Combating life dissatisfaction in young Black adults through immersive design.
MY MFA THESIS
PARSONS SCHOOL OF DESIGN
PARSONS SCHOOL OF DESIGN
Timeframe
9 months
Role
Academic researcher
UX researcher
Creative teachnologist
Methods
Quantitative research
Qualitative Research
Rapid iteration
Parallel UX/UI/Dev work
Tech stack
SurveyMonkey
Google Docs
Sketch
Arduino
where it started
I have a Masters in Creative Technology. As my thesis, I built an immersive experience that effectively combats life dissatisfaction in young black adults.
HOW IT STARTED
Black youth are at high risk for life dissatisfaction, which is illustrated by disproportionately high suicide rates in the last 20 years (Price and Khubchandani, 2019).
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Black youth face disproportionately high rates of life dissatisfaction, highlighted by troubling statistics: between 1999 and 2018, Black children aged 5–12 were twice as likely to die by suicide as their white peers (Price and Khubchandani, 2019).
Despite the severity of this issue, progress over the last two decades has been alarmingly stagnant.A
s a West African-French woman who battled depression from the age of 9, seeing these numbers (and the lack of initiative to effectively address it in those 20 years) hit, hard.
So as my thesis, I set out to design, build and test an accessible, inclusive, and culturally informed solution.
Despite the severity of this issue, progress over the last two decades has been alarmingly stagnant.A
s a West African-French woman who battled depression from the age of 9, seeing these numbers (and the lack of initiative to effectively address it in those 20 years) hit, hard.
So as my thesis, I set out to design, build and test an accessible, inclusive, and culturally informed solution.
AND YET
Therapy is broken – in more ways than one.
It’s also largely innacessible to Black folx.
01 / Scale
If every USA resident decided to start therapy today, there would only be 1 therapist available for every 7 people.
02 / Economic barriers
In most of the US, one can expect to pay $100-$200 per session. In addition, many of us have jobs that prohibit the time commitment therapy requires on a weekday.
03 / Cultural stigma
Stigma and distrust of mental health institutions has existed within the community for generations. There can also be a lot of shame and sweeping under the rug.
04 / Institutional bias
The mental health field is predominantly led by middle-aged white professionals (Data USA, 2020), whose practice may not align with the lived experiences of Black individuals.
So, “Just try therapy!” wasn’t going to cut it. For my solution to work in practice (not just in theory), it couldn’t just be clinically effective – it also had to be economically accessible, aggressively inclusive, and as minimally burdened by institutionalized racism, colonialism, imperialism and capitalism as humanly possible.
ENTER: MENTAL IMAGERY
Mental imagery, also called creative visualization, is the use of “all the senses to recreate or create an experience in the mind” (Cumming and Williams, 2014).
Mental imagery, or creative visualization, uses all the senses to create vivid experiences in the mind. A growing body fo research shows its profound impact on neurology, psychology, and life satisfaction, as well as its ability to enhance goal performance (Cumming and Williams, 2014; Priya and Venkatesan, 2018).
Inspired by its potential, I immersed myself in studies and applications of mental imagery to design a solution that could effectively address life dissatisfaction in Black youth.
Inspired by its potential, I immersed myself in studies and applications of mental imagery to design a solution that could effectively address life dissatisfaction in Black youth.
the NEW concept
I spent 2 months swimming in peer-reviewed studies on the mechanics of mental imagery (why and how it works). Then to inform my own ideation, I investigated real-life applications.
One that blew my mind open, is a study led by my first alma mater - University College London (UCL).
The researchers tested a compassion-inducing VR experience on depressive subjects. With the VR headset on, the participant would see themselves in a virtual body looking at their reflection in a mirror (image B on the left).
Because the virtual avatar mirrored the user’s posture, it created the illusion that the participant was now truly existing in this virtual world. Under this perception, the user would hear a virtual baby cry.
They’d be shown how to emote compassion towards it in order to soothe the child. The baby, comforted, would stop crying. Now is when it gets WILD.
The perspectives would be reversed, the user now embodying the baby’s body, and experiencing the exact words, voice and gestures of comfort they used themselves (image C & D).
