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Using design and artificial intelligence to tackle mental health

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    Managing big feelings

    An empathetic app designed to support kids and their families

    • Challenge

      Method wanted to help prevent depression among kids and adolescents through non-intrusive mechanisms.

    • Solution

      We created the FINE (Feeling Insecure, Negative, Emotional) app as a digital friend to react empathetically to a child’s emotional state.

    Winning hearts, minds, and awards

    • Results

      According to recent studies on mental health, 1 in 10 children is affected by a serious psychological problem, with future projections showing an alarming increase in this trend. That’s why Method took the initiative to explore new models of engagement and investigate the potential use of empathy applied to human-machine interaction. 

      During a five-month deep dive, we gained first-hand insight into non-intrusive mechanisms for the prevention of depression in childhood and adolescence, collaborating with key experts in the field, children, and parents through an open and co-creative process.

      By bringing together design thinking, artificial intelligence, and the principles of crowdsourcing, FINE (Feeling Insecure, Negative, Emotional) enables a digital friend to react empathetically to a child’s emotional state.

      A machine learning “empathetic” model has been trained to read and react to emotions appropriately, with a corresponding family hub displaying the child’s and family member’s collective mood over time. The model acts as a central trigger to the habit-forming routine of talking about emotions at home and encouraging the kind of positive behavior change that leads to a preventative, collective caretaking of how one feels.

      FINE was a finalist for Fast Company’s Innovation by Design in the Health category and a nominee for Fast Company’s World Changing Ideas.

    “I’ve been amazed how working with Method, the team has been able to move so quickly from learning about our professional field to being able to contribute so perceptively as if they had been working with us for years.”

    Dr. Emilios Lemoniatis, Consultant Child and Adolescent Psychiatrist, The Tavistock and Portman, NHS Foundation Trust

    Discovering and delivering new value

    • Children as experts

      An open and non-stigmatizing approach was key in our research process. During co-creation sessions, we invited children and parents to share their experiences, then created low-fidelity prototypes of future concepts. This had a strong influence on our design concepts, which received positive praise in a series of subsequent validation exercises.

    • Empathetic AI: creating an unlikely combo

      As part of our research, we found that no data set currently exists that would teach a machine learning model how to be empathetic. As a result, we designed and created an application that captures empathetic responses to emotional stimuli. 

       

      Through a crowdsourcing initiative, we generated enough data to train a model over time on how to respond to different moods detected by analyzing the human face. This showcases the potential use cases of new forms of human-machine interaction – one we can experience right now.

    • Making a difference

      Fast Company’s Innovation by Design: Finalist, Health Category

      Fast Company’s World Changing Ideas, Nominee: App Category

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