Woven
An App for Grief
Project Details
The problem
There is so much stigma and shame surrounding death and grief. Nobody wants a rigid one size-fits-all approach to their grief, which is often accompanied by trauma and feelings of disconnect from self and others in this uncharted emotional landscape.
The solution
A trauma informed end-to-end app that feels healing as it validates, supports, and empowers people with a sense of agency on their unique and fluid grief experience with the peaks and valleys of grieving.
Role & Team
UX Researcher & Designer, mentored by Anna Brenner
Why care?
The taboo and stigma of Death & Grief
I have had my fair share of loss and grief and know from my own lived experience, how hard it is to find support when we most need it. There aren’t many safe spaces–physical or digital–where we can gather to share and witness our individual and collective grief as well as find the tools and resources to embrace our healing journey. Instead, we are often faced with shame and fear for expressing the darker aspects of life. The result? We often grieve feeling lonely, alienated, and unprepared.
Our culture isn’t very good at talking about difficult things–like dying, death, and grief. We are far less equipped at handling them for our inability to hold these more difficult conversations even though they are part of our human experience.
My intention with Woven is to destigmatize the taboo of death and all the challenging emotions that it brings up. I want to validate, normalize, and support this part of our humanity and bring kindness and respect to our grief healing journey.
The Grief Problem Space
SECONDARY RESEARCH
Trauma informed
The need for trauma informed research, design, and care
Research exposed the benefits of providing trauma informed research, design, and care to folks who have experienced loss and trauma as part of their experience.
There are so many scenarios that can make an experience traumatic including the unexpected death of a loved one.
Resist Re-traumatization
Why is it important to consider trauma? A trauma-informed program, organization or system "realizes the widespread impact of trauma and understands potential paths for recovery; recognizes the signs and symptoms of trauma in clients, families, staff, and others involved with the system; and responds by fully integrating knowledge about trauma into policies, procedures, and practices, and seeks to actively resist re-traumatization," according to the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA). (Source)
life enhancing system
By recognizing trauma as an important factor impacting health throughout a person's lifespan and by offering trauma-informed approaches to care, programs, organizations and systems can significantly enhance the positive impact they make on people's lives. (Source)
trauma informed principles
The principles of trauma-informed design include reducing and removing known adverse stimuli and environmental stresses, actively engaging individuals in a dynamic, multisensory environment, supporting self-reliance, providing and promoting connection to the natural world, separating individuals from others who may be in distress, reinforcing a sense of personal identity and promoting the opportunity for choice while balancing program needs and the safety and comfort of the majority. (Source)
MARKET RESEARCH
Target Audience
People who have experienced the loss of a loved one and are feeling disoriented, lonely, and isolated on their grief journey.
last year preliminary
Interview
I conducted 4 user interviews last year and gathered these insights revealing the unmet needs of safety, connection, and compassion.
There aren’t safe online spaces to grieve.
People need connection as well as tools, resources, and coping strategies.
People need a space filled with understanding, compassion, and non-judgement.
moving forward
Assumptions
With some insights from last year’s research, I moved forward with some logical assumptions emphasizing the unique grief needs of each person.
There are few spaces to talk about grief/death.
Everyone grieves differently.
The grief journey is unique (not a one-tool-fits-all approach).
People can struggle realizing their own needs.
Interacting with the world is challenging.
There may be trauma involved that may be associated with loss and/or grief.
ANALYZING data
Emerging patterns
I conducted 6 additional remote user interviews that revealed the needs, pain points & mental model for finding grief support.
The data I gathered validated my original assumptions and illuminated specific areas.
SYNTHESIZING data
Insights and HMWs
Data to inform Woven’s design
These are the main insights and HMWs that will be informing the Woven experience.
ideation
Preliminary sketches
Onboarding, Home, and Discover
Some initial ideas revolving around the need to honor the individual’s unique grief needs with a respectful onboarding, welcoming home, and diverse discover experience.
Defining the Problem
problem context
Beyond taboos
There is so much stigma and shame surrounding death and grief. Nobody wants a rigid one size-fits-all approach to grief, which is often accompanied by trauma and feelings of disconnect from self and others in this uncharted emotional landscape.
problem statement
Trauma informed
How might we create a trauma informed design that feels healing as it validates and supports people’s needs, and empowers them with a sense of agency on their unique and fluid grief journey?
overarching question
How might we help destigmatize grief?
By creating honest and kind spaces where people can talk about it. By normalizing difficult emotions. By validating and supporting the needs of each person’s unique grief journey.