The experience, around 8 minutes long, was repeated thrice a week for three weeks. A month after the experiment ended, the participants reported both a stark improvement in self-compassion, a decrease in unhelpful self criticism and a reduction of depressive symptoms (Bundrant, 2016).
The researchers tested a compassion-inducing VR experience on depressive subjects. With the VR headset on, the participant would see themselves in a virtual body looking at their reflection in a mirror (image B on the left).
Because the virtual avatar mirrored the user’s posture, it created the illusion that the participant was now truly existing in this virtual world. Under this perception, the user would hear a virtual baby cry.
They’d be shown how to emote compassion towards it in order to soothe the child. The baby, comforted, would stop crying. Now is when it gets WILD.
The perspectives would be reversed, the user now embodying the baby’s body, and experiencing the exact words, voice and gestures of comfort they used themselves (image C & D).
The experience, around 8 minutes long, was repeated thrice a week for three weeks. A month after the experiment ended, the participants reported both a stark improvement in self-compassion, a decrease in unhelpful self criticism and a reduction of depressive symptoms (Bundrant, 2016).
FIRST CONCEPT
My first concept guided the subject through mental imagery exercises in a VR environment.
My thesis advisor tore right through it.
My initial concept focused on VR-based mental imagery exercises. However, feedback from my advisor highlighted a key flaw: reliance on VR headsets posed considerable accessibility challenges.
Shifting gears, I expanded my approach to include mental imagery techniques from neuroscience, psychology, and spirituality.
Shifting gears, I expanded my approach to include mental imagery techniques from neuroscience, psychology, and spirituality.
I had started a prototype for it in Unity and everything :’)
from the top!`
I went back to the drawing board and cast a wider net, this time.
Pulling from mental imagery techniques used across neuroscience, psychology and spirituality, I designed seven prototypes – each testing a hypothesis I had formed.
More generally, I was also assessing how my target audience responded to each, and which one(s) stood out and why.
More generally, I was also assessing how my target audience responded to each, and which one(s) stood out and why.
01.
Does seeing photos relevant to one’s goal and projecting themselves in support mental imagery?
Overwhelming “yes.” Seeing a photo to anchor their mental imagery in facilitated imagining a state that is different from their current reality, and resulted in a "feel good" experience. There was one caveat, however – photos only helped if they were similar to their own existing mental image of their goal (e.g. for a fitness goal, the photo would have to mirror the “ideal” body they had in mind).
02.
Does verbally contrasting an ideal state with the current state enhance mental imagery?
Participants reported feeling gratitude for their current life andmotivation towards a potential future. They also felt like there was something to work towards – "I’m here now, but I could be somewhere else."
03.
Does “acting as if” modulate positive expectancy and/or self-efficacy?
“Acting as if” is an exercise where you go about acting as if you already had the thing that you want. The theory behind it is that by removing the worry and stress around the goal and immersing yourself in the joy of having it already, you are putting what you want into the universe, surrounding it with good vibrations and that it will respond by manifesting your goal into your life. I transmuted this method into a social network in which everyone is acting as if they already had what they want, and would congratulate each other. Like a make-believe Instagram. I found it helped participants tune into a positive, encouraging stream of consciousness – but could also feel inauthentic.
04.
Does asserting a goal in the format of "placing an order" promote positive expectancy?
This one had a unanimously strong positive response. Testers reported feeling good, hopeful. They felt their goal seemed more attainable. Many saw the act as writing out their goal, then sending it off into the universe as the first step towards getting it. It also enhanced positive expectancy (the expectation of a positive outcome), which has been shown to increase motivation to work towards one’s goal. One participant compared it to ordering at a restaurant where "you know it’s coming". They also felt that the prompt to look for “signs” in their day-to-day life helped anchor their goal being on their way to them in reality.
05.
Does physically stepping into a dedicated visualization space support mental imagery?
