My artistic practice focuses on exploring the idea that seemingly insignificant experiences can have a profound impact on our mental health and overall well-being. Through my work, I aim to inspire my audience to slow down, be more observant of their subtle emotions, and find joy in the small moments of daily life. For my thesis exhibition, I created a gratitude journaling app called SparkleMoments. The app is a digital adaptation of the physical practice of a happiness jar, where users reflect on and record things they are grateful for each day. By incorporating prompts, gamification, and illustrations, the app makes the experience more engaging, enjoyable, and fulfilling for users.

Initially, I conducted research on ways to help people appreciate small moments of happiness. I found there is a popular practice called gratitude journaling. By regularly reflecting on the good things in our lives, we can train our brains to focus on the positive side. My target audiences are people aged 18 to 25 year-olds who have higher rates of mental health problems than other age groups. Through interviews with 20 participants, I discovered that users in this age group are motivated by trackable progress, reachable goals with rewards, a sense of community, and fun design elements.

With these findings in mind, I created a clean yet bold interface with fun illustrations to make it more inspiring and interesting. Users select an area of focus to generate prompts that will help them to be more mindful about that specific area in their life. As users collect more gratitude stars in their gratitude jar, the jar will level up to unlock new looks to create a sense of achievement and motivation.

My goal with SparkleMoments is to provide a tool that helps users cultivate positive thinking and gratitude, leading to increased happiness and well-being. I aim to inspire others to find creative ways to improve mental health and wellness in their lives and communities.