Mark, Leo, Ethan F. (not pictured)
The MBMH (Messy Beds. Messy Heads.) Design Lab team was a project based on the idea that mental health can affect a person’s environment and vice versa. They discovered that a messy space can cause feelings of disappointment and decreases in motivation, which can make existing mental health issues worse. Their end-users were people who struggled with their mental health, but on a lesser level than those who experienced severe mental illness. The team chose this issue because mental health is not talked about enough in public. Initially, the planned topic was Police and Mental Health, which changed into Cleaning and Mental Health after a few interviews and some research. If this project can help people struggling with their mental health to build better habits around cleaning their space, then they’ll have better mental health. The project could help people struggling with their mental health to develop better habits around cleaning. The first HMW statement that they settled on was “How Might We assist people experiencing crisis/mental health issues by means of sanitary habits?” Later in the project, that changed into “How Might We introduce small but effective habits to those struggling to clean their homes?” The team interviewed the Boise Police Department’s Behavioral Response Team, and then a member of the Idaho Department of Health and Welfare (Later on, the team arranged interviews with the Catch and New Path programs), who answered a lot of mental health and crisis-related questions. The team gained some helpful insights from them. To assist with ideas for creating a product, MBMH used ideation tools from the One Stone website such as Crazy 8’s. One solution to this issue that the team came up with was to create a virtual meet called the Cleaning Extravaganza. People were to join it to clean areas of their living space with some guidance, and some neutral music to help with motivation. The team chose this idea over an in-person cleaning service because it is a lot less stressful than a group of people coming into your house to clean. MBMH ended up with a total of two official prototypes that they tried: A meeting open to anyone who wanted to join with no strings attached, and a meet that people signed up for and bought into to encourage participation. Upon joining, you are asked to fill out a survey where you talk about what area you are cleaning, and how messy it is on a scale of 1-10. You’re also asked to rate your mental health on a scale of 1-10, and then a slideshow pops up as the host plays music. The Cleaning Extravaganza was prototyped a total of four times.