YES. The positive response for this one was also unanimous.Participants found it “very powerful and more empowering [than standard visualizing alone] because there's a physical space you can walk into and feel yourself in”. They found it very reflective and relaxing - “everything else disappears”. They also quickly assigned a mystical quality to the circle – e.g. they would pause, take a few deep breaths before entering it for the second time after the testing session ended. One of them shared that he felt “butterflies”because he was about to meet his higher self. Again, they found the physical contrast between their current reality and their vision motivating.
06.
Does anchoring mental imagery into muscle memory enhance mental imagery?
Movement didn’t seem to have any impact on my testers. Maybe the physical and visualization exercises I used weren’t a good fit. However, because of the success the Circle of Excellence had regardless, I focused on that first.
07.
What role does the sensory environment play in mental imagery?
Participants found the combination of my chosen visuals and binaural beats "very relaxing" while taking a few deep breaths before visualizing. Binaural beats are sound frequencies that have the power to put out brain in specific states – including focus or deep relaxation.
testing round 1: KEY LEARNINGS
Coming out of this first round of testing – three things were clear.
R. W., testing one of the interactive prototypes.
01 / The Circle of Excellence stood out-out
In this technique, a circle is physically drawn on the floor as a space the user enters to visualize themselves as their most powerful, happy and fulfilled self. Participants reported relief, optimism, and increased clarity about their goals. Even when replicated without facilitation, the exercise retained its impact.
02 / Three areas of focus kept coming up
Consistently, participants focused on three core areas: living environment, relationships, and career. These themes shaped the guided scripts I developed.
03 / Visual aids were helpful, with a caveat
Here, I would curate photos that reflected the aspirations of each participant and prompt them to mentally project themselves into the image as if it were their reality. Participants expressed excitement and enthusiasm doing so, and reported that "projecting" themselves in the photos felt particularly good. One caveat was that the photos were only effective if they accurately pictured the participant’s goals and matched any existing mental image they may have of them. If not, they would report feeling thrown off. Generating the right images for each single user also posed feasibility and accessibility questions that I didn’t have satisfactory answers for. For these reasons, I decided to focus on the Circle of Excellence and decided to revisit visual aids if time allowed.
OK, WE’RE GETTING WARMER
With these insights, I was ready to build my first prototype: an immersive, multi-sensory experience.
Mental imagery can be carried out through our auditory, olfactory, tactile, gustatory, kinesthetic, and visual senses (Cumming and Williams, 2014). Through this first prototype, I set out to enhance the efficacy of the Circle of Excellence technique by engaging the person’s senses to support mental imagery.
It went like this.
It went like this.
DYSTOPIAN PLOT TWIST
I had just paired the mat and the lighting, when the news hit: Covid lockdown was upon us, and the school was closing indefinitely.
At this point, I was deep in my metalworking and woodworking classes to build out the immersive environment I had designed. I had designed a full user journey allowing users to take the experience home with them, and had reached out to Black-owned third-spaces to discuss testing the experience there. Not only that, my thesis in itself required testing with people, which was now impossible since we were all locked up.
I’m not going to lie, it hit me pretty hard at first. I didn’t know what to do with myself, nor with the project I had poured 8 months of research and belief into.
I’m not going to lie, it hit me pretty hard at first. I didn’t know what to do with myself, nor with the project I had poured 8 months of research and belief into.
RISING FROM ANALYSIS PARALySIS CATATONIA
After three weeks in bed with Covid, existential questions, and general dizziness from how Mad Max coded “regular life” now was, I hopped back on the thesis horse.
The reality was: 1) I’d never cared about a project this much in my life, and 2) there was no way I was announcing to my West African parents that I abandoned my masters thesis.
I hard-rebooted, e-mailed back my thesis advisors, and entered “ok, where do we go from here?”-mode.
I hard-rebooted, e-mailed back my thesis advisors, and entered “ok, where do we go from here?”-mode.
RISING FROM THE ASHES
I dropped the in-person experience and pivoted towards: 1) building an online-only version of it, and 2) testing it remotely.
I set out to explore how I could recreate the powerful impact of the in-person experience remotely, especially at a time when many of us were feeling overwhelmed by this global, life-threatening crisis and the brutal uncertainty linked to it.
Which leads me to Online Version 1.0: a three-day, six minutes daily routine to test as a pilot with three members of my audience.
