NOOR
Mental Health & Wellness App
Role: UX Designer
Duration: 1 month
Challenge
Most grief-support apps focus on journaling, quotes, or therapy chatbots but they rarely guide users through the emotional process of grief itself.
Despite the well-known “Five Stages of Grief” model by Elisabeth Kübler-Ross, very few digital products use this framework to help users navigate and reflect on their emotions in a structured yet compassionate way.
Therefore, I designed a healing experience that visualizes grief as a journey through worlds, each inspired by a stage—Denial, Anger, Bargaining, Depression, and Acceptance—where users can journal, breathe, and collect fragments of light as symbols of gradual healing.
Research & Insights
To ground the design in empathy and evidence:
-
I reviewed academic literature such as:
-
Kübler-Ross & Kessler (2005): On Grief and Grieving
-
Recent studies on digital mental health tools and self-guided therapy.
-
-
I also referred to interview-based research from grief therapy literature (for example, Breen, C., & O’Connor, M. (2011). The fundamental paradox in the grief literature: a critical reflection.)
These studies emphasized the need for personal pacing, self-expression, and ritualized meaning-making in grief recovery. -
I analyzed existing wellness apps (Calm, Stoic, Wysa) and noticed that none explicitly integrate the stages framework or visual progression, which became the main design opportunity.
Design
At first, I introduce the emotional journey and establish trust.
The design centers on the Orb which is a living metaphor for the self. As users progress through journaling, breathing, and reflection activities, their orb brightens and evolves, visually representing emotional healing. This mechanic introduces a subtle game-like element which is not for competition, but to evoke a sense of progress and reawakening. The idea was to make healing feel experiential, giving users a tangible way to see their emotional growth.
Each world corresponds to one of the five stages of grief: Denial, Anger, Bargaining, Depression, and Acceptance with unique colors, atmospheres, and micro-interactions that mirror the emotional state of that stage.
The design challenge was to make grief visible but not overwhelming to translate difficult emotions into calm, symbolic environments.
Color System:
-
Denial: gray and foggy which shows distance and confusion.
-
Anger: deep crimson which shows intensity and release.
-
Bargaining: violet that shows introspection and hope.
-
Depression: indigo/blue that indicates stillness and depth.
-
Acceptance: green as a symbol of renewal and peace.
-
Typography: Rounded SF Pro that conveys softness and comfort.
For journaling, I wanted it to be an experience that feels like a conversation with yourself, not a form to fill.
The journaling tab was therefore designed as a minimal, calm pause within the app that can feel like an emotional home.
Another design challenge was creating a community space that allows users to feel seen without feeling exposed.
To achieve this, the Community Circle was designed as an anonymous, reflective environment which is not focused on social interaction, but on emotional witnessing.
This design emphasizes continuity between inner healing (journal) and shared empathy (community). This came from the idea that
grief can be both a solitary and collective experience.
Finally, the app is named Noor (نور), which means light in Farsi.
The name captures the essence of the experience which is finding glimmers of light through darkness, and rediscovering warmth after loss.
Just as grief is not about erasing pain but integrating it, Noor reminds users that light and shadow can coexist.
Explore Noor
View another project
