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Anger management
An exploration of anger episodes and how to deal with them
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Team
3 designers
Project type
Conceptual
Duration
1 week
Tools
Figjam, Google docs
Objective
To help people overcome or deal with their anger issues by understanding their needs and coming up with solutions that could help them
Design Process
We started with exploring and understanding the people behviour when dealing with anger issues and needs, once we had enough understanding we defined the persona and its user journey which helped us understand the gaps and opportunities to reach to various solutions that could help people in coping up with anger episode.
01
Discover
Learn about how people deal with anger & identify their triggers
03
Analyze
Narrowing down the research to understand people needs and designing a solution that would solve them
02
Define
Clearly define the people needs and their problems
04
Ideate
Look at the problem from all angles and generate as many ideas as possible
Primary Research
We started with planning about what kind of question we would ask during one - one interview to make people comfortable to talk about their anger episode in open manner
The parameters we kept in mind whilst framing interview questions:
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being empathetic,
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Do not target questions that might open chapters that are too hard to close,
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and staying curious
Interview pointers
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Ice-breaking question
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What are the situations where they’re more likely to be triggered?
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Do they require immediate help during an anger episode?
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Coping mechanisms - short and long-term solutions
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Have they ever sought external help through professionals or existing applications?
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If not, why the hesitance + what will be an ideal product/service that best suits their needs?
We had good insights from 3 user interviews that we conducted within our circle.
FINDINGS
Findings from primary research
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People get frustrated when things don’t go as they expected
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Another cause of frustration is being forced into a certain environment, like how in covid, people were forced to stay at whatever place they were. For some the place was hostile and for others the idea of being stuck at home itself was
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People felt antsy, heated up, and had pent-up energy - they wanted an outlet to channel excess emotions
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They were aware of the anger episode that’s yet to happen, and wanted to distract themselves (preventative measure)
Secondary Research
Read several research papers in order to gain a better understanding of anger and how to manage it.
FINDINGS
Findings from secondary research
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Anger is a prevalent and frequent emotion that usually been experienced when friends, family members, and surroundings could not meet one’s expectations and demands.
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Most of the time, the motive of anger is achieving expectations and demands.
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Suggested practical and approved strategies to reduce anger:
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self argumentation; try to stop angry thoughts, feelings, and states; veering angry thoughts; daily meditation; avoid nervous provocation; verbal expression of feelings in the time of anger; play with pets; active listening; try to trust others; take part in social and charity activities; cultivate the trait of empathy; practice patience; cultivate the trait of forgiveness
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Converging on the problem statement
Concluding on all our research & narrowing it down to our problem statement was key to understanding their needs better & designing an effective solution.
Blasting anger hero | Anger-prone persona
Target Audience
Triggers
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when something doesn’t go as expected or planned
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during Covid, I was not able to socialize and was forced to be in a place
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there were times in the workplace when I had to act professionally
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having less productivity than potential
Needs
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Sit back and reflect after the anger episode
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Even after being aware of the anger not able to handle it properly
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Having a way to talk to the person I lashed out to after
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A way to take out my anger without feeling guilty or tired
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Some ways to handle anger before it gets worse, especially in the workplace
Coping Mechanism
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Reading
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Slow music
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Talking to friends
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Shower
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Therapies or talking face to face with someone
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Distracting the mind by watching a TV series or sleeping
Ideation
The journey map was used to identify opportunities & pain points during the ideation process
Stage
Emotions
Gap
&
Opportunity
Typical situation
Working on the daily task & following the routine
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A solution that notes and identifies the true source of the trigger by taking note of the habits, lifestyle, and any past situations which may be disturbing before the triggers occur.
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Currently, there are not many apps that cater specifically to a certain demographic. There are different cultures, eating habits, fitness lifestyles, etc among every demographic, so it's important to note which triggers apply to each demographic.
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According to one interviewee, many apps don't relate to their culture, as they seem to be too American in nature.
Trigger
External factors affect and initiate triggers Eg: sudden change of plan, negative comments by others, trying to cope with an annoying boss, etc
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They were aware of the anger episode that’s yet to happen, and wanted to distract themselves (preventative measure)
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They tried many apps to control their anger, but the most common ones revolve around the meditation angle, which targets an entirely different headspace.
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Some associate the mediation music with mantra chants, which makes them feel too “religious” to do
Anger episode
Tries to control the effects by trigger but loses control and lashes out in anger
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People were antsy, tense, and had pent-up energy - they wanted to express excess emotions
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It's hard for them to control their emotions
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People do not know how to prevent a violent outburst during uncontrollable anger (SOS moment)
After outburst
Feels guilty and embarrassed for lashing out
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After the anger episode, people wanted to take a step back and reflect
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Most people find it difficult to see that an application can truly solve the problem, believing it is more of a bandaid
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Many applications out there were too mundane
Neutral emotion
Anxious and Frustrated
Aggressive
Embarrassed and Regret
Solution
Based on the insights from the research, we categorized the solutions as follows:
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Short-term solution - Way to distract/Preventive measure
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SOS moment solution - when the anger Intensity is on a scale of 8-10,
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Long-term solution - when anger has been an issue for prolonged
SOS Moment Solution
when the anger intensity is on a scale of 8-10
Sumo Haptics
To reduce one's anger thermometer, the player must push the other sumo out of the circle by pressing the orange round button
Deep Breathing
One easy way to calm your body and reduce your anger is to slow and deepen your breathing
Push button
The red button should be pushed continuously until all the pent up anger is released as physical energy
Fruit Ninja Game
Fruit ninja game is another way to release pent up anger by cutting the fruits thrown at players
Long-term solution
when anger has been an issue for prolonged
Reflection diary
This is a fun activity that helps people to identify and express their feelings and take action next time to prevent the triggers and anger episode
Mindful breathing dot by dot
A simple breathing technique that involves following the dot visually in a line one dot a time and inhaling and exhaling as they move along the dot
Journaling
An anger journal can be a useful tool to keep track of experiences and organize their thoughts. It allows people to organize their thoughts and helps them cope with anger more effectively
My Learnings
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It was a challenging task to ask users the right questions about something as personal as their anger episode
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Due to time constraints, coming to a consensus among the team seemed difficult, however it was easier as we communicated our views, questioned if it was something not agreed on, and worked on it till it made sense at each and every point of the process.