The routine went like this:
Which leads me to Online Version 1.0: a three-day, six minutes daily routine to test as a pilot with three members of my audience.
The routine went like this:
I packaged these steps in a short PDF guide, shown on the next page, that the participants could use for reference each day. The PDF included direct links to the surveys and audio file At the end of the three days, I had a video interview with each participant to understand their experience from a qualitative perspective in addition to the quantitative data generated daily by the surveys.
testing round 2: KEY LEARNINGS
Here’s what the data said.
01 / I was onto something good
At the end of the three days, participants described the routine as a deeply calming, reflective self-care experience. They reported that going through it boosted their focus, motivation, and productivity in relation to their goals. Participants qualified their experience of the routine as “self-psychology”, a way to keep themselves “on track” and to “bring their vision to the forefront so it can become”.
02 / The experience was modulating the main factors of life satisfaction
At the end of their sessions, they were reporting feeling more positive both in the present and about their future (positive expectancy), more confident about their goals (self-efficacy) as well as exacerbated focus and motivation in relation to their goals. Day after day, the reported levels of positivity in the present and positive expectancy increased.
03 / Another round of testing was needed
I used the daily surveys and the end-of-experience video interviews to outline areas of success (such as the calming effect of the music and my voice, and the minimal time-commitment required) and areas of improvement (e.g. some participants felt restricted by the circle and wanted to be more flexible with their position, others struggled remembering to do the routine, or would do it at a time of the day that didn’t work for them) to craft an improved version of the routine.
SHAPING VERSION 2.0
With this second version, I was testing a different approach to compare to the first one.
I created a daily routine, around eight minutes long, that I tested with seven participants over five days. Two out of the three pilot participants had pointed out they would have preferred the sessions to be with me in-person, so I decided to set-up an introductory video call with each participant in order to build more of a connection with them, help them tailor the routine to their rhythm and quarantine environment, and help them make the most of it.
During that call, I would introduce why I created Às̩e̩, help them identify the best time in the day for them to carry out the routine and ways to create a relaxing space to do the routine in. I also had them set up a daily reminder on their phone labelled “Take care of me”, and enquired about where they looked for photo-inspiration of the life they wanted to create. Finally, I’d walk them through the routine and answer any questions before sending them an updated PDF including the routine steps.
The routine went as follows:
During that call, I would introduce why I created Às̩e̩, help them identify the best time in the day for them to carry out the routine and ways to create a relaxing space to do the routine in. I also had them set up a daily reminder on their phone labelled “Take care of me”, and enquired about where they looked for photo-inspiration of the life they wanted to create. Finally, I’d walk them through the routine and answer any questions before sending them an updated PDF including the routine steps.
The routine went as follows:
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This time as well, participants had an onboarding call with me, took a thirty-second survey before and after each session (linked in the PDFs), and joined me on a video interview at the end of the five days.
testing round 3: KEY LEARNINGS
After processing and analysis the data, results were in.
01 / The experience felt additive...
By the end of the five days, participants described their experience as a soothing, empowering process of self-discovery, self-care and self-love that allowed them to set an intention for their future and ignite a sense of hope. Y. defined it as “A prayer to yourself. ”
02 / ...but also, highlighted nuances I didn’t see coming
At the end of a session, participants would report feeling significantly more positive, determined, peaceful as well as feeling less stressed and anxious. Some participants experienced an immediate bump in confidence in relation to their goals after a session, while others experienced a decrease in confidence in relation to these goals. According to the survey answers and the video interviews, it appeared that mental imagery of their aspirations occasionally triggered self-sabotage impulses, questioning around the alignment of their current life choices with their desired future and anxiety linked to uncertainty.
This was an interesting observation because of the nuance it carries: even when a participant experienced a dip in confidence around their future, they could simultaneously report feeling strongly positive emotions about it, such as excitement and inspiration. This is not an outcome I planned for, but I like that it provided a safe space for participants to confront things that could stand in the way of creating the life they aspire to. On the other hand, other participants who were already experiencing mild to acute anxiety in their lives described the routine as instrumental in helping ease it.
