A community space to help gamers with mental health
Most people are extremely busy with life and after a long day of work they sit down to play some video games. What I noticed from others is they primarily use discord to connect with people to play games with, and only a few used it with online friends. On top of this, I found out that most of those online friends slowly died out when they weren’t playing the same game, predominantly an MMO.
Creating an app-based community site where players find and join a guild based on interest, where they can meet up with new online people, connect with friends, and get nudge notifications on when they haven’t spoken to a person in a while.
As stated before this app is for gamers. Through research, I found that 97% of teens play games and that gaming can help increase their mental and social health by having common goals or fun with an activity.
TLDR: Video games support strong mental health, especially through genre and community aspects. It's shown that 90% of adults and 97% of teens play video games, and that it can support empathetic decisions, create purpose, and alleviate common mental health stressors.
Video games have come a long way since pong. Today the video communities and player base are massive. Although, there aren’t many sites that develop a strong interwoven community like an MMO. World of Warcraft is the number one MMO of all time with 122 million players counted. In this massive player base, strong communities are born having people Roleplay as their character or delve into a dungeon to take down a dragon. This sense of a common goal drives home a deep bonding experience like no other. Now for people that don’t play those games, this experience can be shared through multiple games.
To summarize, mental health in America has a staggering cost, most places are private and typically have long waiting periods. People are being hindered from achieving a healthy mental mindset. It’s found that playing video games, while not a guaranteed treatment, can alleviate some mental stress. Video games playing, in a controlled amount, can lead to better social skills, Purpose in life, and help flourish mental health to transport them into a different world.
Community plays a strong goal in this. As neanderthals, we need a common group in that we can work together and share a strong bond. Gaming communities have been shown to provide this. Most people in these communities have found that they have a deeper and more open relationship compared to people they know in life. Most messages through video games or relating to gaming topics have a positive attribute to them compared to negative. These positive reinforcements help drive a person's mental health towards a more positive inclination.
Genres and development are both grounds for mental health and social growth. With video games, teens and younger adults have found that video game communities create a safe place for them to express themselves and feel like they aren’t being judged by their peers. As well, large multiplayer games have been shown to increase Empathy in a younger audience as they try to work towards a common goal. With different genres, it can increase empathy by making faux experiences that delve peoples' mentalities into different states.
In conclusion Video games in controlled use can help with multiple fasciitis of a person's mental health so that they aren’t spiraling when their mental health dives. Games and gaming scenarios can help alleviate senses of depression, anxiety, and loneliness.
Personas were created after the research and interview process to help amalgamate a group of vast data into two made up people. This helped the project stay on track of what was needed and what wasn't.
The site map helped us understand how to organize the app for better efficiency.
Just a few of the many wireframes that were created for the process.
Wireframing and testing helped direct and make the user more efficient at using the app. I wanted this to be almost like an inventory or in-game menu, were a person could easily access their features and get back to chatting or playing games.
The site map helped us understand how to organize the app for better efficiency.
From the feedback and body language I got I ended up completely redesigning the High Fidelity ground up. this made it more immersive and futuristic than what I had previously envisioned.
After a third round of testing a few minor things needed to adjusted
With the major change and minor changes, this completed the large scale of this project.
