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© 2025 Dhaval Walavalkar.
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Last Updated, January 2025.
📍 Mumbai, MH, India.
6:21:30 AM
Clara
An AI-Human hybrid system to offer personalized task
recommendations, aimed at combating academic burnout.
My Role
As a Product Designer, I collaborated with a team of four to identify key pain points in students' mental health during their academic journey. I co-analyzed and synthesized research findings with fellow designers, translating insights into actionable, user-centric design decisions. Utilizing secondary data and insights from user interviews,
I implemented design iterations to optimize the user experience. Additionally, I spearheaded the creation of UI designs and interactive prototypes, ensuring a seamless and consistent experience across mobile platform.
Methods Used
Literature Review, Heuristic Evaluation, Competitor Analysis, Data Analysis, Ideation & Brainstorming, User Interview, Storyboarding, Concept Evaluation, Wire-framing, UI Design, Usability Testing.
Team Members
Sreemayi Rapolu
Pravallika Navuluru
Manali Parab
Hemanth Pawar
Platform
Mobile Application
Period
2 months
Overview
Our journey with Clara began from personal experience. As an international student transitioning from India to the US educational system, I encountered significant mental health challenges, with burnout emerging as a primary concern. The shift from India's exam-centric structure to the multifaceted academic demands in the US—including assignments, presentations, quizzes, and projects—contributed significantly to this burnout
Initially, our search for solutions revealed a gap in the market: most available options were either costly or lacked personalized approaches to address academic burnout effectively. While US universities offer free sessions with in-house psychiatrists, we discovered that limited availability and long wait times often hindered timely access to these services
Recognizing this unmet need, we conceptualized Clara—a solution designed to bridge the gap between personalized burnout recovery plans and affordable psychiatric intervention. Clara aims to provide accessible, tailored support for students grappling with academic burnout, particularly those navigating the challenges of cross-cultural educational transitions
Objectives
Evaluate the factors contributing to student burnout and its impact on academic performance.
Offer practical strategies and tools for students to manage burnout and revitalize their academic lives.
Design an affordable and easily accessible solution for students across all universities.
Impact
91.88
SUS score
System Usability Score determines of how easy a system or product is to use.
7/10
Avg. user satisfaction score
Positive reception for Clara's design was observed, reflecting strong approval of the solutions intuitive design and user experience. (n=5)
The Solution
Personalized Solution with Effective Onboarding.
Clara, the AI assistant helps to gauge burnout levels and tailor a AI-Human managed recovery path for better recovery conditions.
By integrating empathetic voice interaction, Clara's AI platform increased user disclosure rates by 47%, transforming mental health engagement from transactional to deeply personalized, trust-driven communication experiences.
AI-Psychiatrist Collaborative Interventions.
The integration of AI-guided recovery tasks with psychiatrist interventions offers a superior solution compared to traditional methods, as it combines precision, personalization, and accessibility.
AI-driven personalization dynamically adapts recovery tasks, while psychiatrists ensure adherence and progress, creating a synergistic approach that optimizes treatment efficacy and patient engagement.
Bundles, Community, and SOS feature.
Community: An anonymous social portal fosters peer support and shared learning, accelerating recovery through collective experiences and mutual encouragement.
Bundles: Curated collections of evidence-based exercises offer tailored stress-relief strategies, addressing diverse user needs and optimizing burnout management efficacy.
SOS: A rapid-response emergency service provides critical support during acute panic episodes, ensuring immediate intervention and user safety.
The Challenge
Our journey began with a critical realization: the issue of burnout, while significant, had not received the focused attention it deserved. This insight propelled us into an intensive phase of secondary research, diving deep into academic literature to uncover the root causes of burnout. As we progressed, we encountered interesting statistics and facts (illustrated in Fig. 01) that not only reinforced our initial hypothesis but also strengthened our resolve to address this pressing issue head-on.
Insights are taken from ACM and NCBI research papers.
Długosz conducted a study that states that 61% of the people had issues of which educational burnout ranked at the top of the hierarchy of issues.
H. Yang et al. say that burnout among students might affect their relationship with their university, increases their likelihood of becoming burnt out as professionals when they become one.
Fig. 01
Rodgers et al. conducted a study on university students and they show that students are not taking notice of their sleep patterns and how little they sleep to manage their deadlines and push through stressful situations.
Having established the significance of our problem space, we embarked on a comprehensive research phase. This involved conducting in-depth interviews and employing various research methodologies to gather data from both students and industry professionals. Our aim was to gain a deeper understanding of the burnout issues faced by students.
