Challenge
Too often I’ve noticed that friends and family members of folks struggling with substance abuse don’t have a good way to support that person. The choice is usually to reach out constantly with a call or text to check-in with “How are you doing?”
A big problem is that when people are at their lowest, for example, when facing relapse or depression, we tend to isolate ourselves from others. This isolation only increases the difficulty of processing the slew of emotional and potentially physical burdens we are carrying in our loneliest moments. Out of shame we do not want others to see us in this state nor burden them.
Solution
The app I’ve been working on enables people to get support from friends and family members by enabling them to pre-record video messages of support. Those messages of support can be delivered one of three ways:
- Immediately as a direct message
- In the morning as part of the built-in alarm clock
- In response to an “Emotional Check-In” where the user takes a moment to log the emotions they are currently feeling and process the thoughts behind those emotions.
Insights
This has been a hard app to develop. I have been using a beta version of the app with some friends and family members for months now. People tend to like it at around a 6 on a scale of 1 to 10. That’s good, but not good enough to result in consistent use. I’m learning first-hand that people can’t look at an app and think “That’s nice.” They have to feel more. If it’s not at “Wow, I got to have that!” then user acquisition is going to be a huge struggle.
That said, I love the concept of this app and I’m really proud of some of the UI work I’ve done in it.