Madison Lutz

Final Documentation

Progress Report: April 28th

New features:

• Cylindrical target

Progress Report: April 27th

New features:

• All weather effects are functioning
• Text field is functioning
• Flower is animated

Progress Report

Further progress report:

• Rain functioning
• Buttons functioning

Progress Report

So I had more done with the rain effect but my computer crashed and I lost my work. However, I want to at least post what progress I do have.

I added my buttons and my text field to my project. I still have to work on making them functional.

MVP - v.3

Main changes:

• Added onboarding/instructions for use
• Added draggable word function

Plan for next week:

• Start sourcing assets
• Finish copy of the onboarding section
• Start working in Unity 😬
• Make a game plan! 

MVP v.3

MVP - v.2

So for this week, I continued to work on my prototype for the app and then brought it to 10 different people to get their feedback. Many of the interviews were quick and purely for confirmation of value in the idea but I did film the ones that I could. All of the interviewees saw value in the concept and either would use the app themselves and/or knew people who would use it. One of the main takeaways I got from the interview process is that most people wanted to see more options for personalization while still keeping the interface simple and streamlined. Also, I need to work on answering the question of who my target users are. Is this a mindfulness app, in which my user base would be the general public, or do I want to focus more on users living with mental illness? Additionally, how do I want users to use this app? If it is location-based it would be something that users have to interact with and remember to interact with throughout the day whereas if it is trigger-based or only located in one place it would be more habitual, a once a day check-in during someone's day.

Summary: All of the interviewees saw value in the idea and their commentary was mainly just various suggestions for how to move forward.

MVP v.2 Link

Filmed Interviews:

Since the prototype changes as I go here is a PDF of this version: v2

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1boiyqZIlIt2qsUrxZ_WpOB1ggOIt3ONG/view?usp=sharing

MVP

The bottom 3 buttons are not functional at the moment but they indicate the user's care of their plant. They can use these buttons to track their own habit. Within the metaphor of caring for the plant the umbrella protect the plant (giving it shade), the watering can water the plant, and the last bottom is to talk to the plant. Outside of the metaphor, these buttons can be used to track various habits. For a user the watering could symbolize getting 8 hours of sleep, the umbrella could symbolize mediation, and the talking could symbolize going to therapy each week.

The weather buttons are used to track the user's mental state on any given day.

All of this can be reviewed on a grander scale from the calendar page. This allows the user to view any patterns that may appear over time using the app.

MVP Link

Interviews

I did not video my interviews as many of my interviews touched on sensitive and personal content. One of the interviews, I was not able to film or record in any capacity because I was sitting in on a discussion between a client, their mother, and their therapist. However, for that one, I've written a document summarizing my findings.

Questions Asked

Audio Recordings

My last interview was conducted via e-mail as I was unable to meet with them in person. Their answers to my questions are listed below. 