Through this rigorous investigation, we identified several key challenges:
1
Financial Barriers
High therapy costs deter students from accessing mental health services, creating a significant obstacle for those needing professional help but unable to afford it.
2
Stigma & Social Perception
Fear of judgment and discrimination prevents students from acknowledging mental health issues, leading to reluctance in seeking help due to concerns about social perception.
3
Confidentiality Concerns
Uncertainty about privacy and provider qualifications in low-cost or free therapy settings makes students hesitant to open up about their mental health struggles.
4
Lack of Personalization
Affordable mental health services often offer standardized treatments, failing to accommodate individual schedules or provide personalized care tailored to students' specific needs.
How might we empower students to effectively manage academic burnout through accessible, personalized support that respects their privacy and financial constraints?
Research & Discovery
To gain a comprehensive understanding of the challenges faced by our target users, to validate, and to identify existing solutions in the market, we structured our research around three key areas:
Understanding User Problems
Through surveys, and interviews we explored student’s experiences with burnout, identifying key challenges, coping strategies, and unmet needs.
Our research examined burnout's effects on daily life and academic performance, highlighting critical pain points and opportunities for effective intervention.
Competitive Landscape Overview
We conducted an in-depth analysis of existing solutions for student burnout, evaluating various apps and services to identify their strengths, weaknesses, and unique features.
This analysis helped us to point market gaps and opportunities for innovation, ensuring our solution delivers unique value.
Validation from Psychiatrist
We sought validation from mental health professionals, particularly psychiatrists specializing in student mental health, to ensure our approach's clinical validity.
Their expert insights on treatment methods, risks, and best practices shaped our understanding and guided our design decisions for a responsible and effective solution.
These research activities enabled us to identify key gaps that could be addressed to solve user problems. Based on these findings, we designed a solution aimed at empowering users to manage their burnout effectively and take actionable steps to address it.
Below is a collection of research methods and data points that we conducted during the research phase. (Fig. 02)
Survey Questions
I am easily irritated by small problems, or by my friends.
I feel misunderstood or unappreciated by my co-hort.
I feel that I have no one to talk to.
I feel that I am achieving less than I should.
and few more . . . .
Note: We have almost 71 data points from 8 different research methodologies to understand user needs.
I'm happy to provide a detailed breakdown of the research process, please reach out to learn more.
Fig. 02
5 User Testing
3 Expert Interviews
10 Student Interview
30 Papers in Literature Review
10 Primary Surveys
5 Concept Validation
5 Competitor Analysis
3 Cognitive Walkthroughs
Design Explanation
Problem No. 01
Lack of personalization in the existing solutions.
One big problem we found in our research was that the recovery plans for users were not personalized. Even though other products ask a lot of questions during their long onboarding process, they don’t turn those answers into a solution that fits each person’s needs. This means users don’t get the help that is just right for them.
We integrated the Copenhagen Burnout Inventory (CBI) questionnaire into our product onboarding to enhance user personalization. Unlike the Maslach Burnout Inventory (MBI), which focuses mainly on emotional exhaustion, the CBI assesses burnout from personal, work-related, and client-related perspectives. Consultations with psychiatrists confirmed that the CBI is a clinically proven tool for evaluating initial burnout levels in patients. This allows us to tailor our solution more effectively to each user's specific needs.
Based on the questionnaire responses, we develop a 14-day recovery plan to address burnout, incorporating daily exercises rooted in Internet-Based Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (iCBT). A psychiatrist conducts regular check-ins, with frequency determined by the severity of burnout assessed through the questionnaire: weekly for low-level burnout and bi-weekly for medium to high levels. This solution effectively combines digital interventions with personalized mental health support, creating a comprehensive recovery program tailored to individual needs.
Now I see few questions that might pop in your head.
How will you assign psychiatrists
in the recovery process?
How will it be financially economical for the students to afford the psychiatrist?
How will the psychiatrists availability match with the students for the sessions?
Let me guide you through the screens and flow of the solution to provide a clearer understanding of its functionality.
Meet Clara (Splash Screen / Voice-AI Model Introduction)
"Clara," an AI character designed to guide users through onboarding and create a comfortable experience (Fig. 03) . Utilizing voice and conversational UI, Clara makes interactions feel more personal and engaging. Research shows that users connect better with human-like AI, which enhances their comfort and willingness to seek support. This approach sets the stage for a personalized recovery journey, leveraging Clara's empathetic design to provide accessible mental health support for students facing burnout.
