Alana Rhodin

To-Day: Designing Habit

As a returning student with a degree in psychology, I decided to use this integrative project as an opportunity to explore the connection between my psychology background and my BFA. Specifically, I wanted to design something that could help enable people with depression to build healthy habits.

Referencing scholarship in behavioral activation, a cognitive-behavioral therapy often used to treat depression, I built a prototype that walked users through daily goal setting. First, the user choses a value to focus on. Then, for each task the user completes the plant grows and when additional tasks are completed they accumulate toward achieving that goal, the plant blooms. At the end of the goal, the user receives a unique and positive visualization of their progress thereby encouraging them to focus on their achievements.