The document summarizes an android application called STRESSFREE that was developed by students to help reduce anxiety in other students. The application uses questionnaires to assess a user's anxiety level and provides suggestions tailored to their situation and score. It was tested through prototypes and user feedback was positive about the interface and ability to get useful advice for anxiety issues. The goal is to conduct further research and improve the application's features, such as adding media files to suggestions, to help more users manage their anxiety through practical self-help methods.

1. AFFECTIVE COMPUTING
SPRING 2015
PROJECT TITLE - STRESSFREE
TEAM MEMBERS
KRITHIKA RAMASUBRAMANIAN
SARANATH RAJ PASUPATHI RAJ (a) SRIRAM

2. ABSTRACT
Anxiety is an unpleasant state of inner turmoil, often
accompanied by nervousness, such as the feeling about an
imminent event. Anxiety is the most common mental illness in
the United States of America affecting 18% of the US
population (between the age group of 18 and 22).
STRESSFREE is an android based smartphone application
mainly developed to reduce and provide an efficient solution
in terms of practical measures for anxiety. The application
provides a user friendly environment with the help of highly
developed user interface design, the actual purpose of
application development is to give valuable suggestions to the
user problem like a close friend who cannot accompany the
fellow person in all parts of his/her lifetime.
Anxiety can develop from a complex set of risk factors,
including genetics, brain chemistry, personality and life
events. Unlike other applications, we have used the mode of a
questionnaire to measure a person’s anxiety level and provide
noteworthy suggestions (as a part of practical measure of
treatment) to reduce the level of anxiety and make a platform
to find a solution to the problem on their own. The ultimate
goal of the application is to make a reliable platform to reduce
the anxiety without the need for medications as a recent study
on anxiety has proven that practical measures can give more
efficient results on reducing the anxiety when compared to
other possible treatments.
INTRODUCTION
Anxiety is a feeling of fear, worry and inner turmoil usually
generalized and unfocused as an overreaction to a situation that
is subjectively seen as menacing. Anxiety is one of the most
common mental illness in the United States of America,
affecting 40 million adults (between the age group of 18 & 22)
that is 18% of the US population. Anxiety disorders are highly
treatable, yet only about one-third of those suffering receive the
medical treatment.
Anxiety disorders cost the US more than $42 billion a year,
almost one third of the country’s $148 billion total mental
health bill. Nearly one half of those diagnosed with depression
are also diagnosed with an anxiety disorder. People with an
anxiety disorder have a co-occurring physical illness, which can
make their symptoms worse and recovery more difficult. A
recent study on anxiety disorder has furnished some valuable
results that practical measures can produce better and efficient
solutions to reduce anxiety compared to other possible
treatments. The problem of anxiety also cultivates from
society’s materialism over the years, which has eroded the
personal relationship and families.
Depression and anxiety are prevalent problems in colleges
across the country. During the college days, students deal with
a unique amount of stress, they easily become susceptible to
depression and anxiety. These points made us to choose the
target users to be students and provide a reliable system to
support them in solving their problems of anxiety. The news
article on Depression among college students by Leta Shy
explains the supporting statements on how depression and
anxiety disorders are rising among college students because of
the high competitiveness, the correlation between
psychological illness and perfectionism and simultaneously
also provides additional information by noticing a significant
increase around thanksgiving when the hectic first few months
of moving in, choosing classes and meeting new people slow
down to reveal late assignments, heavier workloads and
homesickness.
OBJECTIVE
I. Project Goal
The main objective of the application development is to
provide a significant backdrop where end users (Students) can
interact with the smartphone application as if they are sharing
their private feelings with the closed ones. The purpose of the
application is to analyze and evaluate the level of anxiety so as
to give appropriate suggestions in terms of convincing words to
reduce the anxiety and also provide a long term solution for the
problem.
II. Rationale
The Following are the supporting points to the development of
our application and its features. These are the prioritized set of
symptoms that forms the main reason of anxiety in college
students.
• Pathological Perfectionism
• Panic Disorder
• Social Anxiety Disorder
• Separation Anxiety
• Phobias & Body Dysmorphic Disorder (BDD)
• Obsessive-Compulsion Disorder (OCD)
• Health Anxiety
• Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD)
• Generalized Anxiety Disorder (GAD)
Survey is defined as a technique of collecting information,
attitudes or opinions from a large number of people.
Psychometric tests are a type of questionnaire that contains
many closed questions which plays a significant role in
measuring mental characteristics. Questionnaires and
interviews are often able to study large samples of people fairly
easy and quick. They can examine a large number of variables
and can ask people to reveal behavior and feelings experienced
in real situations. We finalized on using the method of
questionnaire to measure due to the valid point that the self-
report method allow the participants to describe their own

