+3.5
Average self-reported state shift across four dimensions · n=4
Portfolio
Case study 002 · Stress-state UX · Flutter prototype
PRE-PERFORMANCE COMPANION
A four-mode mobile tool that helps users regain clarity in the final minutes before a presentation, interview, or high-stakes meeting — built for the moment when cognitive capacity is already reduced.
Existing wellness apps assume you have time and headspace. The three minutes before performing, you have neither.
6/7
Ease-of-use rating in mid-fi testing
4
Support modes because no single feature fit everyone
02 -
Final experience
Final experience
INTERACTIVE DEMO / FINAL EXPERIENCE
4 modes, one home screen. The user chooses what they need right now, then lands in one dominant interaction with a visible exit.
- 01Balance Game — tilt the phone, guide the ball. Embodied attention reset for nervousness.
- 02Thought Offloading — speak your thoughts aloud, watch them appear as bubbles. Clears mental clutter.
- 03Focus Fill — passive screen that fills slowly. Reduces stimulation and stabilises attention.
- 04Breathing — press during exhale, release during inhale. Three guided techniques for acute panic.
03 -
Insight
Insight
THE INSIGHT / WHY THIS MATTERS
The final minutes before performing are a specific interaction problem, not a wellness problem. — Project reframe
Users need support precisely when their ability to think clearly is reduced. Meditation apps, long onboarding flows, and general wellness framing miss that three-minute window.
- 01Meditation apps assume time.Ten-minute sessions, accounts, and setup flows are useless at T-3 minutes.
- 02Single flows assume one stress response.Some users need distraction, others need to offload thoughts, and others need to breathe.
- 03Emotional tone is part of usability.Clinical and gamified extremes both make the moment harder to use.
Do not try to cure nervousness. Design for the window where cognitive capacity is already reduced. — Design principle
04 -
Process
Process
PROCESS & RESEARCH / DECISIONS, NOT DIAGRAMS
I don't need a full solution. I just need something that helps me stop spiralling right before I begin.
Right before something important, I don't want advice. I just want to feel steady and focused.
5 semi-structured interviews with postgraduate students, aged 23–30, led to affinity mapping, three How Might We statements, co-design, low-fi testing, and a Flutter prototype.
Affinity map rebuilt as themes
Overthinking & Mental Clutter
Existing Coping Behaviours
Need For Quick Support
Refocus & Distraction
Thoughts Need To Be Offloaded
The three HMW statements that drove everything
- 01How might we help users with performance anxiety or panic?
- 02How might we help users get back into focus?
- 03How might we distract users for a few seconds to break overthinking?
Key decisions and why
| Decision | Driven by |
|---|---|
| Multiple support modes, not one universal flow | Participants described different stress responses: active vs passive, mental vs physical. |
| Add breathing as a fourth mode | Secondary research showed breathing as the strongest acute-stress intervention; co-design alone would have missed it. |
| Reframe from grounding companion to pre-performance tool | The 3-minute constraint stopped the concept drifting into general wellness. |
| Make low-fi visually clearer than typical wireframes | The concept depends on emotional tone. Pure wireframes could not show whether it felt calm. |
| Build mid-fi in Flutter, not Figma | Breathing, balancing, and microphone offloading needed real interaction to evaluate. |
Research process rebuilt as a timeline
01
Interviews
Five semi-structured sessions captured nervousness, coping habits, focus loss, and readiness.
02
Synthesis
Affinity mapping reduced the raw interview notes into six recurring stress-state themes.
03
Co-design
Participants generated support ideas against the three How Might We statements.
04
Voting + Crazy 8s
Votes converged on a calming game, focus mode, and thought offloading.
05
Selected concepts
Three co-designed features became the base architecture; breathing was added from secondary research.
06
Low-fi testing
Static Flutter screens tested whether structure and feature intent made sense.
07
Mid-fi testing
Interactive Flutter tested whether the experience felt usable and potentially grounding.
Condensed personas
I don't need a full solution. I just need something that helps me stop spiralling right before I begin.
- 01Reduce mental clutter quickly.
- 02Work in under three minutes.
- 03Feel calming without becoming another task.
Right before something important, I don't want advice. I just want to feel steady and focused.
- 01Reduce stimulation before the event.
- 02Stay grounded without extra effort.
- 03Enter the room ready, not managed.
