Noveau Madison

Content strategy / UI / Brand design

Overview

Regrow, an app concept submitted to the National Alliance of Mental Illness (NAMI), is a substance use recovery app designed using SMART Recovery's DENTs procedure. Regrow is based around community support and habits, from daily journalling to a supportive user network sharing common aspirations.

Problem

Substance use disorder has become epidemic. While there's a bounty of resources for the recovery process, 40-60% individuals treated for a substance use disorder relapse. After-treatment care may not be able to support patients when urges arise--meetings are set and scheduled, while urges are not.

Scope

To submit this project to NAMI for review, I needed functional prototypes showcasing NAMI-approved, evidence-backed recovery methods. I created every element of Regrow from scratch.

Goals

  1. Create a tone that welcomes people as people

  2. Make DENTS (or DEADS) activities accessible within seconds

  3. Reward habit-building behavior

  4. Help users fight loneliness

Research

To understand SUD treatments, I turned to the expert. SAMHSA recommends: individualized and person-centered treatment; a shift away from labeling; use of empathy, not authority and power; early and brief interventions; motivational counseling, as effective treatment methods.

Labeling serves as an identity heuristic, so I needed to shift the tone away from users thinking "I am an addict," to "I am a human with a treatable condition". Making a mantra collection turns this one phrase into a library of reinforcing thought patterns.

Work

Smart Recovery's DENTS (or DEADS) served as early and brief interventions, and convert to a digital platform well.

Meanwhile, journaling oftentimes serves as individualized treatment—with a large enough bank of guided prompts.

The root below all habits is motivation, and Duolingo has habit-building motivation down to a science. A rewards-based and streak-building system like theirs could turn substance aversion into a habit of its own.

Reflections

SAMHSA's motivation studies became a keystone for my design thinking. Motivation dictates what we do (pun intended) and understanding it in such an applied manner has helped me see similarities across my life. The same goes for de-coupling of substance use disorder from those it afflicts. Categorizing users into boxes and audiences doesn't always create a valued, personalized experience. In Regrow's case, people want to be treated like people.

Other Projects