Topic: I’m working on an app dedicated to improving alexithymia and emotional intelligence, and I would love to hear about needs and ideas from the community

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I’m working on an app dedicated to improving alexithymia and emotional intelligence, and I would love to hear about needs and ideas from the community
16.03.2022 by bolek

Is there something that you always wanted or dreamed to have to help with your alexithymia, something that would significantly improve certain situations, help you navigate emotions, or anything else?

Or are there tools, techniques, methods, that you think might work, but have never found a solution “packaged” in the right way for the habit to stick?

I have some ideas of what could be helpful but would like to confirm them with people currently struggling with alexithymia, because mine was significantly improved over the last few years (hence my motivation to build the app), but my experience does not necessarily have to be reflective of all.

Would love to hear any ideas, opinions, or thoughts you have!


BTW: Due to some interest I've thrown together a quick website and a Discord where you can enter your email into a waitlist so you know once the app is released - animiapp.com

18.03.2022 by Alexej

Can you share some of your ideas as a starter? I am not coming up with any ideas immediately, but perhaps your post will prompt me

23.03.2022 by bolek

So the line of thinking right now is to have a flow that:
1) helps with the identification of emotional labels (imagine a map of emotions segmented based on low-high energy and low-high pleasantness)
2) helps with the confirmation of whether the emotional label fits the situation (imagine a detailed description of each emotional label that differentiate between different labels)
3) gives you the option to provide context about when and why you felt that emotion, what was the context (with tags and things that can later help you reflect on which emotions happen the most often, in which situations, etc.)
4) in the end affirmation that it's ok to feel this emotion and the best ways how to either express it in a healthy way and/or acknowledge it and do some specific action (meditation / breathing / etc.) to shift to a different emotion
5) all of this with the goal of over some time lowering alexithymia - for which there will also be an alexithymia questionnaire that you can take whenever you want, ideally in the span of a month or so?

Does that sound helpful at all @Alexej?

03.04.2022 by Alexej

So the line of thinking right now is to have a flow that:
1) helps with the identification of emotional labels (imagine a map of emotions segmented based on low-high energy and low-high pleasantness)
this sounds to me to be very 2 dimensional (rectilinear) - I imagine a more circular wheel of emotions

2) helps with the confirmation of whether the emotional label fits the situation (imagine a detailed description of each emotional label that differentiate between different labels)
can you search for words in the description to find quickly what it might be?

3) gives you the option to provide context about when and why you felt that emotion, what was the context (with tags and things that can later help you reflect on which emotions happen the most often, in which situations, etc.)
that sounds helpful

4) in the end affirmation that it's ok to feel this emotion and the best ways how to either express it in a healthy way and/or acknowledge it and do some specific action (meditation / breathing / etc.) to shift to a different emotion
what is the "best way" to express an emotion? Surely context is mega in this situation? How do you contextualise the response?

5) all of this with the goal of over some time lowering alexithymia - for which there will also be an alexithymia questionnaire that you can take whenever you want, ideally in the span of a month or so?
I take it that this questionnaire

Does that sound helpful at all @Alexej?I like the idea, but the pedant in me is looking for more info so if that gets in the way of your work, forgive me please

17.05.2022 by bolek

1) It is basically a circle as well, probably the prototype and video below will give you a better idea of how exactly it looks / might work.

You can click through a prototype link here:
https://www.figma.com/proto/YKcq6ZtEdPGqtfS4okIF9B/Animi-V-0?node-id=250%3A1866&scaling=min-zoom&starting-point-node-id=730%3A7890&show-proto-sidebar=1 (click on the areas in the screen that flicker with blue to move to next pages)

And watch a video of the flow from the prototype here: https://www.dropbox.com/s/z85iamcv79b0xqc/animi_prototype.MP4?dl=0

2) That's a good idea, not in the prototype right now but I was thinking about it as well. What would the usual usecase be for you? Instead of trying to find the word based on the compass and energy/pleasantness level, if you have an emotion in mind you'd just want to able to type it so you find it quicker?

4) No yeah that was a bad formulation, the best way depends on the context heavily totally, but I guess a sample of a few things what a person can do with the feeling so it is processed in a productive way and doesn't linger (if negative) or gets doesn't get used to the full potential (if positive)

Anyway looking forward for you feedback on the prototype! @Alexej

19.05.2022 by Alexej

Thanks I will have a look and let you know how I get on

15.06.2022 by Alexej

Hi @bolek

sorry it has taken so long to get back to you.
I have looked at the animation of the app but I dont get how it works.

Do you highlight the words that describe how you are feeling; it then gives you a dictionary definition of those words so you can be sure that the words you have chosen are the ones that others are likely to understand if you use them to others?

Does the "advice" given get adapted to what you have entered as how you are feeling.

THe summary page where you are logging the number of days logged in and offering you the possibility to retest your alexi score.


Perhaps I am missing something here and need more explanation..

23.06.2022 by bolek

Hi @Alexej,
no problem, I don't check the site that often as well and life gets busy sometimes:)

Yes in the video you basically drag a dot on a compass based on energy and pleasantness level and that gives you suggestions of emotion / feeling labels that are usually on those selected levels, and provides more information about them to double-check, whether the labels fit your experience well - we imagine it adapting based on what you select you feel yes.

We're currently conducting more in-depth user feedback interviews with a more developed and described prototypes and descriptions, so if you're willing to answer a few questions and give feedback to other possible features we are thinking about, could you send me an email to bolek@animiapp.com? (anybody else reading this is welcome as well!)

It will be better to communicate over email than here on this forum:) Thanks!

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