OUGD501 Essay: How does screen based Media Effect Mental Health

Chat Room App Final/ Walk Through and animation.

The 'Calm Down' page wast to be animated to to the tempo of someone breathing, exercising calming breathing techniques however XD won't let you add in animations;

Had I had more time I would've liked to have also animated the front page logo (loading page) as well as making this animation for the Calm Down page smoother, more reminiscent of somebody slowly breathing to go in time with the breathing exercises which can be played hitting the play button underneath.

COP III: Initial Draft Proposal & Brief

COP III

• 40 credits (double the normal amount) 
• Consider collaboration for practical if you require a skill set you are unfamiliar with as there isn't time to teach yourself a new skill.
• read 5 books/ articles over summer related to context or theoretical approaches 
• We will be assigned a supervisor dependant on topic we choose
• Don't use too much theory, use it as a backbone for your essay
• There are no off the shelf ways of structuring an essay 
• will be different to other courses, don't take advice from someone on another course!

Theoretical Approaches

COP III Proposal:



Brief:

Masculine Magazine

Produce a publication of 'all things manly', picking out things I identify through research as being typically masculine and mock this, by producing an over-exaggerated satiric piece of design, considerate of colours, shapes and typography.

Background

Look into 'masculine' branding, design for example Gillette razors. Tackle the aesthetic of Feminist zines which often challenge the notion of 'femininity'.

Deliverables

Publication: most likely magazine format

Mandatory requirements 

Emphasise through design belief that 'masculinity' is a weakness in some way, a social construct that often disables men to express themselves, which can be detrimental. Focus on type, colour and shape.

COP II Practical Outcome: Further Research

"Disclosing intimate details of one's life while face-to-face with someone often carries a fear of the the possibility of judgement." 

Stephen Goss, Kate Anthony, LoriAnne Sykes Stretch, DeeAnna Merz Nagel, 2016. Technology In Mental Health- Applications In Practice, Supervision and Training. Springfield: Charles C Thomas Publishing 

Further Research

Ginger.io can be used to track people's mobile phone usage, in basic terms if people are sending less texts, interacting using their phone less this usually indicates a dip in mood, which is possibly detrimental to certain patients, this could furthermore work in a university setting as parents can send 'hugs' and so forth. The app links the patient with a therapist who is informed on inactivity, at which point they can choose to intervene. My argument for this would be that it's an invasion of privacy, a lack of messages could simply be an indication to the patient busy working, sleeping and so on, times when a message from a therapist would be unwelcome and may even put the patient in the bad mood they're initially presumed to be in.

Chat Room App Initial Designs

Current 'Chat Room' branding I have done so far for my OUGD505 Studio Brief (which is the physical Chat Room situated in student welfare offices):

 


The logo being this head with a tentacle emerging from the mouth, will be used for the Chat Room app I'm developing for this module. This was chosen thanks to research I did on representing mental health visually, my personal metaphorical representation has always been tentacles as my councillor years ago asked me to visualise emotions. These projects furthermore extend from a first year project, using tentacles as way-finding arrows.

I plan to have the whole app in teal, every page background as I've found from feedback this works well as a colour that will aid calming people, it's also similar to the blues used consistently throughout mental health literature, but an updated version which is essential as I want to move away from the old aesthetic that carries so much stigma.




Is more consistent in terms of design to keep all the visuals in white as they are on the digital poster.

Upon opening the app, I want the loading page before you get to the homepage that you have to click through to be animated. 

It will use a slight variation on the current logo that I'm using but will still be uniformed in terms of design, so it's recognisable and will strengthen visual identity of brand.


Second page- Information 



I thought it best to have a second welcoming page to offer explanation as to what the app is and who it's for. This app will only be advertised on individual universities notice boards and online forums/ intranet, making the only accessible audience, students. I thought about having an additional page where students log into their own intranet via the app which enables access and puts them through to volunteers at their uni, however as this process in anonymous anyway it doesn't particularly matter all it would be doing was adding another barrier up to people seeking immediate help, further increasing stress levels as filling out information requires concentration which may not be possible in stressful situations, counteracting the purpose of the app.




This page offer information about the app and the physical chat room.

Initially in white the text in Loopy font really isn't very legible as the lines are too thin, however in black this issue is less so. It still looks uniformed as I plant to use this font throughout all the headings, as it is used as the key font on my digital poster.


I plan to animate this, unveiling the text as if it's being typed, in-keeping with the visuals  of a chat room dialect.