A multimedia and design CA in association with Irish Heart Foundation.

1. Mindful Me
A paper prototype of an app that
promotes and educates teenagers
towards a healthy lifestyle through
mindfulness.
Lillian Searson
N00171476
Multimedia & Design, 2nd Year Applied Psychology

2. Health Literacy
The Irish Heart Foundation describe good
health literacy as having the knowledge,
confidence and skills to seek out, as well as
process, information to improve and
protect health from a variety of sources
(2018).

3. Mindfulness
Mindfulness is an integrative, mind-body
based training that helps people to change
the way they think and feel about their
experiences – especially stressful
experiences – and is recommended as a
treatment for people with mental health
problem (Mental Health Ireland, 2018).

4. How does mindfulness relate to a
person’s physical health?
• The brain controls most of the activities of
the body, processing, integrating, and
coordinating the information it receives from
the sense organs, and making decisions as to the
instructions sent to the rest of the body.
• In order to improve what happens to the outside
of our body, there must be a strong acceptance
from the inside. By practicing being mindful, one
is in more control of their body and their health.

5. Jack, 13 Years Old
• Drinks a lot of energy drinks
• Stays up all night playing video
games
• Not good at video games, gets
frustrated and invests more time
trying to get better
• Highly influential, will smoke with
his friends as he fears they will
think he’s a loser if he doesn’t
• Youngest child, has a lot of
independence and his poor
eating habits are overlooked
• Gets upset a lot that his older
siblings tease him

6. Becci, 16 Years Old
• About to do the Junior Cert, Becci is
stressed about her exams
• Always snacks when she needs a
‘study break’
• Spends a lot of time refreshing her
phone to see how many likes on a
post she’s got
• Stays up late at night crying how she
wasted the day
• Idealizes the ‘fit’ girls on Instagram
selling tea that “reduces your
weight”
• Often wonders is she being true to
herself, or trying too hard to fit in
with the cool girls

7. Becci

29. Becci Needs To Take Care of Herself
• A good use of the app for Becci would be using the
‘take care’ aspect.
• Becci is constantly stressed worrying about
schoolwork and how popular she is, a good use of
her time would to be figuring out herself a little.
• Becci has poor eating habits which she can turn
around if inspired by this app
• Although this doesn’t help her with schoolwork, it
gives Becci a break from all things superficial and
adds meaning to her day.

41. Becci should get better sleep
• The sleep aspect of the app would be useful for Becci
who struggles to sleep well
• Sleep is vital for everyone, especially for a young girl
who has such exhausting days
• If Becci slept better her mood would improve and how
she goes about her day would be much more efficient
• If Becci slept better she would also be more relaxed
than stressed and be more in focus for her studies
• Becci could also reduce her snacking habits if she slept
more, sometimes eating is a distraction for when we
can’t give other things to our body like sleep

63. Limitations and Further Upgrades of
App
• Due to this being a paper prototype, the
graphic design, font use and spacing of
elements on screen is weak
• Location services documenting how long a
teenager has been by a computer or in school
would be interesting, however it is a privacy
breach…
• It is hard to encourage a young audience to
use apps that help them and are not gamified

64. Thank you for listening!

65. References
Darius, A. (2017). Boy at Sunset. Photo retrieved from:
https://unsplash.com/photos/3XY7BWwGolk/info
Geller, S. (2013). Ted X Talk: The psychology of self-motivation. Video file
retrieved from: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7sxpKhIbr0E
Geoghegan, T. (2011). BBC News:Who, What, Why: How long is the ideal
nap? Retrieved from: https://www.bbc.com/news/world-us-canada-
13232034
Olsen, G. (2004, March 30). Persona Creation and Usage Toolkit.
Retrieved October 2, 2015, from
http://www.interactionbydesign.com/presentations/olsen_persona_tool
kit.pdf
Irish Heart Foundation. (2018). An Intervention on Childhood Obesity.
Levitin, D. (2015). Ted Talk: How to stay calm when you know you'll be
stressed. Video file retrieved from:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8jPQjjsBbIc

66. McArthur, J. & Murrin, C. (2018). Adolescent Health Literacy: Measurement
and Practice in Health Promotion.School of Public Health, Physiotherapy, and
Sports Science, University College Dublin.
Mental Health Foundation. (2017). Sleep Matters: The Impact Of Sleep On
Health And Wellbeing. Retrieved from:
https://www.mentalhealth.org.uk/publications/sleep-report
Mental Health Ireland. (2018). Mindfulness. Retrieved from:
https://www.mentalhealthireland.ie/a-to-z/mindfulness/
Ricard, M. (2010). Why meditate?. Hay House, Inc.
NASA. (2017). NASA Naps. Retrieved from: https://science.nasa.gov/science-
news/science-at-nasa/2005/03jun_naps
NHS. (2018). Sleep and tiredness: Why lack of sleep is bad for your health.
Retrieved from: https://www.nhs.uk/live-well/sleep-and-tiredness/why-lack-
of-sleep-is-bad-for-your-health/
Varela, P. (2017). Black and Woman. Photo retrieved from:
https://unsplash.com/photos/vCfxXxbQRX8