Reimagining Journaling at curaJOY
Overview
curaJOY is a wellness platform focused on making mental health support more accessible through behavioral therapy, healthcare practices, and AI-driven insights. What makes it unique is its focus on supporting not just individuals, but entire family systems.
When I joined as a volunteer Product Design Lead, journaling was already part of the product, but just barely. It was a single static prompt, a cover image, and a basic text box. It worked, but it didnβt feel like anything. There was no emotional depth, no real reason to come back, and it didnβt reflect curaJOYβs mission of long-term connection and well-being.
So I took a step back and asked: How might we support deep personal reflection while introducing meaningful social connection into the journaling experience?
Framing the Problems
Research & Discovery
To understand both user behavior and underlying motivations, I led my team in using a mixed-methods approach:
Heuristic audit (Nielsenβs 10 heuristics)
to quickly identify usability gaps and structural issues. This was run by myself and my team of designers to not only understand where the current state of the designs needed to be improved but also to allow us to understand the problem space more deeply.Remote think-aloud cognitive walkthrough sessions
to observe real-time behaviors, confusion, and emotional reactions 9 sessions were run in the first round of testing. My team and I pulled from a broad range of ages to get the full scope of potenchal users and all patients had to be fluent in english.Surveys
to quantify user motivations, consistency, and perceived value across a broader group
This combination allowed me to move beyond surface-level usability issues and uncover deeper barriers.
Showing problem areas with the current design of the journal activity. Doing heuristic audit with my team early on helped as really understand the product on a deeper level as we were onboarding.
Affinity diagram from the first round of usability testing, showing confusion about the sharing of journal entries and the inability to find sharing controls.
Solution Design
From there, I led my team in the redesign around three core needs: introspection, connection, and safety.
Introspection
Journaling should feel like a space to actually think and process. We redesigned the experience to be calmer and more intentional, helping users go deeper instead of just writing surface-level responses.
Connection
Journaling is usually a solo activity, but it doesnβt have to be isolating. We introduced shared prompts so people could reflect alongside others. This added a sense of accountability and made the experience feel more meaningful.
Safety
None of this works if people donβt feel safe. We made privacy controls really clear and upfront, so users always know who can see what. That clarity helps build trust and makes it easier to be honest.
What I Designed
1. AI-Guided Reflection
instead of a single static prompt, journaling became conversational. The AI asks follow-up questions, helping users reflect more deeply and keep going.
2. Shared Journaling
Users can respond to prompts with friends or family. Responses stay hidden until everyone submits, which incentivizes filling out the prompts to see others' responses.
3. Explicit Privacy Controls
Before writing, users choose exactly who can see their entry. No guessing, no ambiguity, just clear control.
Side Chatβ¦
Reader
What were the trade offs of using AI for this feature?
Jax
Great Question! Allowing the AI coach to be apart of the journal deepens reflection through follow-up questions.
Reader
I see the value in that.
Jax
However, the main perpouse to give a place of reflection for those that would like to not share their reflections with others and still get reflection. AI is used in a way to strenthen privacy not replace the social connection with others completely
Validation
We wanted to make sure this actually felt better, not just looked better.
So we ran:
Another round of think-aloud walkthroughs.
Another round of surveys measuring engagement, trust, and delight.
We saw clear improvements in:
Emotional engagement
Comfort with sharing
Overall perceived value of journaling
Side Chatβ¦
Reader
Why didnβt you run interviews with individuals or family groups to gauge how they would react and engage with this reframing of the journal?
Jax
I agree, that would have been a valuable addition.
Reader
Why did you end up going a diffrent route for testing?
Jax
Given the project scope and timeline, we prioritized testing across the journaling experience alongside two other new activities being developed for curaJOY. This meant focusing our research efforts on ensuring each feature was validated and ready for development within the same cycle.
Results
Journaling had previously been sitting in the backlog, but once we showed how it could support curaJOYβs core mission, it quickly became a priority.
Contributed to a 4.7% increase in overall user satisfaction (Based on user surveys)
Strengthened sense of community through shared prompts
Improved trust via clear, user-controlled privacy boundaries
Reflection
This project really changed how I think about journaling. I used to see it as something deeply personal and private, but through research I started to see how it can also be social, supportive, and even collaborative when it is designed with the right boundaries. That tension between privacy and connection became one of the most important things I had to design for.
Methodologically, this project pushed me to grow a lot. I leaned heavily on qualitative user testing, but one challenge was balancing what users said with what they actually did. Some participants expressed interest in social features, but their hesitation and emotional reactions during testing showed discomfort around visibility and comparison. Learning to pay attention to those moments and not take feedback at face value was a big shift for me.
Stepping into a lead role for the first time also meant balancing vision, collaboration, and execution at the same time. I had to advocate for more introspective and meaningful experiences while working within constraints like time, scope, and the need to test multiple features together. There were tradeoffs. We could not go as deep on every concept as I wanted, and some features like comparison moved forward even when the signals were mixed. Figuring out when to push and when to align with the team was a challenge I had to navigate throughout the project.
I also learned that designing for something as personal as reflection requires a different level of care. It is not just about usability. It is about emotional safety, clarity, and trust. That realization changed how I think about research. It is not only a way to validate features, but a way to understand peopleβs boundaries and vulnerabilities.
I am really proud of what we built, and even more excited about how this project reshaped the way I approach design. It pushed me to think more critically, listen more closely, and design with greater intention.
How I Aligned This Project
Empathy
This project required going beyond what users said and paying attention to what they felt but didnβt always articulate. Especially around privacy, vulnerability, and social sharing, I learned to design from emotional signals as much as verbal feedback. Empathy here meant designing for comfort, hesitation, and trust.
Curiosity
I started with an intentionally vague problem βmake journaling more engagingβ and turned it into structured, researchable questions about motivation, meaning, and social dynamics. Curiosity drove me to challenge the assumption that journaling must be purely individual, and instead explore how reflection changes in a relational context.
Equality
I designed with the understanding that users have different comfort levels, cultural expectations, and emotional boundaries around sharing personal reflections. Equality showed up in how I structured privacy controls, ensured user agency in visibility, and avoided defaulting to βsocial by designβ without consent or clarity.
Joy
Instead of treating journaling as a clinical or obligation-driven activity, I explored how reflection could feel lighter, more engaging, and more human. The introduction of conversational AI prompts and shared reflection spaces was aimed at making introspection feel less isolating and more emotionally rewarding.