Fig. 03
Getting to Know You (Onboarding: Part One)
We divided the onboarding questionnaire into two parts for two key reasons:
User Comfort:
Given the questionnaire's length, we wanted to provide users with a break, allowing them to reflect on their inputs and maintain engagement throughout the process.
App Familiarization:
This division creates an opportunity for users to explore other app features, such as bundles and community modules, before completing the second part of onboarding. This gives them a preview of the app's full capabilities.
By structuring the onboarding this way, we aim to balance comprehensive data collection with user engagement, ensuring a smoother introduction to the app while showcasing its comprehensive support system. (User Flow - Left to Right, Fig. 04)
Fig. 04
Introduced to help users to get used to the AI and build trust on the application.
Helps the users to understand the amount of time required to complete the task at hand.
Giving users the option of providing their responses by physically interacting or responding by voice with the interface.
Giving users the opportunity to explore the application before they start the CBI Questionnaire.
Voice Interaction
Status Indicators
Open Interaction Choice
Measure your Burnout
01
02
03
04
04
03
01
02
Burnout Assessment & Availability (Onboarding: Part Two)
This collection of information from the users to gauge their burnout level and also their availability for therapist session during the week helps the solution to be tailored for the individuals specifically. (User Flow - Left to Right, Fig. 05)
The therapists in the application would be in house therapists of each universities catering their students. Once the application gets the availability of students from their busy schedule, we match them with the best possible therapists available providing them with an option to choose other available therapists.
Fig. 05
Understanding the users burnout level to personalize the tasks and therapist intervention.
You can block your preferred available time slots for therapist sessions.
Therapist suggestion based on availability and ratings.
Provides users with an idea about how 14 days recovery plan would look like.
Gauging Bunrout
Users Availability
Choosing Therapist
Recovery Path
01
02
03
04
01
Performing Daily Task
After understanding the users burnout levels, their schedule and matching them with a therapist which was the major crux of the solution we come towards one of the part from the recovery path, which is the iCBT suggested tasks.
These tasks would be 70-80% of the recovery path of 14 days. The users would be notified of the task status to make sure they complete the task daily and try to implement those tasks again whenever they feel like off the schedule from the bundles.
You can see one of the task example explained below from the solution. (User Flow - Left to Right, Fig. 06)
Fig. 06
01
02
03
User can now access the daily task from the
home screen, alongside the bundles, & community.
Summary of the task for the day to understand how is it executed with the benefits for the same.
Guided AI voiceover walkthrough of the task for the users assistance for uninterrupted task completion.
Completed
Active
Locked
Home Screen
Task Details
Task Walkthrough
Connecting with the Therapist
Initially we thought of just providing an only AI managed solution for the burnout recovery, but after some research and feedback from the users and experts we implemented the intervention of therapists.
As this solution is majorly focused on students as the primary users, the therapist would be the in-house therapist (mainly) from the universities for better availability and affordability. Users would also be able to see therapist outside from the organization for more flexibility while choosing for therapists.
Example explained below from the flow. (User Flow - Left to Right, Fig. 08)
Fig. 08
01
01
02
02
03
03
Major session information provided to the users including therapist information and session timings.
Updated notes provide users with instant feedback for better recovery planning methods for burnout.
Comprehensive therapist notes (SOAP notes)
from past sessions, allowing users to review and work on their progress over time.
Transparency resulting to active participation of users in recovery process.
Therapy Session Details
Summarized Session Notes
Past Session Notes
Before Therapist Session
After Therapist Session
Community & Bundles
We have our Community space. It's like a digital support group where students can connect with others who are going through similar struggles. They can share their experiences, offer advice, and find encouragement from peers who really get it.
Then there's our Bundles feature. Think of these as personalized toolkits for burnout recovery. Each bundle contains AI-guided exercises designed to address different aspects of burnout. The cool part is, as a student uses the app, our AI learns what works best for them. It then tailors the bundles, focusing on the techniques that seem to resonate most with that particular user.
Together, these features create a powerful combination of peer support and personalized, AI-driven strategies to help students bounce back from burnout. It's all about giving them the right tools and the right community to support their journey to better mental health. (Fig 09)
Fig. 09
Problem No. 02
Ensuring the anonymity of users.
In the solution, users have full control over their privacy settings, allowing them to customize what information they share. The app does not require personal identifiers, and users can choose to interact using pseudonyms. By prioritizing anonymity, we create a safe, stigma-free environment where users can seek support without fear of judgment or breaches of confidentiality.
