One idea from our first Healing Design Jam was a digital journal, tailored for private and social audio storytelling. This prototype is both a product and an experiment. We asked, Can we make something people will use & enjoy, and will it lead to effective behavior change? Twenty (20) prototype participants used this pilot for 2 weeks. They reported: Yes, on both counts!
We know from evidence-based studies that expression, narrative coherence, and a sense of mutuality, or belonging, are all indicators of well-being.
Similar studies tell us voice is powerful — simply hearing a friendly or familiar voice can reduce cortisol and heighten oxytocin.
And we know from design principles, and our own lived experience, that asking questions is a powerful mechanism to support reflection, expression, and feeling heard.
Our design question was: How might we build a resource that supports healing, through social interaction, personal expression, and narrative?
From this came our first pilot: The Social Audio Journal.
To build a prototype, our backend engineer developed a custom API on top of Telegram. We created a Healing Bot to deliver prompts to participants at key times, store their audio files, generate transcripts, and nudge them when they had a reply from a partner.
To keep everything friendly, invitational, and audio-based, our operations lead personally recorded each voice prompt used by the Healing Bot.
In Diary mode, participants receive daily prompts for private reflection, inviting them to record a series of voice notes exploring their relationship to a major loss in their life. (In future iterations, each voice note will automatically generate a transcript, and both voice and text files will be searchable & categorizable.)
In Conversation mode, participants opt in to share their story of loss with a partner (another Social Audio Journal user, whom the participant doesn’t previously know). Pairs can be located anywhere in the world, and be exploring any form of loss and healing. Each participant in the pair is given 4 instructions: To tell a personal story of loss and healing, and to listen deeply to their partner’s story; to ask at least 3 reflective questions, and to answer the questions their partner asks them.
This conversational give-and-take repeats over several days (all via asynchronous voice notes), while pairs explore questions, challenges, breakthroughs, and reflections, together!
To build a prototype, our backend engineer developed a custom API on top of Telegram. We created a Healing Bot to deliver prompts to participants at key times, store their audio files, generate transcripts, and nudge them when they had a reply from a partner.
To keep everything friendly, invitational, and audio-based, our operations lead personally recorded each voice prompt used by the Healing Bot.
In Diary mode, participants receive daily prompts for private reflection, inviting them to record a series of voice notes exploring their relationship to a major loss in their life. (In future iterations, each voice note will automatically generate a transcript, and both voice and text files will be searchable & categorizable.)
In Conversation mode, participants opt in to share their story of loss with a partner (another Social Audio Journal user, whom the participant doesn’t previously know). Pairs can be located anywhere in the world, and be exploring any form of loss and healing. Each participant in the pair is given 4 instructions: To tell a personal story of loss and healing, and to listen deeply to their partner’s story; to ask at least 3 reflective questions, and to answer the questions their partner asks them.
This conversational give-and-take repeats over several days (all via asynchronous voice notes), while pairs explore questions, challenges, breakthroughs, and reflections, together!
Does this product work well for the person using it?
When designing a prototype, usability considerations include things like: onboarding, navigation, instructions, system performance, wayfinding (aka, “I’m confident I’m doing this right”), ability to ask for help, and satisfaction / enjoyment while using it.
To evaluate usability, our designers paid attention to how participants used the Social Audio Journal, logged questions and requests for help, and conducted design research “exit interviews” with 50% of our participants. What we saw has implications for digital prototypes, but also for market gaps!
Learnings:
1. People respond openly and sincerely to earnest questions, even with very low-tech interventions — products don’t have to be complex or high-fidelity
2. As long as meaningful human connection is happening, people don't mind interacting with (context-appropriate!) AI / bots
3. People are eager for digital tech that is built to truly deliver on a promise of deepening meaningful connection to self & others
What changed after our prototype?
Therapy: One person, already in couples therapy, stated a new commitment to also seek out individual therapy to explore their relationship to grief, hope, and sense of purpose
New angles of healing: One person reported uncovering a wholly new aspect and direction of their grief & healing, with ideas for other healing interventions to explore in the future
Ancillary behaviors: One person shared their real-time experience of overcoming an ancillary, self-limiting pattern of behavior, in order to be present to their audio partner
Community: One person expressed a commitment to a career shift, from running a solo therapy practice to convening healing work in the context of community
Did this prototype improve well-being for people using it?
When evaluating the success of a therapeutic intervention, efficacy considerations include things like: changes in a person’s sense of belonging, self-confidence, and agency; correlations between positive changes; and correlations between individual and paired senses of well-being.
To measure the efficacy of our prototype, our scientists created pre-/mid-/post-surveys, established a LIWC framework, and developed a codebook to track changes in participant baselines over time while using our prototype. Our data analysts reviewed changes in participants’ sense of agency, emotional valence, sense of belonging, coherence, and more. What we saw has clues for how we might identify the evidence-based benefits of social healing!
Learnings:
Over the course of using our Social Audio Journal, people demonstrated…
1. Increased reflection, orientation, and narrative coherence
2. Increased ability to reframe and reconsider loss/healing events
3. A mediation effect around communion; with a higher sense of “having people around” in one’s life and story, people demonstrated a higher sense of general meaning.
This adds early but exciting data to support our hypothesis: The presence of others is a key lever for well-being and meaning-making.
