CRYSTAL.AURELIA.LIN

In the project, my partner and I collaborated with the Allegheny County Health Department (ACHD) to tackle smoking cessation in the area.

There is a dearth of anti-smoking campaigns out there, most of which resort to scare tactics and gross-out factors. 

Our initial instincts, especially when faced by all of this, were to create the antithesis of most of the solutions that currently exist: something fun, positive, and with a fresh, hopeful vibe. From our research and process, we developed Pack—a community of members committed to changing their smoking habits.  

View PDF Guide here.

From there, we asked ourselves what makes a strong community. Through our research, based mostly on the psychological principle of group cohesion and the Sense of Community Theory, we narrowed it down to five key factors that exist at all levels of the community: 

1. Belonging and mattering are necessary to help members of a community feel ownership of the community and a sense of exclusivity and being “in-the-know” which creates a greater sense of investment in the community as a network. 
2. In their Sense of Community Theory, McMillan and Chavis call emotional connection the “definitive element for a true community.” Without shared feelings and stories, a community is only a matter of convenience or happenstance. 
3. Wisdom increases as members contribute their own knowledge to the community well. The community becomes a resource for information that’s tried and true, vetted by real people, and members keep coming back because they know they can trust the information they receive in answer to their questions. 
4. When a community achieves a fulfillment of member needs, it becomes rewarding and worth the effort that’s put in to maintain good relationships. This is how each individual finds value in the community. 
5. Task commitment helps communities experience a greater group cohesion as they work together to accomplish shared goals. Task-orientation creates feelings 

Our prototypical member knows smoking is bad for her health and wants to be healthier, uses her smartphone as the solution to every problem, is active on at least one social media platform, and she values human connection. As we found in our research into social support, we discovered that she’s most likely a woman. Women are more likely to seek out social support than men, and they tend to benefit more from solutions based on social support. 

Next, we looked to solutions that are already in existence that our prototypical member might try, to look for features that our solution should incorporate. In the current landscape of smoking cessation tools, she might try to ask friends, check out forums, look for real people with their own personal stories, search for answers to her questions on Google, and try out apps. She is most likely interested in simplicity over too much quantitative data, which is why the tracking apps on the market don’t quite work for her. And there is a lack of any one strong source that combines her need to mark her progress as well as connect with others working toward the same goal. 

To continue collecting information and let her know her progress, we’ll check in with her every day. The check-in fulfills her need to be reminded of her commitment and constantly keep track of her progress.

At any time, she can review her progress. This easily accessible information fulfills her needs, proving invaluable to her, as it demonstrates her progress toward becoming smoke-free and replacing unhealthy behaviors. As her smoking habits reduce, she will be prompted to update her goals and reevaluate her smoking triggers. 

On her profile, she can take a look at her activity feed, see her goals and the badges she has won from challenges, and personalize her photos.  

The new member can add friends who are already in the pack that she is connected to through other social media or invite smoking friends to join her in making a positive health change. All friendships in the pack are mutual, two-way streets. To interact with friends, members can direct message and like each others’ status updates. Messages appear in a feed and are responded to directly. As each new message arrives, a push notification will be sent to the phone. 

A new member will be directed to recommended groups, chosen by her baseline assessment and by what we know from her social media presence. Joining groups increases feelings of belonging in the community and mattering to a smaller group of people that share similar interests. Participating in the groups allows for an exchange of information and knowledge and the growth of the community’s wisdom. 

In the groups, members participate in group forums, have a shared calendar of open or closed activities and events: group chats, online meetings, offline meetings, and challenges specific to the group. A member will also be able to look at a feed of updates within all her groups. 

Once our new member has finished the onboarding process, she can explore her new pack. She can view her challenges and join new ones to engage with the larger community—the whole pack. These challenges allow her to commit to tasks that the whole community can participate in and accomplish together. Upon completion of a challenge, the member receives a badge. There are two types of badges members receive. Automatic badges are those a member receive without entering a challenge. Badges are also granted for challenges which members opt-in to join. These challenges are on-going and also time based (i.e. “the challenge of the week”).