PROJECT OVERVIEW
“How can Yoga reduce stress and anxiety during Hotel Quarantine for COVID-19 through a Customisable Website?”
YUJ is a Capstone project created for the Graduate Diploma of Creative Technologies - Interactive Design course in Media Design school. It’s a responsive website, that can be customised as per the user goals and convenience, which consists of two weeks yoga program for people who are practicing hotel quarantine to help them reduce stress and anxiety by being mindful and positive.
THE PROBLEM
This research began when I personally started going through anxiety during the COVID-19 pandemic lockdown. COVID-19 pandemic has affected many people emotionally, especially the people who are in a 14 days hotel quarantine, isolated with no social connection. Quarantining after a long journey, tensed about getting infected by the COVID-19 virus, separated from loved ones, many are feeling lonely, and isolated, which is increasing anxiety. Feeling anxiety and fear is natural for a person, but many are struggling to cope with the sudden change of the situation around them.
Many are facing mental health concerns due to the continuous flow of bad news, inadequate daily resources, confined to their hotel rooms, with social restrictions, without fresh air, away from outdoor activity. It can be mentally challenging when the mind is flooded with negative emotions. We have heard of many people feeling like prisoners, have tried to escape their hotel rooms and are penalized for breaking the rules. Some have panic attacks, yelling for help or threaten to harm themselves.
THE SOLUTION
It is time to realize that mental health is more important to survive this situation. Quarantine is the perfect time to start practicing yoga for two weeks with nothing in hand to do, for maintaining mental and physical wellbeing and coping with this situation. Yoga helps to stay relaxed, calm and at peace. Yoga can build a strong mental, physical, and spiritual health system that helps in taking care of the mind, body, and soul. Yoga can provide the same benefits as a walk in the park or exercise in the gym, just by practicing in the comfort of their own room, and it can be practiced by people of all ages to help them feel healthy.
In this regard, connecting users with yoga is crucial to solve the above issue. However, finding the perfect set of yoga asanas to help the person in the closed room for a quarantine to stay mindful is a challenge. I have come up with a solution of building a responsive website. That would help the user to customise different aspects on the website, related to why and when they want to practice yoga during their quarantine. The yoga sessions are designed by a team of yoga experts that would help the user reduce their anxiety and stress.
RESEARCH PROCESS
TARGET USERS
The target audience for this project are people practicing quarantine in hotels for COVID-19, which is causing anxiety, stress, depression, sleepless nights, which is triggering breathing issues, high blood pressure, fatigue, and other health issues. We have heard of many people feeling like prisoners, have tried to escape their hotel rooms and are penalized for breaking the rules. Some have panic attacks, yelling for help or threaten to harm themselves. They are struggling to feel normal with no social interactions and restricted to their hotel rooms, showing them a way to reduce their stress and anxiety would be very helpful to stay physically and mentally active.
PERSONAS
BRANDING
LOGO - I have designed the logo for my website, with different variations.
The basic concept for the logo is to show growth in mental health. The name YUJ means “Yoga” in Sanskrit. Added subtitle “Yoga buddy” to the name, as the website is designed for people in isolation with no friends or family, this website would be like a friend to help them practice yoga.
COLOURS - has a fresh color pallet. Selected three base colors to design the website, using pastel or washed out colors to design the website.
ILLUSTRATIONS - They are inspired by hand-drawn graphics. Designed the illustration for the website that would support the message to create brand identity, as the feel-good visuals send out an optimistic message.
USER FLOW
LOW FIDELITY WIREFRAMES
Designing Responsive Website
The “Home” page on the website speaks about why practicing yoga is best during isolation and how it’s going to help you focus on yourself. I have also added a “Advantages” page which highlights and briefs a few of the advantages of yoga. This is to educate users who aren’t aware of yoga and its advantages.
For users who like to relay other users’ feedback, I created a “Reviews” page coming after the “Advantages” page. So this problem can be solved where the users can read the reviews of the previous users and they can also submit their feedback about if the program helped them after they have completed it. I have created a “Sign in” page, for easy access to users who already have an account.
At the end of every page of “Home”, “Advantages” and “Reviews”, I have added more content highlighting a few of the points that the website has to offer to a user and a “Sign up” bottom if the user wants to sign up immediately.
