A mobile app helping children and caregivers regulate emotions through guided exercises and pattern tracking.
Self-directed, grounded in clinical research and personal experience supporting individuals through emotional dysregulation
Solo, research through high-fidelity prototype and user testing
1 week
Figma, Miro, Academic Literature, Clinical Self-Help Resources
Four evidence-based intervention flows completed by users in 2 to 5 minutes
Most wellness apps offer the same thing: breathing reminders, meditation timers, generic mindfulness content built for calm days, not hard ones.
People managing emotional dysregulation, whether from anxiety, depression, PTSD, or everyday overwhelm, need something different. Not a wellness routine to build over months, but an immediate tool that works in the middle of a difficult moment.
Emotional regulation skills are teachable, and clinical research proves it. Yet no existing app delivers that rigor in a format built for crisis, not just calm.
This project set out to close that gap: immediate relief in the moment, paired with skills that hold up over time.
Users in emotional distress need immediate relief, not a commitment. Time-constrained interventions respect the reality of a crisis moment while maintaining clinical effectiveness and encouraging consistent use.
Tradeoff: Shorter interventions provide less depth than a full therapy session. The app is designed to complement professional care, not replace it. Accessibility and in-moment support were the primary goals.
Users have different regulation preferences and different situational needs. Breathing works for one person, grounding for another. Offering four options grounded in CBT and DBT research lets users discover what works for them personally, which research shows significantly impacts regulation success.
Tradeoff: More options create initial complexity. The personalization and user agency justified the learning curve.
Mental health stigma and professional concerns are active barriers to app adoption. Ensuring complete privacy by default, with optional healthcare provider sharing, addresses the most significant barrier identified in the research.
Tradeoff: Privacy-first architecture limits some analytics and community features. User trust and adoption among the primary audience outweighed social engagement features that could deter the people who need the app most.
A 1 to 10 intensity slider, challenge type selection, and technique preference icons route users to the right intervention immediately. No lengthy intake, no unnecessary friction at the moment of highest need.
A visual breathing animation guides users through the box-breathing technique with a progress indicator and mid-point check-in. The calming color palette reinforces the intervention without competing with it.
The 5-4-3-2-1 grounding exercise uses progressive prompts across all five senses with visible progress tracking. It works in any environment and requires no prior experience with the technique.
Situation input, an emotion rating slider, and guided reframing questions walk users through perspective-shift techniques drawn directly from cognitive behavioral therapy. The structure makes a clinical intervention feel accessible.
All four task flows were validated within the target time window, meeting the primary constraint without compromising the clinical structure of each technique.
Breathing, grounding, cognitive reappraisal, and emotional assessment flows, each grounded in clinical research and designed for independent use without professional guidance.
No existing app delivers targeted, evidence-based intervention for emotional dysregulation with this level of clinical grounding and UX accessibility combined.
Following the research process prevented premature solution-jumping. The instinct at the start of the project was to jump straight to a breathing exercise screen. The research revealed that emotional assessment needed to come first, that routing users to the right technique mattered as much as the technique itself.
Grounding the design in clinical literature changed the quality of every decision. When a choice could be traced back to a validated framework, the rationale was clear and the tradeoffs were easier to evaluate.
If I were to continue this project, I would add gamification elements and simplified language for younger users. The current design serves adults effectively. Adolescents managing anxiety and depression represent an underserved group with the same need, and the intervention structure would translate with targeted adjustments.
This is a self-directed project grounded in clinical research and years of firsthand experience supporting students, family members, and individuals through emotional dysregulation. The problem is real. The gap in the market is documented. The design reflects both.
