Pal App by Drew Tozer is a highly esteemed winner of the very prestigious 2020 Silver A' Design Award in Mobile Technologies, Applications and Software Design Competition Category.

SilverMobile· 2020

Pal App

by Drew Tozer

Client: Drew Tozer

Silver A' Design Award Winner in Mobile Category

24,120

Verified Award Winner

Verify Award Status for #92264

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Colors

The Design

About Pal App

Pal is a mobile application designed to reduce loneliness among young adults affected by social media dependency. The application uses blockchain and artificial intelligence to track personal health progress and to suggest tailored tips. Social features encourage users to meet others and to build friendships and healthy habits offline. The tools include a local event calendar, a routine builder, a chat with a professional and a personal progress tracker. A short questionnaire at sign-up identifies the skills each user can develop.

The Recognition

About the Silver A' Design Award

Pal App is a Silver A' Design Award winner, an extraordinarily prestigious recognition granted to top-of-the-line, gorgeous, and impressive designs. Silver winners are tremendously brilliant and exceedingly creative works that illustrate the outstanding expertise, talent, and acuity of their designers. Pal App is expected to be a wonderful, showpiece work that is remarkably professional and profoundly innovative. This Silver A' Design Award-winning design is a highly notable, admired invention that benefits and advances the boundaries of art, science, design, and technology. Pal App is a vastly envied creation that evokes desires, introduces positive feelings, and sparks amazement and wonderment.

Image Analysis

Color Temperature: Slightly CoolSymmetry: VerticalBackground: Left and Right

Where to Get It

UX/UI Design for Social Impact Apps

We specialize in user-centered mobile app design that addresses real social challenges. With expertise in mental health applications and digital wellness solutions, we create thoughtful interfaces that promote meaningful user engagement. Our award-winning approach combines rigorous research with empathetic design to deliver apps that truly matter.

Discuss Your Project

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Behind the Design

Press Kit

Credits, team members and technical details provided by the designer.

Unique Properties: Pal is a blockchain and AI powered app to reduce loneliness in young adults who are suffering from social media dependencies. The app uses a variety of personal health widgets to track user progress and suggest helpful, personalized tips. The apps social widgets promote users to meetup and build meaningful friendships and habits offline. The widgets include a local event calendar, routine builder, chat with a professional, and a personal progress tracker.
Dimensions & Packaging: The AI system will receive chronological data on events, progress in skills, and from other apps from pal’s integrated blockchain-run data collection. This way, it knows how to track progress and suggest tools and tips for growing progress in your specified skill groups. The data will also help to monitor your routine via logs on the blockchain. If the user permits pal access to their data from social media apps, it’ll use it to track time spent on the app, and provide gentle reminders when user’s overstep their goals for social media usage.
Tags: UX, UI, User Centred, Mental Health, User Research, Design Thinking
Production Technology: The app was prototyped using Sketch for a user centred experience. All illustrations were created on Adobe Illustrator. The prototype is focused on a speculative user profile, Remy, who reflects a combination of users interviewed for this project.
Design Challenge: The most challenging creative challenge was identifying how to promote spending less time on social media through an app. Pal had to become the "anti social media", which meant finding opportunities for users to get off the app and build meaningful connections, stronger physical and mental health. Every feature of Pal's has to work to promote less screen time.
Research: Research began with journals on loneliness and social media usage, 13 interviews with the target demographic, and a survey. I learned that meaningful face-to-face connections and engagement with hobbies were the best way to reduce loneliness. Therefore, Pal was made with a routine builder to keep users on healthy schedules; a map that allows users to track their progress; a chat that hears their worries and responds helpfully; and an event planner that offers users opportunities to meet locals.
Inspiration: Inspiration for Pal came from other mental health apps, such as Headspace, Youper, Calm, and Moodkit. The decision to approach loneliness as the main problem was inspired by user interviews, where many young adults identified their struggles with loneliness originating or worsening from an overuse of social media. My main objective was to create an accessible and friendly app that supports and encourages lonely young adults to make healthy transitions for their mental and physical health.
Project Duration: This project started in January 2019 and was finished in April 2019 in Halifax, Canada at NSCAD University.
Operation Flow: Users that create an account with Pal first fill out a brief questionnaire that helps the app to identify skills that the user can focus on to decrease loneliness. The home page will use a smart interface to prompt users to record certain physical health measures, and recommend helpful tips (such as drinking more water and eating more food). It will also notify users of upcoming events and provide friendly encouraging messages. From the homepage, users can access any of the features.
Image Credits: Image #1: Creator IQUII Digital Company, iPhone X - Free Responsive Mockup, 2017.
Image #4: Creator ANTHONY BOYD GRAPHICS, Clay iPhone X Mockup Vol.2, 2018. https://www.anthonyboyd.graphics/mockups/clay-iphone-x-mockup-vol-2/
Image #5: Creator COBE, 8 Photorealistic iPhone 7 Mockups, 2016.