3. experiences rather than inferring from the observed
participants.
Cognitive Behavioral Therapy plays a significant role in
providing an efficient method of treatment for the depression
and anxiety disorders. In the modern materialistic world, there
are many barriers that prevent students to seek help from their
parents and other family members. Stigma, embarrassment, not
knowing the symptoms and the self-medication with drugs are
all the roadblocks on seeking help. And from the recent data on
survey provides the information that parents and other relatives
are not able to spend time with their children due to hectic work
schedule and growing problems with the economic status. Our
application will provide a reliable way to overcome all these
barriers and give a user-friendly platform to interact which can
produce a real time solution like the ones what they can get from
their parents.
PROTOTYPE
https://app.concept.ly/home/share.vz?uid=1427961155929
1.2 New Users, Sign Up (To ensure the privacy of the
information being enclosed in the application)
1.1 Sign in Page of our application
1.3 Mind-Breakers = Part of Sign Up page where the
user will be answering to questions on his/her
Favorites.
1.4 Selecting the appropriate Scenario

4. RESULTS FROM THE PROTOTYPE
• Received a Positive Response on the application from
the user end.
• The Students found the application to be user friendly
• The students were able to navigate between the pages
with ease.
1.5 Responding to the Generalized
Questionnaire
1.6 Scenario Based Questionnaire
1.7 Displaying the Score indicating the Anxiety level
obtained from the responses registered for the
questionnaire
1.8 Suggestions according to the score levels
(which changes according to the responses
received from the user end)

5. • Users found the application interesting in signing up
and responding to the mind-breakers
• The users felt that answering to the questionnaire
would produce real time results on the anxiety level
and also added that when combined with sensors, the
results could be much more reliable.
• The users felt that having a back button on the
application pages would help them to go back to
review the pages once again.
• The users made valuable suggestions to include the
personal issues as a part of selecting the scenarios in
addition to the Academics section.
• We had positive comments on the application to add
even media files as a part of suggestions so that the
application can be more interesting.
HEURISTIC EVALUATION
a) VISIBILITY OF SYSTEM FEEDBACK
• TASK
The users were asked to interact with the application
without any instructions so as to evaluate the reliability of the
application.
• FINDINGS
The users were able to use the application with ease
without any prior instructions and they were able to get the
actual point of the application of what is all about.
b) COMPLEXITY OF THE APPLICATION
• TASK
The users were asked to perform the complex task of
responding to the questionnaire to measure the anxiety level and
view the appropriate suggestions checking that whether the
suggestions are convincing or not.
• FINDINGS
The users found the questionnaire to be reasonable
and were fascinated to view the results. They found the
suggestions to be pragmatic and convincing to reduce the
anxiety level.
c) TASK NAVIGATION AND USER CONTROLS
• TASK
The users were asked to navigate between the Sign Up
page and Mind-Breakers page. The users were also asked to
check the buttons whether they navigate properly and function
properly or not.
• FINDINGS
The users were able to sign in to the application. The
new users were able to sign up and register their response on
the Mind-Breakers to continue with the application. According
to the user information, the buttons are working properly and
we had valuable suggestions from the users to have a BACK for
each page.
d) CONSISTENCY & STANDARDS
• TASK
Users were asked to check the application consistency
by reviewing all the buttons and pages.
• FINDINGS
The users were able to use the application properly and
also found an appropriate solution as a part of the application
objective.
e) ERROR PREVENTION AND CORRECTION
• TASK
Users were asked to register the response on the
questionnaire to evaluate their anxiety level.
• FINDINGS
During the initial stage of application development,
we used YES/NO mode of answering where the users found
them to be confusing on the score calculations to view the
Anxiety level in terms of percentage value.
f) EFFICIENT TO USE
• TASK
The users were asked to comment on the efficiency of
the application.
• FINDINGS
The users found the application to be user friendly on
interacting with the application, they also found the application
to be efficient on seeing the solution at the end (they find the
evaluation method and suggestions to be pragmatic which in
turn also made them to reduce their anxiety).

