Week 16

I stayed up at my cousins this week – through police and hospital consent. In this time, we agreed to produce a timeline of what he does in a day. Approximate times and activities are displayed on the image below, but the most important insight that I gathered from this observing exercise is the fact that he had no urge to do anything. This is common when battling a mental health condition but through conversation I realised that he had no idea what to do. He filled his time with useless activities like gaming with no get up and go and no real purpose behind each task. When asked what he is going to do the follow day he had no clue, if a plan was in place possibly written down where he could add purposeful tasks to this could possibly make him more productive. This may be a problem with the everyday person now especially in a time of national lockdown. I have witnessed a dramatic decrease in surrounding people’s mental health during the coronavirus pandemic due to having no purpose in life. This is extremely upsetting but by creating tasks and goals for yourself could potentially change mood and lifestyle.

When I was up at my cousin's house, he had a session with his therapist, one thing that is worth mentioning is how his type of CBT is documented and filed. Since the sessions are virtual worksheets of CBT is emailed across for him to print off, this accumulates to multiple pieces of loose paper. If there was a specific booklet made up this would help for tracking back on progress and also accessibility for the next sessions sheets. Therefore, I want to create an organised space which is ideal for planning ahead but also have space for the healing process.

This week I took the time to think about the app. In the back of my head, I think to myself about its real purpose and if it really has a major role to play in my project. The initial idea of it was for the user to buy the product from the site then pick a start date for the CBT and to use a personalisation feature for the front cover. I have had several conversations with fellow classmates, specifically ones who themselves are creating a physical product. They have not felt the need to make an app which allows users to buy their product, so I then ask myself why do I? I created a mind-map to showcase what would potentially go into the app this is displayed below:

I also thought I’d visualise the other aspects of my project especially the content and the aesthetic style. I looked into other products that have personalisation features to them such as clothing – selecting colours. Also, ways which you can purchase items within an app as this is the main purpose for my app. I still am not sure the app is necessary to buy the project, I could look into opportunities for the book to be sold elsewhere to overcome this issue.

I researched into pre-existing journal content; my booklet will contain engaging pages with fun activities which people can interact with regularly. As my booklet will represent a full year, creating content to fill it will be a challenging task so I will need to gain inspiration from elsewhere.

I like the graphic style of bullet and habit journals; they create a fun atmosphere with intriguing shapes and colours. I like the tone of handwriting; it is informal which is welcoming and encouraging for the user. I think it will be a difficult task to create a visually nice look which is pleasing to all types of people. So, font, colour and style are extremely important. I would like to explore more design styles to find the perfect medium and I believe this is still to come.