Athly UI/UX Concept

ATHLY is an app that helps college student-athletes prioritize their mental health. This app connects student-athletes with mental health professionals and their peers through the ATHLY Community. An additional feature, the ATHLY Log, allows these student-athletes to log their feelings, activities, and more to keep track of how they are feeling day to day in correspondence with what they are doing.

"I competed in both cross country and track in all four years of my undergraduate education, so this project is very important to me. There is a great need for mental health resources for student-athletes. The brain is a part of the body that needs to be taken care of, just like physical health. Student-athletes undergo added stressors between their sport and their studies. There are limited resources for students, and it is difficult to find time in the day between their responsibilities to receive help. This app will be a resource for student-athletes to turn to when needing help with stress management or other mental health issues."

Research

Facts

Mental illness in sports is often overlooked and an athlete may be left with feelings of loneliness and abandonment, unsure of where to turn.

Research shows that almost 85 percent of certified athletic trainers believe anxiety disorders are currently an issue with student-athletes on their campus.
Anxiety has cognitive and physiological elements. Physiological symptoms may include muscle tension, headaches, gastrointestinal issues, increased heart rate, and difficulty breathing.
Student-athletes are less likely to report having received psychological or mental health services from a variety of providers, including counselors and psychiatrists. This could be due either to a reduced need among the student-athlete population or because they are less likely to report and seek treatment for these concerns.

How do students receive help?

There is a tremendous lack of services in colleges and universities: On college campuses, the ratio of certified counselors to students overall is about 1:1000 – 2000 for small to moderate size schools and 1:2000 – 3500 for large universities.
Some schools offer counseling, online counseling with psychiatrists and psychologists, online treatment module, crisis lines, mindfulness programs, groups, and art therapy.
The barriers to seeking help for students may fall into three categories: stigma, deficient services, and lack of information.

How do providers help students?

The American Psychiatric Association (APA) provides evidence-based recommendations for the assessment and treatment of psychiatric disorders online
It is critical for mental health providers to develop an extensive knowledge of the prevalence and range of mental health problems occurring among college students and of the various needs of traditional as well as non-traditional college students.
Mental health providers inside and outside campus may be a resource to help student-athletes.

Competitive Research

The Zone App

The Zone App associates with schools.
It is not available for download right now.
It uses ai powered feedback to seek help.

Athlete Mental Health Link tool

An education app that includes statistics, and links to resources.
Includes support structures for athletes from high school to professional.
Includes common signs of mental health challenges, etc.

Champions Mind

Includes mental skills tools.
Includes daily mindfulness exercises.
Gives performance tips.

Restoic

App for mindful athlete journey,
Usesholistic approach to mental health and performance
Education of Athlete Psychology

User Survey

90% of student-athletes feel stress from being a college student-athlete. 85% of student-athletes have felt stressed to the point of feeling like they need help. The balance between sports and school was chosen as the most stressful part of being a student-athlete. Athletes would prefer in-person or virtual counseling. These student-athletes prefer social media interaction when communicating with each other.

User Survey

Interviews

The interviews allowed me to gain an even deeper understanding of how athletes react to their stressors and where they go when they need help. Reaching out to others is crucial to dealing with stressors. Judgment, stigma, and expectations of strength can hold athletes back from reaching out to professionals, coaches, etc. Finding joy in other activities and reaching out are helpful ways of dealing with stress.

Empathy Mapping

Empathy Mapping was used to gain an even deeper understanding of the user’s mind when dealing with stressors. Student-athletes were involved in completing the empathy map based on their experiences of being a student-athlete. They included what they do, say, feel, and think when they feel stressed. They also included negative pains and positive benefits that come from the stress of being a student-athlete. I used this information to get inside the user's heads, so my application would be able to help them.

Information architecture

Card Sorting

Student-athletes participated in organizing topics into groups that made sense to them. This process helped organize information and topics to make navigation easy for the user.