1. What is your background working in the mental health field? I have a BA in Psychology from Haverford College, a Masters in Clinical Psychology from Widener University, a Doctorate in Psychology form Widener University, and a Post-doctoral fellowship in clinical neuropsychology from Widener University. I began my graduate school career hoping to be a family therapist, moved by wonderful books such as The Family Crucible, by Augustus Napier. However, the summer after my first year I got a job as a psychometrician at Mediplex Rehab in Camden NJ. I was instantly drawn to the power of testing and how it can tease apart various cognitive and emotional issues. At that point I changed my specialization to neuropsychology. After completing my post doc, I worked in Cherry Hill NJ at an outpatient rehab. I then moved to Mechanicsburg and worked at HealthSouth, and then with a group of rehab physicians for about ten years. I have been in private practice for 8 years now.
2. Do you think there still exists a stigma around mental health? Very much so. It's stronger in different geographic areas, but it's all over. This causes a problem with lack of utilization of services. Folks who are worried that they will be seen as mentally ill or "crazy" tend to wait until their problems are so extreme that mental health services are not super helpful. Also, they tend to see medication as the be all and end all of mental health improvement, and while it can be quite helpful, it does not address the causes in many cases, or the necessary behavioral changes.
3. How do you feel about the current representation (or lack thereof) of mental health in the media? At this point, it's hit or miss. Lack of mental health services is getting blamed for things like mass shootings, but funding is also getting cut for the most needy. I am on the the Cumberland County/Perry County Mental Health and IDD advisory board. The mental health budget for these counties is getting cut by 20%. On the other hand, I think that given all of the difficulties that are ongoing in the local and national venues, mental health professionals have an opportunity to educate people about symptoms and treatments available for many emotional problems.
4. What advice would you give to someone looking for ways to communicate to friends and family about their own struggles/experiences with mental health? I think the number one thing is that if someone you are close to isn't able, for whatever reason, to hear you, there is always another person who will. Many times, it is hard to talk to family when family is wrapped up (at least in part) in the issues. With friends, I would advise that you have time for more intense talk and time for fin. Don't just use friends as therapists, and it's good to listen and empathize with their problems as well. This really helps both feel able to be heard and understood. I would also say, be open to gentle correction. Folks are often looking to be heard when they haven't been before, but the key to improving mental health is behavioral change. You have to do something different (even to a small degree) to make changes happen. This is true even for those who have suffered trauma and abuse. Those kinds of things really can shape personality, and personality change can happen only through being brave and trying different things.
5. What advice would you give to someone looking to better understand mental health struggles that they may not experience themselves? Sometimes it's as easy as following LQL (listen, question, and listen again. Empathetic listening is the most powerful way to not only understand someone's issues, but also to have them feel they can eventually take advice. Advice given without any cred is not very helpful. In some cases, the symptoms of the problem make it very difficult to understand the other person. In the most extreme example, if someone is telling you they see bugs on the window and you can't see them, no amount of empathy will help you see the world in the same way this person does. However, it does give you a true sense of how this person must be seen by others, and you can empathize with that struggle.
6. Do you think there is potential for new technology to help the mental health field? If yes, how so? If no, why? Very much so. I think it is already helping in many ways. Not all of these are necessarily going to be game changers, but many provide major assistance, including: Apps for many problems. For example, there is a fantastic App called PTSD coach developed by the VA and NIMH for veterans struggling with PTSD. There are hundreds of Apps that heal with depression, anxiety, stress management, relaxation, goal setting, organization etc. There is also a movement for telepsychotherapy, and you can talk to a therapist through services such as 'Doctors on Call.' I think thinks like Smart Homes can be very helpful with setting up ideal lighting conditions and assisting with sleep/wake patterns. Devices can be easily placed in homes to help monitor folks with dementia, track medication use etc. Online forums, chat rooms, games, Google Hangouts and other services can give people who are shut in, anxious, agoraphobic, disabled and who have other problems the chance to connect with others. Neurobiofeedback is a computer assisted therapy that is making a bigger and bigger impact on conditions like depression, AD/HD and brain injury. Computer assisted cognitive remediation helps folks with concussion, TBI and other cognitive disorders. Electronic media makes it possible to have professional team meetings to discuss cases. New techniques for ECT and other interventions will help depression with fewer side effects. Functional scans will help with diagnoses. And the list goes one.

Biggest Takeaways: 

• There is a big need for tracking within mental health management. This includes tracking periods of depression, mania, etc. but also there is a need for being able to track controllable factors such as medication, therapy sessions, exercise, journaling, etc. 
• Although the experience of mental illness is different for everyone a common thread is a challenge with balancing how you are feeling with what you are doing. The way that one interviewee describes it was like the first moment you step into a canoe and it keeps wavering back and forth and though you know that once you sit down and get out on the water it will be fine, at that moment it feels like the whole canoe is going to capsize. 
• There definitely still exists a stigma but it has improved. The stigma however often prevent people from getting help because they feel that therapy is just for the 'crazy'. 
• There is a great opportunity for technology to be helpful in the mental health field. 
• It is harder to talk to professors and people in a place of authority about a personal struggle with mental illness than it is with those that are close to you. 
• In the media and in lived experience there is a lot of struggle around the integration of mental illness into one's identity. In the media, it's hard to find an example of a character that is well-rounded in which their illness is not their entire characterization. This also carries over into the interviews I conducted with people who do suffer from mental illness. How much of my illness is me? 

