This project was one of my favorites to work on, and particularly personal to me. I knew what the problem I wanted to build my brief around was; mental health, emotional regulation, reflection, self-awareness, and communication. The part I enjoyed the most was designing studies and doing research into the subject matter.
Taking care of yourself can be difficult at times, and not knowing why you're feeling the way you're feeling can make things even worse. Some days you come home and feel great about your day, even if it wasnt particularly special. Other days you come home and feel awful, even if something extra positive happened that day.
There are days when someone asks how you're feeling, and you can't quite answer because you're not certain. Things are fine, but also...I feel this low that I can't seem to explain. This is because subconsiously we fixate on individual incidents throughout the day but as the details of the actual incident fade, the feelings remain.
Since modern life moves so quickly, we can carry the feelings with us but not recognize what caused them. I designed my research to focus around that point, the ignition point of the emotional change. To this end, I recruited a number of test subjects and asked them to catalog the high and low points in their day for a few weeks.
The research experiment itself was effective with the participants, who all commented on how they felt more in-tune with their emotions at the end of the day. The pain point was having to log the incidents after the fact, as pulling out their notebook or phone in the moment was frequently not an option.
This brought me to my goal; what can I do to make emotional cataloging and reflection seamless throughout the day? It must not interfere with the situation, like taking notes in the middle of an arguement might, and lastly take proactive measures to cope with those feelings in the moment.
