The first step to the project was to define who the user for the toolkit was going to be. We were given a random user who has various mental health struggles and the aim was to design the toolkit to appeal to their specific needs. My target user was called Casey Johnson, a non-binary 21 year-old who lives in Southmead, Bristol. I created a mood-board of imagery that related to my user persona to get a better understanding of their daily life. I also started to think about possible colour choices and what design styles might appeal to them. I also wanted to ensure that it would not only just appeal to my target user but also anyone else as well.

During my research stage, I looked into what habits my target user has and how it affects their mental health. My user suffers from loneliness and lacks social interactions. Loneliness can seriously take a toll on someone’s overall mental wellbeing. They also spend a lot of time on their phone, scrolling through social media. There is evidence that heavy social media users are often likely to suffer from loneliness, especially if they aren’t particularly sociable in real life. Social media can lead them to have lower confidence and cause them to feel less motivated to engage in social interactions. It is found that people who have more face-to-face interactions are generally less lonely.

Some of the user’s hobbies consist of watching films and TV, they find this a good distraction for their loneliness. I created a mind-map to sum up the user’s general habits and started to think about how I could design a toolkit to meet their needs.

This tooklit is designed to help the user’s loneliness. It also encourages them to become active and healthy. The main component is a 100 day journal which constantly reminds them of the rewards and benefits of each daily task that they scratch off. There is also a paper chain with ideas of activites to do with friends.

This was the first toolkit I created prototypes for. I designed the pages digitally and then printed them off and used tin foil to act as the silver scratch off stickers in the journal.

This toolkit is designed to improve the user’s overall mental wellness. They start off by spinning the wheel to find out what they need to do relating to how they are feeling. There are 100 mental wellness activities across 4 different packs of cards and they can also track their mood on the wall chart to see their progress with time.

Although these were just prototypes, I found that making the wheel went a lot better than I expected and this gave me high hopes for the final toolkit.

This toolkit is designed to target the user’s mobile phone habits which is contributing to their loneliness. The main element of the toolkit is the pack of 100 digital detox cards with activities to encourage them to not rely on their phone. It also includes a safe that they can lock their phone in and a fidget toy.

Once I printed out the cards, I used cello tape to stick along the edges of the cards. This is because I wanted them to have a shiny texture. The placement of the tape was carefully thought out, and mimics the scrolling motion that our hands do when we use our phones. This is to distract the user by feeling something familiar.

Here you can see some initial card designs that I produced for what I thought would become my final toolkit. I took the shiny textured edge idea from my digital detox prototypes.

Although I liked the idea and look of these cards, I felt that they weren't quite right. I felt that the colours were too fun, when the toolkit wasn't supposed to be all fun. Although this didn't mean that I wanted the toolkit to be completely serious. I wanted the final toolkit to give off a calming look.

Below is the Mental Wellness Tracker. Each day the user will make a mark that lines up with the emoji that best reflects their mood. They will do this twice a day, once in the morning and once before bed using the different colour pens that are also supplied in the toolkit. Over the 100 days, the user will build up their own line graph which will show how their mental wellbeing is gradually improving over time as they are using the toolkit. The tracker can be opened out and stuck on the fridge, or they can keep it folded up at pocket size. As with all the elements of this toolkit, I have used the same nature imagery to give the user a sense of calm in what could be a hectic day for them. I have made sure to ensure all of the designs would appeal to any gender.

To the right is an instructions card that will come in the toolkit and fully explain what each product in the kit does and how to use it so they get the most out of it.

One of the main components of the kit is the 4 different sets of cards. Each card pack focuses on the user’s habits in different ways. There are 25 cards in each pack so there is a wide variety of activities for them to complete. The themes for the card packs are; mindfulness, connect, active and food. So the cards in each pack are tailored to the specific theme.

On the image above you can see a mockup of the cards. I have purposely given each card pack a different colour scheme so the user can tell them apart if they are to mix them around. To the right you can see another image of the cards with some examples of tasks in each of the packs.

The image below shows the individual boxes for each pack of cards. The boxes have a luxury appearance to them as they slide out to reveal the cards.

Here is the packaging that'll carry the whole toolkit. It's a standard box size that would fit all the components neatly inside and that could easily fit through a letterbox. I repeated the logo across the tissue paper with a small sticker to tie it all together.

The inner box lid has the quote "your journey to better mental wellness starts here." This is to make the user feel positive about the toolkit as soon as they open it. It should give them that bit of motivation that they might need to use the toolkit.