THE IDEA
We often have a problem with comprehending our feelings, desires and motivations. When the source of our emotional reactions is unknown
for us, we become confused and alienated. Moreover, when we are unaware we are not able to evaluate ourselves and our abilities properly, which can result in bad life choices and frustration. This app was created to help people monitor their mood pattern and discover major factors influencing it. Its purpose is not to dwell on emotions, but to acknowledge them, even the most painful ones, understand and let go.
for us, we become confused and alienated. Moreover, when we are unaware we are not able to evaluate ourselves and our abilities properly, which can result in bad life choices and frustration. This app was created to help people monitor their mood pattern and discover major factors influencing it. Its purpose is not to dwell on emotions, but to acknowledge them, even the most painful ones, understand and let go.
Don’t think about the white bear
Scientific research suggest that efforts to repress and forget certain thoughts or emotions would probably result exactly the opposite. In the famous „white bear” experiment (Tor D. Wager and others, 1987) students were asked to record everything that comes to their mind, so-called inner chatter. However, they were instructed not to think about the white bear. As a result, the students mentioned the white bear almost every minute. This experiment shows that attempt to suppress the unwanted thoughts and emotions can result in their constant reappearance in our mind. This is why it is soo important to learn to acknowledge them because it is the only way to make them pass by.
DESCRIPTION
I used six basic emotions (anger, love, sadness, excitement, anxiety, happiness), each of them will have its specific colour assigned. In one of the existing self -awareness apps I was overwhelmed by the choice of feelings therefore I decided to reduce the amount only to essential ones. The intensity of each emotion will be expressed by three point scale. I will also allow user to mix basic emotions to more complex ones.
To make the app more personalised I decided to give user an option to assign the colors themselves. The other reason for this is because during my testing on focus groups I found out that people associate colors quite differently. I also choose to make the pattern blurred and colors slightly penetrating to represent the true, elusive nature of emotions.
STATISTICS
When user will press the statistics icon on the lower bar, he will be first taken to general statistic screen. He can choose from three different categories; month, days or tags. The buttons themselves are kind of info graphic because they display what was dominant emotion in particular case. This is easy to comprehend visual information, user can immediately compare and analyse his mood data.
After pressing a particular button, for instance January in the month category, the diagram screen will show up, with exact percentage data.
HOW DOES IT WORK?
Three times a day the app will randomly notify user to choose a color to describe their current mood, and to indicate what was the cause of this emotion.
The app main feature will be the emotional calendar, showing the mood pattern in color. Moreover, user will have also access to detailed week view, which will include the source of particular emotion and time it was documented. The other features will include statistic according to months, particular days of week, or tags.
The app main feature will be the emotional calendar, showing the mood pattern in color. Moreover, user will have also access to detailed week view, which will include the source of particular emotion and time it was documented. The other features will include statistic according to months, particular days of week, or tags.
