Anna Chen, Hien Do, Roy Tam
Introduction
Our team's challenge was to come up with a way to tackle the increasing rate of depression in young New Zealanders using service design. For several years, depression has been the most common mental health disorder spotted in teenagers and young adults due to a number of reasons. Some can suffer from depression due to post-traumatic events in life (the divorce of parents, break up with a loved one, domestic abuse, ect), while others may feel depressed when going through major life changes, settling into new environments, or simply because they feel different from their peers (LGBTI is a common example) Consequently, patients with depression usually experience mood swings, insomnia and in most cases, lack motivation to socialize with others, making their communication, and social skills weaker than what is expected at their age. On the more extreme side of the issue, depression being one of the most typical cause of suicide in young people, plus the fact that it influences other medical illnesses, have made this mental disorder a recognized systemic problem and something has to be done. After research process, some of the demands our team have realized from the community of depressed people were the needs to feel included, and belonged in social groups, the urges to reduce stress, as well as overcome life problems without being excessively emotional, and the necessity to find motivation to be productive, and positive-minded. Our goal was then set to have a strategy that not only fulfills all of the mentioned demands, but also improves social skills, and encourages productivity while remaining totally cost-free, and portable.
Design Process
How might we improve social service so that young people suffering from depression can achieve a healthier state of mind given their lack of motivation as well as optimism and overcoming physical and mental pain?
After the research plan was finished, the team moved forward to ideas development phase. Our initial concepts include an app, which provides online private/group therapy, a service that provides patients of depression with emotional support animals from animal rescue groups around New Zealand, and a mobile therapeutic game that consists of aural therapy, visual therapy, and talking therapy. By gradually eliminating ideas that did not meet our criteria, the team came to an agreement about the final concept to move on with. We unanimously thought the emotional support animal service was the first to be removed due to the fact that there are people with allergy to certain animals, an aspect that we did not take into account.
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Second to go was the online therapy app as this was too broad of an idea. It is also hard for people to come find help any time of the day as a therapist might not be available. In the alternative scenario, which means including an AI doctor, the experience will turn out to be not as genuine, not to mention the process of incorporating an AI therapist is extremely complicated. Another factor is that talking therapy may not be enough for a person to gain confidence and motivation to open up with others aside from the therapist.
The elimination process left the team with the therapeutic mobile game concept. We mutually see a lot of potential in the idea as it includes not only therapeutic aspects but also joy and motivation to be creative. More importantly, by interacting with other players, users will then technically belong in a community of people with similar mental issues.
Design Strategy
Because the purpose of this game is to be therapeutic and create a relaxing environment for players, the mechanics are extremely straightforward and simple, giving users the freedom to play in a way they find most enjoyable. Players can download the game from App store or Google Play, register with their emails, customize their characters and choose the island cubes on which they will build their own empires. There are also different choices of islands, from a modern city look to a farm with barns.
During the game, players will be able to earn ingame money so that they can shop for essential materials. The money can be collected through a variety of tasks and activities, some of them will be actual activities provided by therapists for the purpose of analysation. Once players complete these kinds of tasks, their result will be sent to therapists to help them keep track, and aid in the diagnostic process.
There is also a community chat room incorporated in the game, monitored by online admins to prevent abusive language, and verbal bullying. Thanks to this, players can reach out to people with the same metal health condition, share their feelings and make friends along the way. Once they get to know each other enough, offline meetings can then be conducted and people now have more motivation to socialize, get to know others and hence, improve their communication skills.
As regards aesthetic style, we decided to have an art style that is as peaceful, nature-related as possible. The background mainly consists of the shade of the ground, the blue of the sky, white clouds, and green grass. Characters are also designed to be simple with not too much detail to take in. The soundtrack mainly features nature sounds (crunchy leaves, thunder, whale sounds) and can be customized by players according to their preferences. This is the aural therapy this game brings about, and as each person has a favorite sound that they find soothing, and therapeutic, we let them customize their own soundtrack.
Impact
Our team believe when fully developed, with all of its potential, the game will have a major impact on the community. Not only will it help patients with depression alone, but it will also aid other people in reducing stress and calming the mind. Furthermore, as the playstyle encourages freedom and creativity, players can fully make use of their imagination and find joy in crafting their own imaginative world. Additionally, with the function of visiting other players' worlds, people can get to know users around them better while exploring the imaginive the creative works of others. As these connections are made, the community then have a stronger bond, and hence everyone can find someone to share their inner problems in a safe place.
Conclusion
The design process has been long, and the team made several changes along the way. Nonetheless, we have never forgotten our initial purposes; to make people feel included, create motivation for them to socialize, encourage productivity, reduce stressful emotions, and get people the therapeutic help they need. The product we came up with has fulfilled these demands and we are confident that it still has a lot of hidden potentials that have not been uncovered.