05 -
Solution
Solution
THE SOLUTION / FOUR MODES, ONE LOGIC
4 entry points, one dominant action per mode. The home screen asks what the user needs, then avoids nested choices, scoring, failure states, and competitive pressure.
| Mode | User state | Dominant action | Why this interaction |
|---|---|---|---|
| Balance Game | Nervousness | Tilt phone | Embodied focus task. The body interrupts the mental loop. |
| Thought Offloading | Mental clutter | Speak aloud | Externalises thoughts so the mind can stop holding them. |
| Focus Fill | Distraction | Wait / observe | Passive stabilisation. It does the work for you. |
| Breathing | Panic / high arousal | Press + release | Physically anchors breath rhythm; evidence-backed. |
Interaction principles & driection
- 011–2 taps to start.
- 02One task per screen.
- 03No scoring, failure states, or competitive pressure.
- 04Clear exit always visible.
Visual language rebuilt as descriptors
The product avoids both extremes: clinical, which would make the moment feel more serious, and gamified, which would feel patronising.
Soft gradients
Low-pressure depth in the prototype screens.
Blurred orb forms
Abstract companion-like presence without a character.
Liquid movement
Slow change that gives attention somewhere to rest.
Spacious layouts
Fewer decisions visible at once.
Muted backgrounds
Supportive tone without medical signalling.
06 -
Prototype
Prototype
PROTOTYPE
3 device inputs made Figma the wrong evaluation tool. Tilt sensors, microphone input, and touch-controlled breathing needed real behaviour, not clickable frames.
| Stage | Question | What changed |
|---|---|---|
| Low-fi | Does the structure make sense? | Figma screens moved into static Flutter screens for phone-based testing. |
| Mid-fi | Does the experience feel usable and grounding? | Interactive balancing, offloading, breathing, and focus visuals were added. |
07 -
Evidence
Evidence
VALIDATION / EVIDENCE
n=4, scenario-based, self-reported. The data shows directional perceived state change after using the prototype, not clinical effect.
Low-fi testing
- 01Mental demand rated 1–2 out of 5; structure was understood and low effort.
- 02"Choose what you need right now" validated; users liked having options.
- 03Distraction game wording was unclear and needed reframing.
- 04Thought offloading did not work as static screens; the interaction needed to be visible.
Mid-fi testing
| Participant | Nervousness Δ | Mental Clutter Δ | Clarity Δ | Readiness Δ |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| User 1 | −5.5 | −8 | +8 | +2 |
| User 2 | −2 | −2 | +3 | +1 |
| User 3 | −3 | −6 | +1 | +1 |
| User 4 | −2.5 | −2 | +5 | +3 |
| Average shift | −3.25 | −4.5 | +4.25 | +1.75 |
Ease of use averaged approximately 6/7. Average state shift was approximately 3.5
points across all dimensions.
What did not land
- 01Thought offloading crashed during testing.The microphone handling was not robust enough.
- 02Balance Game sensor failed intermittently.The ball stopped responding mid-game.
- 03Breathing interaction was unclear on first use.Users liked press-to-exhale, but needed an onboarding cue.
The 3.5-point shift is a signal, not a conclusion. — Evidence limit
08 -
System
System
TECHNICAL / SYSTEM THINKING
Reliability is part of trust. — Core technical finding
The challenge was not building four features. It was making them work reliably in the exact moment when failure would hurt most.
Stack
Constraints that shaped the build
- 01Reliability is part of trust.A nervous user will not recover from a crash. The offloading crash and sensor failures were the product's core risk surface.
- 02No onboarding allowed.The user should not have to learn a new interaction at T-3 minutes. Breathing showed how hard that is.
- 03Modular features.Each mode stays independent so future iterations can swap, add, or drop modes without rebuilding the system.
09 -
Reflection
Reflection
REFLECTION / NEXT STEPS
Strongest finding: different acute stress states need different interaction responses. The project does not prove anxiety reduction; it shows that single-mode wellness tools are designed for the wrong moment.
What I would change
- 01Technical stabilisation first.Microphone error handling, sensor calibration, and fallback states.
- 02First-use breathing guidance.A short animated cue before the exercise starts, not a tutorial.
- 03Sharper Balance Game wording.The purpose still needs to land in under two seconds.
- 04Drop or commit on a music mode.It was considered early and cut for scope; revisiting it needs dedicated research.
Known limits
| Sample | n=4 across both test stages. |
| Context | Simulated scenario, not a real pre-performance moment. |
| Measures | Self-report only; no HRV, cortisol, or physiological data. |
| Pool | Same participant group across stages; useful for comparison, weak for generalisability. |
Where this goes next
Stabilise the tech, then test in real pre-performance contexts with ethical safeguards. The sharper product question is which mode works best for which user state — right now, the app assumes the user knows what they need.
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Moritz Wallbrecher→