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Nurture Journal

Book Design, Website & Package Design

The Nurture Journal helps female college students to overcome anxiety by using the five senses to experience nature. Daily entries for each of the senses and unique daily prompts show them how to interact with nature in new ways, such as by comparing the texture of the top and underneath of a leaf. An analogous color scheme, hand drawn illustrations of plants and flowers, and beautiful photos of nature help the book carry through its concept by being visually soothing as well.

Journal & Package

Website

Process

Insight

Nurture Journal works to get anxious college students outside and more connected to their environment, so creating an effortless website flow that users could follow from learning about the journal to getting a copy shipped was a primary goal. Consequently, the website structure and layouts are simple, with no hidden information or extra pages to keep them in the online environment unnecessarily long. The Getting Started page anticipates user needs by providing a prompt to use until the book arrives.

Research

Before developing this project, I came across research on anxiety and ways to decrease it that caught my attention. This is a quick synopsis of the statistics that inspired this project. Interestingly, these statistics were acurate before the COVID-19 pandemic caused anxiety to sky rocket.

These statistics quickly helped me narrow down my target audience to college age women:

  • 40 million adults in the US have anxiety — that’s 19% of the adult population.1
  • 75% of those adults are affected before turning 22 (i.e. many college-age individuals have anxiety).2
  • Twice as many women have Generalized Anxiety Disorder and many other forms of anxiety.3

The next three statistics were my inspiration for a solution:

  • Nature walks help reduce rumination (repetitive, negative thinking patterns) that are linked to mental illnesses such as anxiety.4
  • Being in nature increases your positive emotions and ability to handle challenging life circumstances.5
  • The 5 senses can help fight anxiety by refocusing your attention on the environment around you.6
  1. “Anxiety Disorders.” Dec 2017. National Alliance on Mental Illness. Accessed February 10, 2020. https://www.nami.org/learn-more/mental-health-conditions/anxiety-disorders
  2. “Mental Health and College Students.” Infographic. Anxiety and Depression Assocition of America. Accessed February 11, 2020. https://adaa.org/finding-help/helping-others/college-students/facts
  3. "Facts and Statistics." Anxiety and Depression Assocition of America. Accessed January 28, 2021. https://adaa.org/about-adaa/press-room/facts-statistics.
  4. Bratman, Gregory N. et al. “Nature Experience Reduces Rumination and Subgenual Prefrontal Cortex Activation.” Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America vol. 112, 28 (2015): 8567-72. doi:10.1073/pnas.1510459112
  5. Heiskanen, Siru. “Why Is Nature Beneficial? The Role of Connectedness to Nature.” Nov 22, 2016. Summary of Mayer, F.S. et al. “Why is nature beneficial? The role of connectedness to nature.” Environment and Behavior, vol 41, 5 (2008). Accessed February 2, 2020. https://www.naava.io/science/why-is-nature-beneficial-the-role-of-connectedness-to-nature
  6. Bennett, Taylor. “You Can Use Your 5 Senses to Reduce Stress and Anxiety.” Apr 17, 2018. Thrive Works. Accessed February 10, 2020. https://thriveworks.com/blog/use-your-5-senses-to-reduce-stress-and-anxiety/

Structure

User Personas

Christy, 21

Christy is attending a large university far from her rural hometown, and it’s nothing like the community college she attended last year. She is lonely and wondering how long it will take to make friends. Most of all, Christy wants to find the groundedness she had during highschool and to shake off the persistent anxiety she’s dealing with due to her move. She used to take a walk in the woods when she was stressed, but now all she has is a couple of park benches and a few trees on campus.

Maria, 19

Maria has always been a STEM kind of girl, but now that she is at MIT, she realizes she is not quite as prepared for the challenge as she thought. The worst part is she has started dealing with panic attacks and anxiety. She has always been independent, so she wonders why she is struggling with missing her family so much. She likes to hike and run, but hasn’t taken time to anytime this semester because she is too busy studying.

Elise, 17

Elise is a junior in high school who started dealing with anxiety last year. She hasn’t changed schools, her family is fine, and her grades are good, but she still worries way to much and she is tired of it. After school, she normally walks her dog then sits down on the couch with her schoolwork or a planner. Lately, she is having a hard time focusing on anything other than the persistent anxiety she is experiencing.

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