Waves (Online)

landing page
quiz page
home page
sona waves (statistics page)
chatbot
activities
safe space

Inspiration

Mental health support remains inaccessible to many people due to costs, with over one in five U.S. adults living with mental illness. Traditional solutions like therapy and service animals are effective, but often expensive and not always available to everyone. We wanted to create an affordable alternative that provides real-time support during critical moments of anxiety or panic. Our team's personal experiences with anxiety and stress management inspired us to develop technology that feels like having a supportive friend always present.

What it does

Waves combines a discreet wearable bracelet (Sonaband) with an AI-powered app to detect and respond to signs of anxiety or panic attacks. The bracelet monitors physiological signals like heart rate, breathing patterns, and temperature. When concerning patterns are detected, the app alerts users and provides guided exercises through an interactive dolphin mascot. For severe situations, the system can notify emergency contacts.

How we built it

After extensive user research, we used Figma to create an intuitive app interface featuring our dolphin mascot and designed the bracelet with embedded biosensors for physiological monitoring.

Challenges we ran into

Some challenges we had a lot of discussions about were balancing bracelet functionality with discreet, attractive design that users would want to wear daily. Along with this, we wanted to create a mascot interaction system that feels genuinely supportive rather than robotic. We also had to ensure privacy and security for sensitive health data while maintaining functionality, and the way we asked certain questions. Lastly, we also had to discuss marketing and how this product would be sold.

Accomplishments that we're proud of

We're proud that we spent a lot of time coming up with a solution for the prompt and were able to build a solution that addresses a real need identified through our UX research. Creating a functional prototype of an interface that our users found both intuitive and comforting is also something we are really proud of.