Overview
The emphasis on hyper-indivualism and self-care is causing a decline in student community well-being.
KIN is a community-based app for students that aims to destigmatize asking for help, redefine forms of labor as acts of love, and foster support systems.
Role
Product designer
Skills
Interaction design
Visual design
Prototyping
Timeline
12 weeks
The Problem
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Students are struggling to navigate their academic journey without a support system on campus.
I sent out a survey to the students of UT Austin — there were 78 respondents across all four undergraduate years and of various majors ranging from visual arts to pre-med.
There’s a stigma around asking for help that drives students into further isolation away from their friends.
62%
32%
58%
71%
100%
said they experience loneliness and/or lack a support system on campus
said they experience psychological distress, such as depression and sleep deprivation
of those with psychological issues said they feel like they neglect their most basic needs
said they have a friend group whom they feel comfortable asking favors from but more than half of them say they actively avoid doing so
of respondents said they would gladly do favors for their friends if asked, but some mentioned they can't recall the last time they were asked to do something significant.
Cultural & Societal Expectations
Society places a high value on individualism and self-reliance and so students are afraid of burdening their friends.
Psychological Factors
There’s an underlying fear of being judged negatively for needing help.
Modern Convenience Services &
Social Norms
With the availability of services like Doordash, UberEats, and Lyft, there is less perceived necessity to ask friends for help. It is becoming more socially acceptable to rely on services rather than friends for certain types of favors
And it’s all rooted in cultural, psychological,
and social factors.
The push for self-care and
hyper-individualism is unsustainable.
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Individual interventions can’t fix problems that were caused by larger systematic factors
It fails to address the relentless cycle of toxic productivity and the weight of academic demands
Self-care also only serves as a temporary escape from the burnout culture that students are inevitably trapped in
Hyper-individualism pushes students further into isolation —
preventing social circles from building stronger connections and trust
The concept of self-care promotes the notion that asking others for help means burdening them
The normalization of hyper-individualism is causing an overall decline in collective support and community well-being within college campuses, contributing to the loneliness epidemic
No one expects us to take care of ourselves when we’re physically sick. Why should mental illnesses be treated any differently?
In an unspoken understanding, we rely on our friends and family to come to our aid so that we can rest, heal, and recover. Although unseen, the difficulties in navigating mental disorders are just as debilitating and painful as the physical ones. Mental illness deserves the same grace we lend our bodies.
Yet, the reality of mental health stigma is that not everyone has a support system. College can be a lonely place for a lot of us. Making lifelong friends who support us in times of need can take emotional and even financial resources –– resources that many students can’t spare.
The Challenge
How can I help college students feel safe and comfortable asking for help from their friends and community?
The goal is to design a platform that normalizes asking for help, redefines forms of labor as acts of love, and foster support systems in the student community.
Guiding Design Principles
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Ease of Use and Low Friction
Simplify the process of asking for help by minimizing barriers and making the platform intuitive to use. Ensure that students can quickly and easily access the support they need without navigating complex systems.
Strengthen Community Bonds
Facilitate meaningful connections and mutual support within the student community. Encourage collaboration and the sharing of resources.
Peer Empowerment
Empower students to not only ask for help but also to provide support to their peers. Recognize those who contribute to the community, fostering a culture where helping and being helped are equally valued.
The Process
I focused on two primary user personas: students who find themselves in need of help and those who are willing and able to provide support.
These two user types represent the core dynamic that the product seeks to facilitate—bridging the gap between those who may be struggling and those who want to help but may not know how or when to step in.
Student #1 is overwhelmed by academic pressure, mental health challenges, or social isolation. They need a solution that's accessible and offers both immediate and ongoing support.
Student #2 is motivated to help their peers but might not always know the best way to do so. They need tools that make it easy to offer support in a way that’s effective and respectful of their friends’ needs.
With these user groups in mind, I made the key design decision to center the app around two main actions: "Request" of favors and "Offers" of services and/or goods.
Interactions with other students and engaging with posts should feel easy.
I wanted to design this app with a social approach, creating a space where students can request favors from their trusted community and social circles.
To enhance engagement, all Requests and Offers be interactive, allowing for reactions and comments. Additionally, a private messaging feature will be included to facilitate easy communication between students.
