Relief

Relief - 11 Jan 2024

Warning:

I recorded the following videos on the simulator, and the behavior of the screens changed since the project went live on the App Store, so it doesn’t represent the original product. This unexpected behaviour probably comes from SwiftUI latest updates.

What's Relief?

Relief is a WatchOS app focused on helping people with anxiety and panic attacks, developed with a psychologist. It provides quick access to proven breathing and gesture techniques, which can help the person defocus from the panic and focus on the real world.

We decided to develop this App because Brazil is one of the most anxious countries in the world. People tend to downplay the effects of anxiety on the daily life.

Breathing

Relief currently has two breathing techniques. Both have different gestures, and each can have its own cycles independent of the other. First, the user follows the position of the hands. The process begins with small haptics to help the user follow the cycle of inhaling and exhaling. There’s a small timer so the user can position their hands without worrying about a button.

Customization

The breathing cycles are customized, with a minimum of 10 seconds and a maximum set by the user. This way enables the user to have different goals for the available techniques.

On the same Screen, the user can also see a more in-depth instruction on the technique without a timer or distractions.

Others

Using the WidgetKit(Complications) we enable the user to quickly access their favorite breath, jumping directly from the watch face.

Each Breathing has its own complication. And can be modified any time the user wants.

Team satisfaction:

The team came out extremely satisfied with the product. The scope and the theme pleased us. The app came out close to perfection compared to the original prototype, with the main complaints being some limits of WatchOS itself.

Looking back:

Possible improvements:

Techniques: we initially targeted two techniques because we wanted an app focused on a single function. I believe that we achieved this, and the backend to add more is just a JSON file, so it’s easy to include more.
Health: We wanted to use Health to help our users have their data available on all devices. Due to some limitations regarding haptics and sensors, we decided to cut this feature for version 1.0. In Simple terms, we needed to interrupt the sensor every X time for the haptics to work, which led to a bug where the readings came out very wrong.
Haptics: the current haptics feedback works, but we wanted something like the wellness app, which unfortunately isn’t possible due to several factors and limits imposed by the OS.