Building a supportive community for students through personalized mental health resources and conversational tools.
Conversational AI
Mental Health
Innovative Educational Tool
Mobile App
Organization
Tsinghua University
Role
UX Designer
Team
1 Psychologist, 1 Developer,
& 1 Designer
Duration
16 weeks
Tsinghua University, renowned as one of the most prestigious and competitive institutions in China, also faces the highest reported rates of student depression and anxiety nationwide.
The current support system creates barriers for both students and supporters—students struggle to access the right help, while supporters lack guidance to provide effective support, leading to ineffective connections.
Support-seekers need accessible and effective help, while supporters seek to provide timely, personalized, and meaningful support—bridging these needs is key to a successful system.
The core need is fostering accessible and meaningful connections that empower both seekers and supporters.
Personalized support aligned with individual preferences improves mental well-being, emphasizing the importance of matching the right support style.
Insights from research revealed a gap—seekers need personalized support, and supporters need intuitive guidance. This led us to design a platform that bridges both needs seamlessly.
Aligning user insights with design solutions to deliver timely, personalized, and accessible mental health support.
Supporters define their style using descriptive tags, which are then displayed for students to choose from, streamlining the matching process for more intuitive and effective connections.
A comparison of different interaction methods highlights character-based support selection as the most engaging and effective approach, combining personalization with ease of use.
Students quickly select a character and start chatting, while supporters set up their character profiles, customizing their tags and preferences before receiving chat invitations.
A mobile app ensures accessibility and anonymity, offering on-the-go support and a personalized experience for seamless mental health engagement.
Refining wireframes into high-fidelity designs enhances usability, ensuring intuitive navigation and a seamless support experience.
Warm, Playful, and Personalized — A soft 3D style enhances emotional comfort, while customization caters to Gen Z’s need for expressive, approachable design.
For Supporters
The Support Copilot helps supporters provide compassionate and professional assistance through tailored response suggestions. The “Rewrite” feature improves communication in real-time, while a rating system helps supporters refine their skills and offer more meaningful support.
For Support-seekers
Support seekers can personalize their experience by customizing character attributes like name, age, and hobbies, influencing tone and communication style. This feature enhances comfort and flexibility while encouraging real human connection for deeper support.
Purpose: To evaluate the platform’s usability and emotional impact through qualitative insights from users.
Participants: 60 users total (40 Human-AI, 20 Human-Human).
Key Outcome: Focused on qualitative feedback, highlighting participants’ experiences, emotional responses, and suggestions.
For Seekers
Adding a robot icon to AI characters provides a clear and intuitive visual cue, helping users easily identify whether they are interacting with an AI or a human.
For Seekers
Introducing a pop-up window to clarify the rationale and effectiveness of suggested replies ensures transparency and helps users make informed communication choices.
Cross-Disciplinary Teamwork
This project was built through cross-disciplinary teamwork, and I want to highlight the contributions
of each team member. Our collaboration brought together design, psychology, medical engineering, and
development, allowing us to create a well-rounded solution.
Reflections
This project reinforced that great design is about understanding people, solving problems with
empathy, and creating long-term impact. :)