User flow: Posting favor request
User flow: Posting an offer
Early design explorations
But then I realized… there was a third use case: building community and trust.
After initially designing for the first two use cases, I realized there was a need for a third: building trust and a sense of community between students. This led me to think beyond just connecting those who need help with those who can offer it.
To address this, I decided to add a "Feed" tab to the home page, making it the primary tab. The goal of the “Feed” tab is to be engaging by highlighting recent activity and achievements from the community, fostering a sense of connection and trust among users.
Along with the feed, I decided to add a floating action button (FAB) for creating a request or offer. With this, students can quickly and easily reach out for help or offer their support, making the process more intuitive and seamless.
The Final Solution
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Sign up using your student email and ID
Start off by finding your college, sign up using your student email, and uploading a photo of your student ID. Your profile information will be auto-populated once your student identification is verified.
Community guidelines
Once you've completed the sign-up process, you’ll be guided through KIN’s community guidelines. These guidelines ensure that everyone is joining the community with respect, mutual support, accountability, and a judgement-free mindset.
Onboarding flow
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Connect with the community and explore new connections
The feed highlights recent completed offers and requests, new users that just joined, and noteworthy milestones. You can also tailor your experience by filtering the feed to "Friends only" for a closer look at what your circle is up to.
Celebrate others’ milestones and achievements
You can help celebrate when someone has unlocked a new badge, just completed a milestone number of offers, or hit their one-year anniversary on the app, etc. Hyping up others helps foster a sense of community empowerment and cultivates a culture where peers feel valued for their contributions.
Home activity feed
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Normalizing asking for help
The requests tab is where we can start breaking the stigma of asking for help! This feed provides a welcoming and comfortable space within the student community for seeking favors from peers. Those who have the time and resources to spare, can accept a request and do a favor for peers in need.
Share your time and resources with the community
The offers tab showcases a feed of peers who want to share their time and resources with the student community. Peers can post their offers, which are available for anyone within the community to claim.
Sorting and filtering out the feed
Students can sort by most recent posts, or by expiration time or distance— depending on which is most convenient for them. The feed can also be filtered to see the entire community or just friends.
Requests and offers
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Creating a request
Students can simply just create a post, describing the favor in need. The expiration date indicates when they’ll need the favor by, and they can specify the favor by adding location details and uploading a photo.
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Interacting with offers
Students can interact with offers by leaving comments directly under them, or if they are interesting in taking up an offer, they can message the peer directly from the post.
Accepting an offer
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Notification prompt
Students will get a prompt in their notification feed asking for their feedback after a request or offer has been marked as completed.
Feedback flow
Students will verify task completion by their peers and then leave a thank-you note, which will be publicly posted on their peer’s profile page. Receiving gratitude and feedback from the community helps build their credibility for future favors.
Sharing feedback
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Past activity
On the profile page, all past activity regarding requests and offers will be displayed. Each post will include the status—whether it's an ongoing request or offer, or if it has been successfully completed. Additionally, users can view public feedback and thank-you notes, both their own and those from other peers.
Personal information, friends, and social links
The only personal information that will be shown on the profile is year classification and major. The friends list is publicly visible to foster community transparency. Additionally, students have the option to link their social media accounts, to expand connections or build their credibility.
Profile
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Milestone badges
This highlights a someone’s achievements on their profile, visible to everyone in the community. They can earn these badges by completing different actions across the app, such as hitting milestones, participating in community activities, or engaging with offers and requests.
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Monitoring account status
The account status page lets users know if they’re at risk of losing access to the community when their completion rate for offers and requests are falling low or if they’ve been reported for sharing harmful posts or comments. This empowers users to uphold community standards with responsibility.
Account status
Conclusion — I learned…
How to create a digital space that fosters psychological safety through design.
Designing a product that tackles on external mental issues caused by institutional factors was a huge challenge. I had to carefully balance tackling these complex issues while making sure the experience remained approachable and non-intimidating for users. I really enjoyed taking on this challenge, especially because it aligned with something I’m so passionate about!
If I could redo this, I’d…
Incorporate community-centered design with iterative testing for co-creation.
I realize that continuous testing and feedback loops are essential to refine and optimize the overall experience. Especially if I’m designing a community-centered product, it’s important to loop in members of the community to co-create solutions that reflect collective goals!
