CarePal

About CarePal

CarePal is a one-stop platform where you can find features targeted at boosting both your mental and physical health through helping you improve your daily routines. It aims to encourage youths and working adults to prioritise their health, and to do this in a more fun and gamified way by incorporating augmented reality, such as having avatars and 3D objects.

Designed in Figma with Yeo Jun Ming and Keefe Koh, as Team Newton.

Problem statement

Youths and working adults are neglecting their mental and physical health due to stress or lack of sleep and physical exercise. Three concerns shaped the app:

• Prevalence of mental health issues that stem from stress and lack of sleep in teens and working adults.
• The tendency of forgetting to take the prescribed medicine and doctor's instructions, or not being disciplined enough by disregarding the schedule.
• Conflicting thoughts on whether consulting the doctor is necessary due to minor symptoms, while at the same time wanting to know what the illness exactly is to be safe.

Features in CarePal

Home page. Comprises the sleep and habit tracker, health meter and avatar status, accompanied with tabs located at the bottom of the screen for easy access to journal and reminders, forums, and chatbot.

Health meter. A long progress bar that fills up as tasks are completed, such as sleep, rest, and completing goals and habits. It represents the health of the virtual character, which is correlated to the user's state of health.

Avatar status. A virtual character of the user, which helps connect with the user better. Its status changes according to the health meter, so completing most of the habits and getting sufficient sleep shows. The candid graphics add an element of fun, appealing to teens and working adults.

Sleep and habit tracker. For sleep, the user synchronises their rest with their avatar. For habits, the user pens down goals they want to achieve or cultivate, in the form of a checklist. Completion fills the meter, and lets users track how well they have been sticking to their habits and goals.

Journal. A free space for users to jot down self-reflection and memories. It is a good way to relieve mental health struggles, as you can release pent-up feelings and stress by expressing them out on the journal. Entries appear as post-its on a notice board, creating an informal setting for users to freely express their thoughts, and users are able to keep track of their entries over time to look back at memories or at how much they have improved.

Reminders. Appears as a table in the app with medicine and prescriptions on it. The user can click on a medicine to add information such as timing intervals and instructions from their doctors, and the app notifies them on the top of their phones. Using virtual objects to represent medicine is a useful way to help users remember, as our brains are more likely to remember through the presence of visual representation.

Forum. Allows users to share opinions and issues they are currently facing. To help with mental health, the forum provides a supportive and conducive environment where users who experienced similar situations are able to voice out or provide assistance. Physical health wise, users are also able to share about accidents and injuries, and others are able to offer opinions or help with the problem. Tags like #news, #mentalhealth, #discussions and #tips facilitate categorisation of posts.

Chatbot. The user describes symptoms experienced by them, and the chatbot narrows down possible causes while prompting other symptoms. Follow-up questions by the chatbot help it identify the cause of discomfort, both ensuring the chatbot is able to give a more reliable and accurate response to the user.

How are different features integrated together?

Entries uploaded to the journal can be shared to the forum, allowing others to also experience the feelings of the user. After typing in some text and images, the user is asked whether to share it to the forum, and can post it with appropriate tags allowing others to interact.

When typing in entries to the journal, certain keywords may prompt the user to speak to the chatbot. A user who types "ankle pain" trips the keyword "pain", and is asked whether to visit the chatbot to relieve it.

Why is CarePal unique?

• Smooth integration between features of the app, such as the forum and chatbot.
• Almost seamless transition between the real and virtual world.
• Cute graphics and game-like features encouraging teens and working adults to take good care of their health.

Click the preview above to explore the full design file on Figma.