Plan for MVP:

I've sort of altered my focus for my project. I want to focus on providing a service for the individual that they could choose to share with someone else or not. Mainly, I want to focus on creating a visual and interactive AR experience that helps people track and manage their mental health. For my MVP I want to have 3 different visual representations of mental health or mental illness sketched out. I want to have this so that I can get feedback on what people prefer. This will also help guide my art style for the rest of the project. Then I wanted to have a non-programmed but interactive prototype (I haven't decided if this will be a series of gifs, a powerpoint, an interactive PDF, etc) to illustrate the general idea of the app. This will help me determine the different screens I may have to progress through and the overall UI/UX for the project. In addition, I can then get feedback on the concept itself to see if people would use it or if it would be helpful.

Midterm Presentation

Google Slides Presentation

Wearable - Mini Crit

P.S. Sorry, it is vertical.

Reveal the Unseen

For this project, I wanted to do something that is both hopeful but kind of dark. The title of my piece is "Hope Is Where The Heart Is" and seeks to show that sometimes the best and worst thing is when a little spark of hope sets up camp in your heart.

Layar Intervention Assignment

For this assignment, I was inspired by this article. It is a 'Love Map' project done of NY which place location pins on a map of New York where various love stories took place. Some of these pins mark hookups, marriages, proposals, or breakups. They all document other peoples locations of love and loss. I think it's interesting because there are places that we pass every day without knowing that there is a story there. Some places to some people can elicit pain and heartbreak every time they pass by but we would never know. 

Going off of this, I decided to make the assignment more personal. I took a place that has a lot of significance to me and placed a heart there. In addition, I added a video that plays the breakup scene from the movie, The Notebook. I did this because even though the place holds a happy memory for me, it simultaneously triggers thoughts of how the relationship ended. And sometimes, as silly as it may sound, that can feel like having that scene play on a continuous loop every time I pass that location. 

So the video and the 3D model loaded in my apartment...

But once I moved to the actual location the 3D model loaded and you can hear the sound of the video but you cannot see the actual video playing.

Print Media Aurasma Experience

For this assignment, I decided to build off of a comic book that I have called Hellbound Lifestyle. The general concept for my project is that a portal to hell opens up from the phone and all of the letters get sucked into it. If at any point the user taps on the animation a link to the bookseller's website opens up. Above is a video of the experience happening in real life and below is a screen-recorded video to give a closer look at the animation.

Memory HW Assignment - February 1st, 2018

For this assignment, I decided to recreate the memory of going to the A Bug's Life playground at Disney World for the first time. While the ride "It's Tough to be a Bug" is entirely terrifying, especially for the age demographic they are targeting, the area of the park in which the ride is situated is entirely immersive. 

This particular area of Disney World is designed so that you feel the size of one of the bugs in the movie A Bug's Life. As a 5-year-old, I was enchanted. Since I was already of smaller stature it was easy to get wrapped up in the world Disney wanted to create. I felt like a bug, in the best way possible of course. 

Although my recreation isn't exact to the park itself, I wanted to capture how the park made me feel. In this sense, I feel I did well. I specifically used assets from Google Poly because I felt that the style of Google Poly gave it more of an 'animated' feel. I also pulled an image of the background of the actual movie A Bug's Life to use as the backdrop to this 3D scene. Below are two videos of my scene as well as some screenshots.