5 Ways to Well-being: an imagined iPhone app
I recently watched the utterly fantastic TED talk ‘The Happy Planet Index’ by Nic Marks. The talk covers a lot of sensible ground including why the environmental movement needs to shift their tactics as well as the quite stunning results from his research on measuring countries’ happiness in relation to life expectancy, contentment and ecological efficiency (hint: the results will surprise you).
It’s well worth 17 minutes of your time.
However it was his concluding comments about the key ingredients driving people’s happiness that really caught my attention. The principles, which Marks only had time to race through, came out of some research by the New Economics Foundation (nef) in 2008:
- Connect
- Be active
- Take notice
- Keep learning
- Give
No really surprising ones there (although “take notice” is a lovely addition), but after I had finished watching the talk I was chatting to my service design-y colleague Paul Sims about how simple and compelling the principles were. He concurred, and I think it was Paul who first suggested that putting these principles into practice and recording them with a mobile application could be an amazingly powerful tool. (NB: The two of us have been playing around with the brilliant iPhone app mappiness of late so it’s no surprise our heads were in this space).No really surprising ones there (although “take notice” is a lovely addition), but after I had finished watching the talk I was chatting to my service design-y colleague Paul Sims about how simple and compelling the principles were. He concurred, and I think it was Paul who first suggested that putting these principles into practice and recording them with a mobile application could be an amazingly powerful tool. (NB: The two of us have been playing around with the brilliant iPhone app mappiness of late so it’s no surprise our heads were in this space).
As a result I spent the weekend digging around and finding out a little more about the research. I quickly came across a terrific summary of the nef research which had been “commissioned by the UK Government’s Foresight Project on Mental Capital and Well-being to review the inter-disciplinary work of over 400 scientists from across the world”.
Here are the summary results (click to view full-screen):
Anyway, I decided to spend the weekend mocking up a bunch of pages to see how these principles could work within an iPhone app.
My design skills are pretty much confined to Keynote shape manipulation, so luckily I had the wonderful Anel Palafox (@thinkdsignchnge) on hand to polish things up to make it all presentable (not to mention that she’s a great social designer used to applying creative thinking to social challenges!)
I called it, ahem, happyappy and some mock-ups are embedded below (but you’ll need to view them full-screen via the menu below or here).
So I guess next steps is to get someone (nef?) to get some money together to build the app (I’d humbly recommend Made by Many!). Would love some feedback and any comments. Obviously there’s loads missing in these screens. For example, I imagine that you could set daily push notifications to remind you to share ‘well-being moments’, as well as deciding whether you want your posts to be private or public etc. Or perhaps it should be integrated into Twitter?
All in all, I reckon this could be an awesome, helpful and fascinating app.
What do you think? Would you use it?
(Comments below or alternatively get in touch via Twitter @juzmcmuz. You’ll also note that I borrowed some screens and elements from such great iPhone apps as Facebook, Echofon, Evernote & a beach photo from Aquabumps; sure they won’t mind!)
13 comments
Hi Justin.
Count me in. I love the idea and making the app is gonna be a blast. I would love to be a part of the developmentteam.
All the best,
Lajlev
This is really interesting, and reminds me of a Swedish iPhone app (‘Viary’) that works around the idea of defining your ‘life values’, and notifies you of small ways you can work towards them. Hope this link works..
http://translate.google.com/translate?js=n&prev=_t&hl=en&ie=UTF-8&layout=2&eotf=1&sl=auto&tl=en&u=http://www.psykologifabriken.se/produkter-tjanster/digitala-verktyg/
http://translate.google.com/translate?js=n&prev=_t&hl=en&ie=UTF-8&layout=2&eotf=1&sl=auto&tl=en&u=http://www.psykologifabriken.se/produkter-tjanster/digitala-verktyg/
Hello Justin,
I came across your post through @thinkdsignchnge and I think it’s a very lovable idea you’re working on. One thing crossed my mind though: The message of Nic Marks is not only that we should improve our wellbeing but also to do this with fewer resources. It would be very elegant if you could find a way to include this challenge into the app as well.
Good luck!
Eefje
Thanks Lajlev! We’re trying to reach out to the New Economics Foundation to see if they’d be keen to get something like this done. Will def keep you posted (do you want to send me your email address to justin AT madebymany.co.uk)?
Thanks for this Nick. Interesting. It reminds me of http://www.ethicaleconomy.com/ which is all about defining ethics personally, and tracking your progress against them with input from your social network. My only concern with this type of approach is that it’s so serious. We need fun and simplicity of use :)
http://www.ethicaleconomy.com/
Great comment Eefje. I think you’re spot on. This app was definitely focused on the nef’s happiness factors, while they do seem to have moved onto the Happy Planet Index which measures happiness against ecological impact to give a measure of happiness/environmental efficiency.
Of course the very nature of the 5 keys are that they are ecologically efficient because they’re more local, personal type of actions as opposed to ‘consumptive’ behaviour.
Have you got any ideas of how this could be better incorporated into this particular app?
Interesting idea. But I wonder if the iPhone is actually a barrier to some of these themes, in particular Take notice.
I was walking on the beach yesterday, most definitely and consciously taking notice, when I got the urge to check my emails. I resisted for a while…
But with your app would I get the urge to RECORD what I’m doing rather than actually LIVING it? I find a enjoyment of a landscape can be destroyed by having a camera, going sailing is less joyful once I start thinking about writing about that joy on my blog.
Hmm
We came across the 5 ways to wellbeing when working with Mersey Care Mental Health Trust on their excellent Treasure Chest project. As an extension to that project we are building a web app, based on the 5 ways, to support recovering mental health patients. The intention is that it, or a version of it, could also be provided as a free service to the people of Liverpool, Kirkby and Sefton.
Hi Justin – I think the app is a great idea and ties in with a lot of thoughts we have had about the Five Ways – I’ve been working with the concept in community settings in Norfolk for nearly 2 years and organised a conference at which Nic Marks spoke last year. I’d love to talk about this with you and I’m in the process of writing funding bids to bring the Five Ways to people in as many ways as possible and if we could discuss possibilities, I could maybe factor this into some of the bids. Let me know what you think.
I think it is a great idea too. We are having fun in Sandwell developing happiness and integrating it with primary care mental health and wellbeing. However one of our bigest gaps is engaging with you guys!!
This might be the way….
Thanks Oz and Lisa.
Got your email Oz so will get in touch shortly. I’ve got our iPhone guy looking into the app and what may be involved (and costs), so could be a great way to get this built!
I’m at justin [at] madebymany [dot] co [dot] uk
Hi Justin
You may be interested to hear that 2010 was Liverpool’s Year of Health and Wellbeing. The foundation of the year was based on the 5 Ways to Wellbeing and has been focused on the concept that health is everyones business so touching on your comments around this being used or use limited resources more effectively. I am the project lead for the year and would be happy to discuss your ideas – Also NHS Northwest are now taking this right across the Northwest in 2011
Hi All,
Does anyone know if the government are doing anything media wise to support the wider spread of the use of the 5 ways to wellbeing as part of the new mental health strategy? It would be great if some of these initiatives could be centrally funded so that they are available across the UK.
I have been thinking about having local activities/groups and services validated as ‘one of your 5 ways’ in the same way as 5 a day for fruits and veg, for local promotion of the concept.