Design Thinking and a Human-Centered Approach to Explore the Potential of Mobile Phone and AI-Enabled Just-in-Time Mental Health Solution for University Students in India

Raman Saxena

2025

Abstract

Anxiety, stress and depression are the significant mental health and well-being challenges being faced by the university students, early one in three reporting significant struggles. Academic pressure, family expectations, a competitive environment, social isolation, financial stress and stigma surrounding mental health contribute to this issue. These challenges impacts students’ academic performance and social integration negatively, which further impacts their mental health and well-being. Given high mobile phone usage among youths, smartphones offer a unique, discreet avenue, for mental health support. By leveraging device sensors like accelerometers, gyroscopes, GPS, proximity sensors, and biometric readers (e.g. heart rate, SpO2), a mobile framework can analyze user activity pattens, social interactions, and screen time to detect early signs of mental health concerns, such as stress, anxiety or loneliness. Integrating this data with trained mental health models enhances predictive accuracy, enabling personalized help and therapeutic content like calming music, mind-fulness exercises, or relaxation videos, Notifications, and chat bot conversations as a virtual buddy, tailored to their preferences. The framework uses smartphones as an unobtrusive wellness companion, aiming to prevent mental health deterioration while safeguarding, user privacy, thus empowering students with a personal tool for mental health well-being.

Paper Citation

in Harvard Style

Saxena R. (2025). Design Thinking and a Human-Centered Approach to Explore the Potential of Mobile Phone and AI-Enabled Just-in-Time Mental Health Solution for University Students in India. In Proceedings of the 20th International Conference on Evaluation of Novel Approaches to Software Engineering - Volume 1: ENASE; ISBN 978-989-758-742-9, SciTePress, pages 508-519. DOI: 10.5220/0013288200003928

in Bibtex Style

@conference{enase25,
author={Raman Saxena},
title={Design Thinking and a Human-Centered Approach to Explore the Potential of Mobile Phone and AI-Enabled Just-in-Time Mental Health Solution for University Students in India},
booktitle={Proceedings of the 20th International Conference on Evaluation of Novel Approaches to Software Engineering - Volume 1: ENASE},
year={2025},
pages={508-519},
publisher={SciTePress},
organization={INSTICC},
doi={10.5220/0013288200003928},
isbn={978-989-758-742-9},
}

in EndNote Style

TY - CONF

JO - Proceedings of the 20th International Conference on Evaluation of Novel Approaches to Software Engineering - Volume 1: ENASE
TI - Design Thinking and a Human-Centered Approach to Explore the Potential of Mobile Phone and AI-Enabled Just-in-Time Mental Health Solution for University Students in India
SN - 978-989-758-742-9
AU - Saxena R.
PY - 2025
SP - 508
EP - 519
DO - 10.5220/0013288200003928
PB - SciTePress