“Designing with data represents an opportunity to create personally targeted healthcare solutions and tackle problems previously out of reach.”

• An empathetic Algorithm that can respond appropriately to a users’ mood

• A digital friend prototype

• A ‘home hub’ working prototype displaying the collective mood of a workplace

• Close working alliances with industry experts such as the Tavistock Centre, NHS

• New client relationships for Method

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

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

A few years ago I was exposed first hand to the tragedy of the declining mental health of our young people. I was compelled to see if design and technology could offer some kind of solution to a an increasingly urgent problem exacerbated by our digital lifestyles.

I named the initiative FINE (Feeling Insecure, Nervous and Emotional). A word that has a hundred meanings and is often used to cover up how we are really feeling. I pitched the idea to my fellow leadership team at Method to help me make it real.

We had run some early experiments designing with data using the newly available IBM Watson API’s and a hacked 80’s speak and spell. I realised that machine learning could offer an opportunity to quantify complex mood and behavioural changes in young people at an individual level. The idea was to create a preventative service that helped break down the taboos of talking about mental health in the home and start to quantify what a ‘mentally healthy’ lifestyle might look like and what behaviours might be early indicators to the contrary.

The result was a multi-faceted design exploration that included:

The initiative only scratched the surface of a subject and opportunity I am still passionate about today.

Read more about my perspective on designing for mental health in Creative Review