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AI Powered Application to Enhance Academic Well-being
ALMA
3 min read
At-A Glance
Alright, so what’s the problem?
Students struggle with stress, affecting well-being.
What I did
UX Strategy
User Research & Analysis
Wireframing & User Flows
Interaction Design & Prototyping
Usability Testing & Iteration
User Engagement
95%
Felt their expectations were exceeded
Intuitive Design
90%
Felt guided and intuitive from the beginning
Motivation
80%
Felt motivated to continue with the app
*All stats are averages. Data collected through 12 user interviews, providing insights for improvement.
Challenge
Imagine that you’re a student, excited about new possibilities and eager to dive into your studies. But with each new semester, the pressure builds. There are assignments, exams, fierce competition, extracurriculars, and the constant reminder to look after yourself, too.
This is Violet’s story.
She’s a third-year biology student at Boston University, immersed in the demanding world of labs, lectures, and late-night study sessions.
So, how can we help students like Violet manage the overwhelming pressures of their academic journey while supporting their mental well-being and preventing burnout?
Solution
An AI-driven app providing personalized scheduling and wellness support called ALMA.
Stress is a universal experience, often intensified by academic demands. Its impact extends beyond the physiological realm, permeating into various aspects of daily life and hindering well-being.
As we explored this challenge, we saw the transformative potential of AI in stress management. ALMA—our Academic Learning and Management Assistant, is more than just an app; it's a strategic partner in managing stress, using AI to integrate seamlessly into students routines.
The two primary functions we focused on to address this are
Adaptive Scheduling
Conversational AI
Research
Understanding the Problem
A total of 41 survey responses and 11 interviews were conducted to gather insights into college students' experiences with stress management, including their perceptions of stress, the factors contributing to their anxiety, and the coping strategies they employed.
36.4% prefer physical activities, but 50% of them get less than 2 hours per week.
3/5 students don't use any specific stress relief methods.
Students may have stress relieving activities, but they do not practice them regularly.
Out of 4 Distinct personas, 3 are similar to each other. Violet is unique and provides us with valuable insights into a specific subset of our audience.
Emerging patterns that guided the direction
Once we consolidated our insights, we took time to situate students into a broader social model to understand their unique stressors. Through this framework, we mapped out common thoughts and concerns that students shared, like feeling overwhelmed by academic deadlines and struggling to balance responsibilities.
"I have too many things due around the same time"
"Balancing full-time work and school is hard"
Around this circle, we identified the structural and societal factors contributing to these feelings. Short academic terms, the pressure to secure a great job post-graduation, and the extensive content load were all recurring themes. These elements act as underlying drivers of stress, adding to the time constraints and demands that students experience daily.
From this, our goal became to empower students to build healthier habits, manage their time effectively, and develop a personalized "toolbox" of stress-relieving activities.
And we called it
— Academic Learning and Management Assistant
Design
Personalized Experience
Quiz screens gather insights into user preferences, work habits, and goals, helping ALMA tailor user’s home screen. The sleep schedule screen allows users to set a dedicated sleep routine, ensuring other tasks and productivity activities are scheduled around it—supporting well-being without disruption.
Adaptive Scheduling
Users can seamlessly connect their online calendars, integrating academic commitments, work schedules, assignments, and extracurricular activities. The AI then analyzes this information to strategically reorganize their schedules, maximizing productivity while ensuring dedicated breaks to support both mental and physical well-being.
Building on user responses gathered during sign-up, the calendar's scheduling feature is now customizable. Users can select from a conventional task view, the "Eat the Frog" technique, or the "Pomodoro" (Tomato) technique, tailoring their scheduling approach to match personal preferences and productivity styles.
Conversational Intelligence
The ALMA Chat AI enhances user experience by delivering content in a conversational, humanized tone, making interactions more engaging and relatable. Care AI offers personalized stress-relief suggestions during scheduled breaks, taking individual preferences into account. With both text and voice interfaces, users can interact dynamically with Care AI, asking for tailored stress-relief activities and enjoying a more personalized, responsive experience.
Discovering Balance
The Events page in the app serves as a valuable tool for discovering stress-relieving activities tailored to users needs. Integrated with the AI-driven personalization, this feature can recommend events based on each user’s interests and stress patterns, helping them find nearby options that fit into their schedule. This approach not only promotes well-being but also encourages balance by making it easier to incorporate enjoyable, community-centered activities into daily life.
Conclusion
Turning Stress into a Manageable Part of Life
In today’s fast-paced academic world, stress is an almost universal experience, and its reach often disrupts well-being across various aspects of life. Recognizing this challenge, we saw an opportunity for AI to fundamentally reshape how students navigate stress.
We created ALMA to be an reliable ally that understands and adapts to the unique pressures students face, seamlessly integrating into their routines to provide personalized, actionable support. Through AI-powered insights, it transforms how students manage their time, build healthy habits, and cope with the demands of student life.
ALMA is not just an app—it’s a commitment to fostering student well-being and empowering users to reach their full potential. Together, we’re turning stress into a manageable part of life, paving the way for thriving, resilient students.
Feel free to scroll through my medium post for an in-depth look at the research and testing process.
Made with a lot of hope