When a user is signing up, I have prepared a questionnaire, if they have ever tried yoga, what are the health issues the user is struggling with, and many different options on what time they want to practice yoga in the morning, afternoon, and evening. Once they have entered all their preferences, there comes a page where the user can add all their personal details. After this is done, as per the user’s preferences their Yoga program will be displayed on their home screen.
I created the interface of the home page in a way that the user can access the session only at the time they have chosen and would be inactive until that time arrives. I have added a message “Well done” after the user completes all his sessions for the day, this is to motivate the user, and also added a question to know how the user is feeling after the sessions. Then the next day’s schedule is visible on the user’s home screen.
I created an “Asanas” page for the user to manually explore different yoga sessions designed for 14 days. I also created a “My journal” page, which would display your moods during your 14 days, this is to jot down on how they felt and reflect on later. For the user to change their account details and session details to change their goals or timings, I added a page “My Profile”. The website also sends notifications to the user before every scheduled yoga practice session.
FEATURES
Feature_01
Educates the user
The “Home” page on the website speaks about why practicing yoga is best during isolation and how it’s going to help the user focus on themselves. The “Advantages” page highlights and briefs a few of the benefits of yoga. This is to educate users about the benefits of Yoga and how it is going to help them reduce stress and anxiety. On the “Reviews” page the users can read the reviews of the previous users and the positive reviews can act as a motivation for the user to start using the website, which would also help them submit their feedback if the program helped them.
Feature_02
Customise
Once the user signs up they have to answer a questionnaire, if they have ever tried yoga, what are the health issues the user is struggling with, and many different options on what time they want to practice yoga in the morning, afternoon, and evening. Once they have entered all their preferences, a Yoga schedule is created exclusively for the user.
Feature_03
Online Yoga Sessions
The user’s Yoga schedule will be displayed on their home screen, that is created after filling the questionnaire. I created the interface of the home page in a way that the user can access the session only at the time they have chosen and would be inactive until that time arrives. The Yoga sessions are developed by a team of Yoga experts, that user can practice daily in their hotel rooms.
Feature_04
Journal for users
After the user completes all the Yoga sessions for the day, a “Well done” messages appears on the screen. This is to motivate the user, and also a question to know how the user is feeling after the sessions. Which allows the user to Journal how they feel after completing all the Yoga sessions for the day. “My Journal” page would display the user moods during their two weeks program, this is to jot down on how they felt and reflect later on.
Feature_05
Self Manageable Sessions
The goal and timings of the Yoga sessions can be changed by the user, if they aren’t happy with it. Which would help the user have session schedules tailored especially for them, giving a feeling of personalisation. The new schedule will be updated and shown on the users “Home” page.
Feature_06
Search Asanas
I created an “Asanas” page for the user to manually explore different yoga sessions designed for two weeks of their quarantine. This would help the user to explore Yoga asanas designed for other health issues.
Feature_07
Notifications
The website sends Notifications to the user before every scheduled Yoga practice session. This would help the user to stay connected to their two weeks Yoga schedule, during the quarantine. Making the website more functional and realistic, helping the user reduce their stress and anxiety by being mindful and positive.
LEAFLET
Leaflet is placed in the hotel rooms, explaining the 2 weeks yoga program schedule for mental health and help the person stay in positive space.
CONCLUSION
This research has discussed the importance of practicing yoga, especially for the people who are practicing COVID-19 quarantine in hotels. This website can play a role to connect the people in COVID-19 quarantine facing anxiety and stress by encouraging them to practice yoga and make it a part of their routine to reduce their anxiety and stress. The website is easy to use even for people who aren’t technical, because of its simple interface design.
The special function of this website is that it can be customized, which acts as an interactive feature with the user. It has many options to chose from, which helps the user to practice yoga to reduce stress with different types of asanas to offer the user.
The website provides information about how yoga helps the user to practice mindfulness. The aim of the website is to help people in hotel quarantine go from being anxious and stressed to feeling confident, focused, and positive.
USERFLOW OF HOW THE WEBSITE WORKS ON A MOBILE - VIDEO
USERFLOW OF HOW THE WEBSITE WORKS ON A DESKTOP/LAPTOP - VIDEO