6. g) SIMPLICITY AND APPEALING
• TASK
Users were asked to comment on the application
design.
• FINDINGS
We received positive comments from the user end that
the application is simple in design (not involving complex
operations to navigate through or to use the application so as to
fulfill the application goal). The users found the application
design to be appealing and interesting to use.
h) HELP SUPPORT
• TASK
The users were asked to review the user manual
whether they find it useful and the points are reasonable to
understand to use application on first hand.
• FINDINGS
The users found the user manual to be lengthier and
confusing which made them to not understand the complete
idea of the application and how to use.
FINAL DESIGN
FEATURES
• The application has a login page to sign in with their
unique username and password as a part of ensuring
the privacy of personal information about each user.
• The application also contains a sign up and mind-
breakers page to create a new account.
• We have a couple of scenarios in the category of
Academics in the application.
• The application consists of both generalized and
scenario based questionnaire to evaluate the anxiety
level.
• The application calculates the anxiety level in terms of
percentage value and provides an appropriate set of
suggestions.
Here, in the questionnaire section we have finalized with the set
of questions on the responses received from the user end with
the help of the interview forms as a part of satisfying user
requirements. We also changed the type of questionnaire from
yes/no to score rating from 0 to 5 to calculate the final score at
the end to provide the suggestions based on the total score of
anxiety level and the situation.
EXPERIMENTAL DESIGN
The evaluation of the application can be done by reviewing the
questionnaire on whether they are reasonable and make sense
of measuring the level of anxiety. The significant part of the
application lies in calculating the scores obtained from the
questionnaire. The system evaluation method can also consider
the technique that was used to furnish the suggestions based on
the anxiety level and situation, ensuring that the application is
producing real time data indicating the exact state of the user at
that time.
The application can be evaluated with the final results obtained
at the end. The application can be reviewed on the set of
questionnaire being used and the suggestions that have been
furnished as a part of the purpose of the application
development. Each and every feature of the application was
finalized after getting a final check from the user end to make
it more reliable and user friendly at the end. We conducted an
ample of survey interview on what is anxiety from the student
point of view, what are all the reasons behind their anxious,
what makes them get more anxious about, what they actually
want to do when they are in anxiety, what they expect, what
kind of solution they need to reduce their anxiety level and
finally is the application useful or not.
The ultimate goal of the application is to provide a reliable and
user beneficial application at the end, and we have successfully
developed the high fidelity prototype version of the application
and we look forward to make a number of research studies in
the field of affective computing and anxiety to make a real time
2.1 Evaluation form used to get the user requirement in
terms of Survey interview

