MannyCure

Describe your project (max 150 words) Write your answer here.

Many college students struggle with mental health. With limited resources and busy schedules, they need a simpler, more accessible way to manage it. MannyCure is an AI-powered therapeutic app that helps users reduce stress and practice self-care. It offers guided grounding techniques like stretching, meditation, and journaling to support mental well-being. At its core, Manny is a interactive AI dog that listens as users talk through their thoughts, providing a safe, judgment-free space to express emotions. Based on how users feel that day, Manny suggests personalized stretches and breathing techniques, encouraging self-care in a natural and low-pressure way.

To keep users engaged, the app includes a reward system where interacting with self-care tools unlocks new features and personalized content. By blending AI companionship with practical coping strategies, Manny-cure offers an accessible, interactive, and supportive approach to mental wellness.

Describe your research process and findings. If you conducted any surveys or interviews, please include the survey form and/or interview questions here. If you conducted secondary research by pulling from online sources, please include a link to your sources. (Max 500 words) Write your answer here.

User survey: https://forms.gle/kT4s1Wmsh7cWTKBm9 User Interview: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1SlkovRdoon94KGyWjgpPKrAEa7kdXvQTe27AQt_kFwY/edit?usp=sharing

FigJam: https://www.figma.com/board/aAsY7zgumZnqJPTvQVyH4Y/Research?node-id=0-1&t=AXDOxKJbbAglwuoA-1

Research Process and Findings

To ensure MannyCure effectively addresses the mental health needs of college students, we conducted a survey, user interviews, completed a competitive analysis, and created a user persona. Our goal was to understand students' pain points, coping mechanisms, and experiences with existing mental health resources to design a solution that meets their needs.

Survey & Key Findings:

We surveyed ~20 college students (90% undergraduates, 10% graduate students) to gather quantitative insights into their mental well-being, support preferences, and experiences with college mental health resources. Our findings revealed that many students struggle with stress and lack access to effective, engaging, and judgment-free solutions. Common stressors: Our survey revealed that 5% of students rated their mental well-being as excellent, while the majority of participants fell somewhere in the middle, indicating that while they may not be in crisis, they still experience moderate amounts of stress. The most common stressors included academics, finances, and career uncertainty (84%), followed by relationships, social life, and family pressures (42-58%).

While students recognize the value of therapy, only 15% of interviewees sought professional therapy, with most turning to friends (85%) and social media platforms (55%) for emotional support, highlighting a need for alternative, accessible mental health solutions. In addition, 78.9% of students relied on hobbies such as gaming, art, reading, and exercise to manage their stress. Many students emphasized that mental health resources on campuses are not well advertised, making it difficult to know where to seek help. Additionally, some universities limit the number of free counseling sessions, causing students to feel like they must "save" their sessions for when they really need them. Expanding available options and improving awareness of resources were the most common suggestions for improvement.

User Interviews & Qualitative Insights:

To complement our quantitative findings, we conducted 1:1 user interviews. We discovered that some students felt more comfortable opening up to AI than to a human therapist due to concerns about judgment. In addition, most interviewees emphasized the importance of on-demand support, stating that they would be interested in a quick, low-commitment way to express their feelings without scheduling an appointment. Many also enjoyed gamified wellness apps like Finch, but found them lacking real emotional depth and meaningful engagement.

Competitive Analysis

Lastly, we conducted secondary research by analyzing existing mental health apps and websites such as Calm, Finch, Headspace, Abby, and Earkick to identify trends and gaps in the market. While Calm and Headspace focus on structured meditation, they lack real-time interaction. Finch provides a fun, gamified experience but lacks meaningful mental health tools. Abby and Earkick use AI-driven mental health solutions, yet they feel too robotic and impersonal. Our research revealed that many college students struggle with stress but do not seek mental health support due to limited options and impersonal experiences. To address this gap, we designed MannyCure as an accessible, judgment-free app that offers on-demand support, personalized coping strategies, and AI companionship to help students manage their emotions in a way that feels natural and low-pressure.

Describe your most important design decisions. What research findings and/or user testing results led you to make these decisions? (Max 500 words) Write your answer here.

Through our research findings, we discovered that many students struggle with stress but don’t seek help because therapy feels impersonal or isn’t easily accessible. These insights helped shape MannyCure into a personalized, engaging, and judgment-free mental wellness app designed to fit into students' lives in a way that feels natural and supportive. One of our biggest design choices was creating Manny, an AI companion dog that listens as users talk out their thoughts. Many students told us they feel more comfortable opening up to AI than a human therapist because there’s no judgment. Instead of a traditional text chatbot, we chose speech-to-text to make venting feel more natural and freeing—just like talking to a real listener.

Competitors like Abby and Earkick rely only on chat, which felt impersonal and disconnected. Their bots also just asked endless questions without giving real feedback, making it hard to feel supported. With Manny, users get an interactive, emotionally responsive experience that actually listens and engages by providing tailored grounding mechanisms such as breathing exercises, meditation, stretching, and journaling based on the user’s emotional state that day. This ensures that each interaction with the app is meaningful and relevant to the user’s needs. Another critical decision was ensuring on-demand and low-commitment support. Our research revealed that students were interested in immediate relief during moments of stress, but traditional therapy requires scheduled appointments. To address this, MannyCure provides instant access to emotional support, allowing users to engage whenever they need help. To encourage ongoing engagement, we implemented a gamified reward system where users unlock new features as they interact with self-care tools. The students we interviewed enjoyed gamified wellness apps like Finch but found them lacking deep emotional engagement; therefore, by rewarding users for practicing self-care, our app makes mental wellness motivating and interactive, rather than feeling like an obligation.

Lastly, we prioritized privacy to remove uncomfortableness that served as a barrier that often discourages students from seeking mental health support. In MannyCure, each person's dashboard is private and only accessible to them. One cannot search for other users. This ensures that students can access resources discreetly and without fear of judgment. Our research findings shaped every key aspect of MannyCure, from its interactive AI companion and personalized coping strategies to its gamification elements and privacy features. By addressing real student needs, MannyCure offers a supportive, engaging, and accessible mental wellness experience tailored to students' everyday challenges.

Built With

• figma