Wing-App Prototype Link
The end product created is called Wing-App. Wing-App is a product targeted at helping those going through social anxiety and supporting them to overcome their symptoms and to help build self-confidence.
Social anxiety is the 3rd largest mental health problem where just in America it affects 15 million adults. With such a large majority of people silently going through hardship from social anxiety, there’ only a small minority who actually seeks help and guidance.
When looking at differences in numbers of how many people suffer from SAD (Social Anxiety Disorder) and how many people choose to seek help, it shows there is a concern for the issue and a lack of consideration as well.
For those suffering from social anxiety, it would be inevitable that they would feel pressured and find talking to someone about their issues to be daunting. It would not be easy to physically seek support and comfort for others when it is what creates anxiety in the first place.
This is where I would introduce Wing-App, where they can attain the support a socially anxious person will benefit from, without the need for physical social interaction. Wing-App is designed to help the user gain self-confidence and build up their assurance for when they would have to interact with others in real life.
Wing-App has a range of different beneficial features. The app holds a development space, where the user can undergo different activities, each catered to the user and their social ability. The activities offered are meditation, a diary to track the users’ moods and symptoms, a thought organizer to encourage positive thinking, and a situation simulator for the user to improve their social skills through experience.
On top of having a development room, the app allows the user to meet others facing similar issues and a chance to build friendships, in the chat room. The chat room is where once the user fills out their hobbies when signing in to the app, they will be able to find events happening near them and of their interest. The user can also view others on the app who would like to attend the event and have similar hobbies. Then they would be able to talk to them before the event so the event won’t appear as scary as they would have spoken to some of the attendees already.
The app also comes with a paired wearable device. The wearable device comes with an interchangeable pendant that can either be worn as a necklace or a wristband. The pendant has a special function where it monitors the users’ heart rate so it would be able to identify a rise in bpm if the user were to experience a panic attack. The pendant is then able to send of pulsing vibrations timed to an average resting heartbeat so the users can focus their attention to matching the vibrations and help calm them down slowly. The settings and result analysis for the wearable device can be viewed on the app so the user can track their progress.
