Probably the name "Ustwo" does not sound familiar to you at all, but if I tell you that he is responsible for Monument Valley, one of the most successful puzzle games on iOS and Android mobile devices, especially for its beautiful and careful design, then and things change. But Ustwo is not only dedicated to games.
Ustwo has studios in Malmö, New York, Sydney and London, and it is precisely the latter office that is responsible for a interesting mental health application named after mood notes, which is available for iOS devices, and which will also be available for Android very soon.
Moodnotes, an aid to our mind
mood notes is a mobile application that is presented as a tool that can help us explore, and possibly improve, our mental habits. For this purpose, its operation responds to the principles of cognitive behavioral therapy (TCC) and has been developed in collaboration with ThrivePort, a Los Angeles-based company under the direction of two psychotherapists.
Such applications already exist however, according to McBride, one of these psychotherapists, they wanted to create something "that people would find pleasant to wear«. And this aspect, Ustwo was key. McBride notes that his work in Monument Valley it had given him experience in developing applications that people enjoy usingNow he just had to apply that experience and knowledge to a new project.
More and more users are using different applications to record daily the steps taken, the distance traveled, the glasses of water they drink and much more, however, nobody seems to remember the state of mind, and it takes care of that mood notes. When you log into the app, what you will see is a face and a slider that will allow us to represent our current state of mind between "happier" or "sadder".
And once we have selected our current basic mood, then we can add or adjust more details about how we feel, always in a very simple, fast and intuitive way.
Thanks to that, mood notes will offer us extremely useful information, "Traps" which are thought patterns that can provoke the appearance of negative feelings, such as blaming, minimizing positive thoughts, hinting at luck or fortune. It will be like the user will be able to better understand these feelings, as well as the reasons for their appearance and, consequently, try to avoid them.
McBride points out that if we are having negative thoughts, low self-esteem, doubts about ourselves, mood notes it helps us first to identify those thoughts and then to "turn them around" and use them to be more positive and help us in the long run. Therefore, Moodnotes is not just an app to record our thoughts or our mood.
As McBride has stated, the focus is on help users identify when they are approaching behaviors and thoughts that may be problematic in their lives, and understand why this happens. However, it is not intended to be a substitute for professional help or a cure for anxiety. Therefore, when you open the app for the first time, it is reported that you should seek professional help if you are experiencing negative thoughts.
It is definitely, at least, a good initiative, which shows that technology can still give much more of itself. "The real idea behind Moodnotes is that we want to help people, and we want to learn how we can better help people," McBride said.
For the moment, those responsible for mood notes They have not yet revealed a specific release date for Android devices, they have simply limited themselves to talking about "soon". However, if it is already available for iOS at a price of 4,49€.
And if you want to expand more information about this interesting app, you can also visit their official website (in English), and even sign up for the beta version program for Android, and thus collaborate with your feedback to improve it for its next release.
It looks very good, especially because it is not a mood tracking, but because of the logic that may have developed later. We will see what this logic offers!