure that all require functionalities are incorporated in the final MVP.