7. application available to the users to help them provide a
solution to their problems.
DISCUSSION
We faced a couple of challenges on finalizing the questionnaire
to be used and the appropriate set of suggestions to be given at
the end. First, we made an ample of research studies on different
types of questionnaire available on each scenario, and how the
scores are being calculated to produce the final anxiety level in
terms of percentage units. Then we categorized the level of
anxiety into 4 broad sections and made a platform to furnish a
different set of scenario and score related suggestions. The most
challenging part of the application is to make a logical concept
on how to calculate the scores and provide the final result of the
suggestions which is touted to be application goal at the end.
Though we have completed the semester end project on
designing the high fidelity prototype version of the application,
we want to continue the research and develop the application
on a real time basis to make it available to the user end for the
user benefit to reduce the anxiety level. We are planning to
include additional features of having a media file along with the
suggestions to make the application more reliable and
beneficial 1n producing an effective solution at the end. We are
also thinking about the inclusion of sensors along with the
questionnaire to make the evaluation more accurate.
REFERENCES
1. Teens are feeling more anxious than ever, Elements Behavioral
Health- Creating Extraordinary Lives. Published on July 2, 2013:
http://www.elementsbehavioralhealth.com/featured/teenagers-are-
feeling-more-anxious-than-ever.html
2. Tartakovsky, M. (2008). Depression and Anxiety among College
Students. Psych Central. Retrieved on March 13, 2015:
http://psychcentral.com/lib/depression-and-anxiety-among-college-
students/0001425.html
3. Leta Shy, Depression Rates Among College Students on the Rise,
The Daily Californian. Retrieved on Monday, September 10, 2001:
http://archive.dailycal.org/article.php?id=6206.html
4. Dealing with Anxiety Disorders at College, Coastal Center of
Anxiety Treatment.
http://coastalcenter.org/dealing-with-anxiety-disorders-at-
college.html
5. Prima Vasari, Muhammad Nubli Abdul Wahab, Ahmad Othman,
Muhammad Ghani Awang, University Malaysia Pahang, Malaysia, A
Research for Identifying Study Anxiety Sources among University
Students, International Education Studies Vol. 3, No. 2; May 2010:
http://www.ccsenet.org/journal/index.php/ies/article/viewFile/4834/4
660.html
6. Self-report for Psychological Investigations,
Holak.co.uk:http://www.holah.co.uk/investigations/selfreport.html
7. Psychology & the public, The British Psychological Society.
http://www.bps.org.uk/psychology-public/information-
public/what%E2%80%99s-inside-psychometric-
test/what%E2%80%99s-inside-psychometric-test.html
8. Phil Edwards, Questionnaires in Clinical trials: Guidelines for
optimal design and administration, Trail. Retrieved on: 11 January
2010
http://www.trialsjournal.com/content/11/1/2.html
9. Anxiety and Depression Association of America, Information for
Parents: Helping a College Student with an Anxiety Disorder.
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http://www.education.com/reference/article/Ref_Information_Helpin
g/?page=2.html
10. Ron J. Steingard, M.D. Associate Medical Director, CHILD
MIND INSTITUTE
http://www.childmind.org/en/posts/articles/mood-disorders-teenage-
girls-anxiety-depression.html
11. http://www.bu.edu/today/2011/students-in-crisis-depression-
anxiety-on-rise/
12. http://youth.anxietybc.com/anxiety-triangle
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depression-anxiety-and-social-phobias-rising
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neuropsychopharmacology
21. http://escalate.ac.uk/downloads/4232.pdf
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8. ACKNOWLEDGES
A special thanks to DR. SHAUNDRA DAILY for providing a
good opportunity to explore and learn about Affective
Computing which gave a platform to develop this application.
We also want to thank the students of Clemson University for
helping us in evaluating the application and providing a moral
support till the end.
RESPONSIBILITIES
KRITHIKA RAMASUBRAMANIAN
• Lo-Fidelity Prototype Design
• Power Point Presentation
• User Interface Design for the Final Version
• Survey Interview
• Part of Documentation
SARANATH RAJ PASUPATHI RAJ (a) SRIRAM
• Application Design Concept
• Heuristic Evaluation
• Final High Fidelity Prototype Version
• Documentation