“Goal Mind”

👏 UX Research Lead at WorkMarket an ADP Company — Emoti-Con Judge

Aria has come up with a truly unique approach to stress reduction with Goal Mind (also love the name!). Introducing an avatar that interacts with characters into the goal setting aspects of this app make it particular unique. The four areas used to destress - breathing, yoga, confidence-building, and especially music - provide the user with a good amount of choice compared to say, a yoga or meditation app. And the promise of read aloud and translation create real value.

The one aspect I was a bit confused about was the choice of shopping as a way to role play a stressful situation. Shopping can be stressful but perhaps other stressful situations within a social context could have been used to demonstrate the power of the app - e.g., having to take a test, try out for a sports team or play, meeting new people, or other situation in which someone may have to perform within a social context. Middle school is all about social anxiety! I know and I survived, but I would have loved to have this app to make it go easier. So one suggestion is to maybe include more real life examples of social anxiety to demonstrate the app's utility and benefits.

This is a minor complaint and one that can be easily remedied - given the strength of the concept and its unique features. Nice work!!

👏 Sr. Product Manager, Z-Team at Tinder — Emoti-Con Judge

When people think of “social impact,” they often think of the usual suspects: climate, political policy, etc.. But I love how Aria thinks of mental health as having social impact, because she’s absolutely right. In the age of technology, humans are more distracted than ever and in addition, have to deal with real world human issues such as finishing a homework assignment, making friends, losing friends and family and everything in between. As an adult, you may worry about retirement, affording a house (or rent!), finding a job, and maintaining relationships with family and friends. What I love about this solution is that it approaches the problem with various solutions personified by these avatar “friends.” Many people may not feel ready to make themselves completely vulnerable to something like therapy (and it’s expensive), so the avatars offer a nice proxy for those people that want to take the pressure off of something interpersonal and make it fun and simple through interactions with these characters. I also really liked how inclusive the characters were, and represented a variety of races and genders. Bonus points for inclusivity! Speaking of inclusivity, I thought it was a fantastic touch to have accessibility features (features for the hearing impaired, for example), and have it available in multiple languages.

Aria has already got a great start to an MVP (minimum viable product) for her app. One of my favorite aspects is the “city” feature, and I wonder how this could be expanded beyond simple activities like shopping. For example, it would be great to interview potential customers who suffer from anxiety and ask them what other public scenarios trigger them. Based on this feedback, she could build out other areas of the city so that her users could practice healthy coping skills.

All in all, I think it’s really innovative how Aria has taken the “meditation app” concept and turned it into something fun, practical, and gamified. I think this has the potential to be a great help to people of all generations, no matter where they are and what their abilities are. Well done!

👏 Senior Product Manager at Range — Emoti-Con Judge

I thought this was a really strong showing of issues that affect many if not all of us today. I loved the different personalities and how the choice of them was backed by science. I would have loved more details on each one and their connection back to core problems. Focusing on that successful strategy could make this app even better! Overall, I think you're after a real need which shows great focus. Good job!