Feelin’ Good

An on-demand service that delivers daily dose of positivity

Overview

The world isn’t falling apart, but it can sure feel like it. And this incessant news of violence and destruction is taking a serious toll on our physical, emotional, and mental health health. To combat the pessimism, I designed Feelin’ Good, an on-demand service that delivers daily positivity to user’s phone.

This is a personal project where I oversaw the end-to-end design process, from user research, interaction design, to prototype.

Project Goals

My goal is to find a balance between people’s desire to stay informed about the news and their view of the media as a source of stress.

User Research

PERSONA

According to the American Psychological Association, in 2017, 95 percent of adults say they follow the news regularly, 56 percent say that doing so causes them stress, and 72 percent believe the media blows things out of proportion.

I went on to gather more customer insights by interviewing potential users and summarizing their needs and wants in persona analysis.

COMPETITIVE ANALYSIS

Both mainstream media outlets and independent publishers have dabbled in the genre of positive journalism. But they’re either not updated frequently, having an outdated design, or lack credibility. For example, New York Times’ weekly newsletter for positive news hasn’t been updated since January last year. While Washington Post and National Geographic ramped up their production of positive news as a reaction to an onslaught of terrible news, they usually lack promotion and therefore haven’t gathered much steam.

Social media publishers, on the other hand, are better at targeting a younger generation with their colorful illustration and tongue-in-cheek captions. However, their content can be shallow and some are criticized for a lack of credibility.

I eventually picked Quartz as the potential platform for my positive news service. The web-based news outlet’s bold, modern design has attracted younger audiences who are inclined to consume news online. In fact, it has experimented with chat bot for delivering news, even though it shut down three years later.

Wireframes

To ensure Quartz’s positive news service doesn’t burden users, Feelin’ Good utilizes two existing platforms that already live in people’s phone: SMS and web browser. The two parts are seamlessly integrated to deliver on-demand positive news so there’s no need to download more apps!

Prototyping

I used Botsociety to prototype the chatbot function.

Visual Design

VISUAL DESIGN

Gray is currently the major color for Quartz but it lacks the warmth that’s essential to Feelin’ Good. Without upending the current system, I introduced yellow to brighten the tone, which together with the existing blue color serves a classic contrast.

The body copy inherits the PT Serif font, which enjoys a high legibility. For the headlines, I swapped for Century Gothic Pro to achieve a modern look.

Reflections

This project was completed during a semester for a UX design class. Due to time constraints and a lack of resources, I didn't have the opportunity to conduct more thorough research and collect enough data to test my hypothesis. With additional time, I would love to explore how this texting application can enhance users' mental health and their perception of the world.
I am also interested in testing other forms of news delivery aside from messaging. Some alternative formats I have considered include a search engine, a scrapbook-like app, and a newsletter.