My answer to the semester assignment called “IDENTITY” is a concept of an interactive application dedicated to self-discovery.
The concept responds to the question of finding one’s own identity in this digital age in which young people spend a large part of their time on their mobile phones. However, a healthy human identity does not tend to develop in a vacuum, but with the help of other people, through relationships with others that set up mirrors of who we are.
The goal of my app is to provide tools and techniques to get to know yourself more. But beyond that, it also includes prompts to interact with other people, especially our loved ones.
Knowing ourselves makes our life so much easier. To become aware of the range of our abilities, but also of our thoughts and emotions and how these things directly affect our lives. Learning about our identity is a lifelong adventure and is essential for personal and professional success. However, the sooner we get to know ourselves and learn how deal with our emotions, abilities and shortcomings, the more we can focus on and cultivate or change some of that in our lives. It’s a some kind of lifehack that any of us can do. If we try to cultivate it. And with that my app could help.
The search for a proper output was followed by a more extensive research of the topic, on the basis of which I created the content of the application. I divided it into three individual themes, namely “Self-awareness”, “Discovering your personality” and “What are your needs”, which make up the main theme for the app. From there, the user can then click through to the second level menu, i.e. the individual subsections, which contain specific techniques and exercises.
I was looking at the topic purely from a psychological point of view, and in my research on the topic I came across a lot of interesting content that could be reflected in the app. Most interesting to me were the findings of psychoanalyst Erik Erikson on the eight stages of human identity development, and it inspired me to focus more on stage 5 (adolescence), which is about the search for one’s own identity.
Some sections are purely educational, such as the section “how to set healthy boundaries with others”. Some are interactive and ask the user to reflect briefly on the answer they would type directly into the app. The user will also come across prompts and suggestions for interacting with other people around them. For example, the section on discovering your own personality includes one of the “Ask a loved one how they perceive you” techniques, which invites physical interaction with loved ones and deepening relationships with them.
Because my target audience is young people, I have chosen a fresh, young visual language with an emphasis on bold typography. I also tried to project the young language in the copy, where I used more personal language, because it is closer to young people.
Resources
- KUNEŠ, David. Sebepoznání: psychoterapeutické principy a postupy. Praha: Portál, 2009. ISBN 978-80-7367-541-7.
- Kdo jsem? | Psychologie.cz. Homepage | Psychologie.cz [online]. Copyright © Copyright Mindlab s.r.o. [cit. 13.12.2022]. Dostupné z: https://psychologie.cz/kdo-jsem/
- How to Get to Know Yourself: Self-Discovery Questions & More. [online]. Dostupné z: https://www.wikihow.com/Get-to-Know-Yourself
- 5 Ways to Become More Self-Aware. Harvard Business Review – Ideas and Advice for Leaders [online]. Copyright © [cit. 13.12.2022]. Dostupné z: https://hbr.org/2015/02/5-ways-to-become-more-self-aware¨
- 17 Self-Awareness Activities and Exercises (+ Test). PositivePsychology.com – Helping You Help Others [online]. Copyright © 2022 PositivePsychology.com B.V. [cit. 13.12.2022]. Dostupné z: https://positivepsychology.com/self-awareness-exercises-activities-test
