InstaBrace: Empowering Gen-Z Women to Take Control of Their Social Media Behaviors
InstaBrace is a speculative bracelet and digital plugin designed for Gen-Z women to promote mindful social media use. It provides real-time insights and haptic feedback to help users recognize emotional responses, break negative feedback loops, and make healthier, more grounded choices, reducing mental health risks linked to social media.
Services
Product Design
UX Design
Design Research: Generative and Evaluative
Client
Speculative project from SVA's Products of Design MFA
Audience
Gen-Z women active on social media, in particular Instagram
Team
Margarita Zulueta, Katy Yuelapwan, Zekun Yang (Design Team) with faculty advisors from Johnson & Johnson Design
Year
2020
🌟 The Objective
The goal was to empower Gen-Z women to regain control over their social media habits, which were exacerbating mental health issues, particularly related to body image and self-esteem. We aimed to create a tool that provided real-time emotional feedback through a wearable device, allowing users to make more informed, mindful choices about their social media engagement.
🤝 The Deliverables:
A bracelet model paired with a digital plugin mockup
Speculative emotional feedback system via haptic signals
User research, including interviews with 16 participants (8 experts and 8 lead users)
User journey mapping and concept testing to refine the product
🥳 The Results:
Developed a prototype concept that tracked social media behavior and provided emotional insights
Mapped out a proposed a haptic feedback system to give users real-time emotional awareness
Conducted in-depth user research that informed the design and improved its potential impact on mental well-being
Received positive feedback on the product's design and functionality, with lead users feeling more in control of their social media experience
💡 The Process
I led the digital strategy and UX/UI design, defining the key intervention points within social media platforms. I also recruited participants for research and testing, ensuring a diverse understanding of user motivations and challenges. Working during the 2020 COVID pandemic, we adapted our research and design processes to be fully virtual, conducting interviews and synthesizing insights remotely. This approach was key to developing a solution based on Mindfulness-based Cognitive Therapy (MBCT), which helped break users out of harmful social media feedback loops.
👩🏻💻 As the UX designer and research participant recruiter for this project…
Leading the digital strategy and UX/UI design for the plugin
Managing user research and recruitment, including interviewing 10 of the 16 participants
Developing a haptic feedback system to ground users’ emotions during social media use
Iterating on the design through multiple rounds of testing and feedback
Creating a solution rooted in MBCT to help users recognize and break negative patterns in their social media use
🤨 The primary challenge was…
A key challenge was understanding how to intervene in users’ ingrained social media habits, particularly with the pressure to maintain social connections. This required balancing the need for real-time feedback with users’ emotional sensitivity. Additionally, developing a physical product and digital experience during the pandemic required adapting our research and testing methods to virtual environments, which created logistical hurdles.
🙌 Our impact…
The product successfully empowered users to be more aware of their emotional responses and engage more mindfully with social media, receiving positive feedback from lead users.
📝 Project Summary
This project reinforced my ability to design digital solutions that address complex mental health challenges through user-centered research and mindfulness techniques. Moving forward, I would focus on refining the digital flows and expanding testing with larger sample sizes to enhance the product's impact on user behavior.