To ensure optimal treatment and effective record management, we share only essential legal information with psychiatrists, adhering strictly to privacy regulations and professional standards.
This approach balances the need for comprehensive care with the imperative to protect patient confidentiality, ensuring that psychiatrists have access to crucial information while maintaining the highest standards of privacy and ethical practice.
Problem No. 03
Overcoming financial barries.
Our solution addresses the financial challenges students face when seeking mental health support by suggesting leverage in existing university resources and providing additional, cost-effective options:
University Resource Integration: We could help students easily access their institution's mental health services, which are often partially or fully covered by student health insurance. Our app provides information on free counseling sessions, insurance coverage, and sliding scale fee options available at their specific university.
Complementary Support: While students await appointments with university mental health professionals, our app offers immediate access to AI-guided exercises and peer support. This ensures continuous care without additional costs.
Affordable Accessibility: By combining digital interventions with personalized support, we provide a cost-effective solution that complements and extends traditional university mental health services, making burnout recovery more accessible to all students.
Testing & Insights
Insight No. 01
Barriers to Trust in Therapy
Apart from the ratings, there was no identifier to justify the legibility of the therapists. Considering the solution had therapists from the users own university, an identification of the same would have helped.
Insight No. 02
Ability to modify recovery path
Users expressed a strong desire for the ability to modify AI-guided tasks to better suit their individual needs and circumstances. This flexibility would allow for a smoother completion of tasks throughout the recovery weeks.
Insight No. 03
Trash talking community
We identified a potential risk associated of trash talking or destructive criticism with anonymity in community posts. The key challenge here is to balance user privacy with community accountability to maintain a positive and helpful space for all users.
Insight No. 04
What next ?
A key concern was addressing potential lingering burnout symptoms after the users complete the initial recovery pathway. This insight highlights the need to implement a more comprehensive post-recovery framework, potentially including follow-up assessments, extended support options, and clear pathways for users who may require additional assistance beyond the initial recovery period.
Future Scope
Idea No. 01
Psychiatrist-Driven Task Customization and Patient Management
We envision developing a dedicated interface for psychiatrists, allowing them to customize tasks for their patients and manage their caseload efficiently. This feature would enable mental health professionals to tailor recovery plans to individual needs, potentially improving treatment outcomes. The psychiatrist-side application would include patient progress tracking, appointment scheduling, and secure communication channels, creating a comprehensive ecosystem for mental health care delivery.
Idea No. 02
Comprehensive Information Architecture and Screen Design
Due to time constraints imposed by concurrent academic commitments, we were unable to fully develop a detailed information architecture and complete screen designs for the entire solution. In future iterations, we could create an exhaustive layout of the app's structure, including user flows, and interaction models for all key screens. This comprehensive design will ensure a cohesive user experience and facilitate smoother development and implementation processes.
Idea No. 03
University Integration and Student Verification System
To enhance the allocation of mental health resources and ensure that students receive appropriate support, we propose integrating a verification system for universities and their students. This system would authenticate users' academic affiliations, allowing for more accurate matching with relevant mental health professionals and resources. Additionally, this integration could facilitate partnerships with university counseling centers, creating a more holistic approach to student mental health support.
My Learnings
Learning No. 01
Data-Driven Insights: Transforming Intuition into Evidence
Throughout this project, I learned the critical importance of backing intuitions and beliefs with solid data. While initial ideas may seem promising, validating them through research and analytics proved invaluable. This approach not only strengthened our design decisions but also provided a robust foundation for defending our choices to stakeholders.
Learning No. 02
User Testing & Expert Validation: The Secret Ingredients to Success
Engaging in user testing and seeking expert validation significantly enhanced our product's effectiveness. These processes uncovered unforeseen issues and provided insights that substantially could improve our design. The nature of testing and validation taught me the value of continuous improvement and the importance of remaining open to feedback.
Learning No. 03
Juggling Act: Mastering Time and Task Management
Balancing this project with other academic commitments presented a significant challenge. I learned to prioritize tasks effectively, delegate responsibilities among team members, and create realistic timelines. This experience honed my ability to manage multiple deadlines and collaborate efficiently, skills that are crucial in the fast-paced world of product design.
Learning No. 04
Communicating with Confidence: The Art of Presenting Ideas
Presenting our ideas and solutions to the class proved to be an invaluable learning experience. It challenged me to articulate complex concepts clearly and concisely, improving my communication skills. These presentations also provided opportunities for constructive feedback, further refining our design and my ability to respond to questions and critiques professionally.
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