SYNTHESIZING data
Woven Design Principles
Data informed Principles
These principles derived from data insights and reflect essential values that helped guide the design process to keep Woven aligned.
content strategy
Content Variety
Various styles and ways of grieving
It was important to flush out a content map to have content ready before moving on to sitemapping.
sitemap
Clearer Structure
Searchability and Navigation
Mapping out the structure for ease of searchability and navigation and overall clarity.
Wireframing
Content that allows diversity of experience
There were multiple wireframe iterations, paying attention to creating a sense of cohesion and consistency in wireframes that play with hierarchy, structured content, and real copy.
The Solution
branding & visual language
A Healing Brand
Healing. Fluid, Comforting.
The color palette, font pairing, and photography all work together to evoke a sense of calm and healing.
experiences
Data driven
Research informed design decisions
experience #1
Onboarding
Gentle inquiry
The idea was to ask enough questions to get a sense of what users need and are open to experience at Woven.
experience #2
Home
Exposure to meaningful content
We wanted to introduce grieving folks to some of the main features and options based on their onboarding answers.
experience #3
Tools
Various ways of approaching Grief
Grieving folks wanted a fluid experience and we provided ample exposure to different tools to tend to varying needs from moment to moment.
experience - tools #3A
The Grief Journey
The Grief Journey offers information on different aspects of Grief.
It is a multimedia experience made of articles, videos, audio cards and meditations to better orient folks who are new to grieving.
experience - tools #3B
Journal Prompts
Cards for journaling
The idea was to help grieving folks get comfortable exploring their emotions through writing with pen and paper as they flip through the cards for prompts to guide their experience.
experience - tools #3C
Befriending Our Emotions
Acknowledging Fear
In efforts to destigmatize, validate, and normalize a range of emotions in response to Grief, I designed an accessible introduction to each emotion in a series of meditations that make up a 5 day course.
experience - tools #3D
The Art of Vulnerability
Reach for Support of Friends & Family
Grieving folks have a desperate need for help and support that often goes unnoticed. They expressed not knowing how to ask for support so we designed a questionnaire to compose a letter they can send to family and friends.
experience #4
Search Tool
Simplicity in the search experience
experience #5
Toolkit
The Toolkit houses the tools and resources grieving folks have gathered.
The toolkit provides easy access to what works for grieving folks. It provides a sense of choice and agency is building the tools they need.
experience #6
Destigmatizing Death
Talk about Death in Community
Grieving folks expressed a yearning for spaces to talk about dying, death and grief. In efforts to dispel this death taboo, we designed a community revolving around conversations that open up the space to talk about the way Death impacts our lives.
experience #7
User Profile & Password Recovery
User Profile
A straightforward way of accessing relevant information.
Settings | Password Recovery
I showed a common scenario of forgetting one’s password and a way to reset the password and included error states that keep the user informed as to what needs to be fixed.
experience #8
Returning Home
Extra Support
There is a poem to offer solace and comfort. There is also past activity and more curated content based on past choices. The Tookit shows tools that have been added for easy access.
experience #9
Menu
Minimalist & Non-obtrusive
Usability Testing
usability testing
How is Woven received?
Insights on what’s working
Conducted moderated remote usability testing sessions with 4 participants who shared their screen via zoom.
100% of participants would love to use Woven and completed tasks with 100% success rate.
Some of the positive feedback:
Practical Tools
Participants felt that there were tools and resources to navigate their emotions and start meaningful conversations with others within and outside the app.
Calming design
Participants felt connected to Woven and resonated with photography and copy.
fluid and cohesive experience
Participants felt that they could choose freely and that nothing was out of place.
usability testing
Revision Insights
Insights on what can improve
clearer menu
Participants felt the menu should be fixed rather than all the way at the bottom of the page, for visibility sake.
4 more screens for a comprenhensive ONBOARDING
Participants would like to learn about some of the main features and functionality of the app as part of the onboarding experience.
Toolkit
Community Death Conversations
Reach Out for Support
Community Guidelines
Reflections
food for thought
Valuable lessons
design can be a force of healing
I learned that design has the power to heal and it must be approached with the intentionality it deserves. For Woven, it required dipping my toes in trauma informed research and design and imbuing the Woven experience with a sense of validation, agency, and self empowerment.
there is a yearning to dispel the taboo of death
I learned that people yearn to bring death and the emotions that it brings up, out into the open–for individual and collective healing. We just need to discover the tools and spaces to begin embracing the most vulnerable parts of ourselves.