R., who had been anxious to the point of experiencing severe chest pains expressed “It was beneficial everyday but some
days were more drastic - it was medicinal.”
This was an interesting observation because of the nuance it carries: even when a participant experienced a dip in confidence around their future, they could simultaneously report feeling strongly positive emotions about it, such as excitement and inspiration. This is not an outcome I planned for, but I like that it provided a safe space for participants to confront things that could stand in the way of creating the life they aspire to. On the other hand, other participants who were already experiencing mild to acute anxiety in their lives described the routine as instrumental in helping ease it.
R., who had been anxious to the point of experiencing severe chest pains expressed “It was beneficial everyday but some
days were more drastic - it was medicinal.”
03 / The routine had a compounding effect
As days went by, positive affect and positive expectancy remarkably increased, as well as the amount and frequency of “excited” and “inspired” feelings when thinking of the year ahead.
Another strong trend revolved around self-efficacy: as participants progressed through the five days, they would express less and less uncertainty about their ability to achieve their ideal life a year from now, and increasing confidence (to the point of feeling “extremely confident”) about the goals it implied.
Finally, as days progressed, not only did more participants start the routine already in a state of confidence, their level of confidence would also increase more than in early days by the end of the session. One participant commented “Expansion over contraction” in one of their last surveys, which made me wonder whether this rise in confidence could also stem from coming to terms with the magnitude of what they can achieve, versus what they allowed themselves to aim for in the past.
One of the video interviews confirmed that this was true for some - J. expressed that in the first few days, he noticed feelings of being an “imposter” when visualizing. He later stated: “This exercise made me break through these limitations I had on what I can achieve.”
Another strong trend revolved around self-efficacy: as participants progressed through the five days, they would express less and less uncertainty about their ability to achieve their ideal life a year from now, and increasing confidence (to the point of feeling “extremely confident”) about the goals it implied.
Finally, as days progressed, not only did more participants start the routine already in a state of confidence, their level of confidence would also increase more than in early days by the end of the session. One participant commented “Expansion over contraction” in one of their last surveys, which made me wonder whether this rise in confidence could also stem from coming to terms with the magnitude of what they can achieve, versus what they allowed themselves to aim for in the past.
One of the video interviews confirmed that this was true for some - J. expressed that in the first few days, he noticed feelings of being an “imposter” when visualizing. He later stated: “This exercise made me break through these limitations I had on what I can achieve.”
By the end of the five days, there was a notable increase in positive affect, positive expectancy as well as self-efficacy. The totality of testing participants declared their intention to integrate this routine or a version of it in their day-to-day. Three mentioned this routine prompted them to start additional self-care routines.
testing round 3: KEY LEARNINGS
Since its inception, this project has evolved so much, and it has “grown” me, too.
Through the different iterations, I got to experiment with physical computing with Arduino, Virtual Reality in Unity, as well as 3D design.
I flexed my accept-that-my-first-idea-isn’t-necessarily-going-to-be-The One-muscle (and get a little better at it) and I learned to trust that staying open, curious and following the signals I find along the way might be what leads me to a concept that feels right both to me and the people I design for.
I also experienced the thrill of feeling what you’re interested in, what you know about, and what you want to create in the world emerge as something you can invest in, build, watch evolve, and deeply connect with others on.
I flexed my accept-that-my-first-idea-isn’t-necessarily-going-to-be-The One-muscle (and get a little better at it) and I learned to trust that staying open, curious and following the signals I find along the way might be what leads me to a concept that feels right both to me and the people I design for.
I also experienced the thrill of feeling what you’re interested in, what you know about, and what you want to create in the world emerge as something you can invest in, build, watch evolve, and deeply connect with others on.
The project site I designed and custom coded to tell the story of Às̩e̩ and how it came about, and act as a toolkit for educating potential users on how to recreate the experience at home.
After presenting my research and finding at The New School’s symposium (watch the 8min recording), I went on to pitch this project to Ethel’s Club, who then brought me on to lead workshops centering the wellbeing of BIPOC youth. To be continued.
ROOM FOR ONE MORE?