Entry #02: Personalized Prompts with Fusion!

Mar 07, 2023

Tracking behavioural patterns over time can help identify triggers for certain emotional states or behaviours, track progress towards personal goals, and provide insights into overall mental and emotional well-being.

In the last month, I have been testing an early version of a fusion mobile app that aims to intuitively capture subjective states and provide insights into your emotional and behavioural history. In this entry, I’ll go into detail on creating personalized prompts and how you can use them to understand changes in your days.

Why Prompts?

Prompts are personalized questions that you can answer to track your daily activities and observe patterns over time. After a prompt is saved, you get notifications on your iPhone (or watch) at defined intervals for you to respond to them. Example prompts: “are you feeling energetic?”, “are you feeling anxious?”, “what are you doing?”, “feeling better than you were yesterday?”

Let’s walk through the flow together!

Creating a prompt

When creating a prompt, you’d need to define 3 things:

  • The question you’d like to be prompted about!

  • How you’d like to respond to notifications - current options are “Text”, “Yes/No” and “Number”.

  • How often you’d like to be prompted - this varies based on the context of your prompt but I’ve found that 6-8hrs is the sweet spot because it covers morning, afternoon and evening periods.

Only you have access to view your saved prompts and responses because they are stored on your device and cannot be seen by anyone else :)

Responding to prompt notifications

It’s important that interactions are as low-effort as possible. Just “press and hold” to respond to prompts and you go about with the rest of your day!

Viewing prompt responses

After responding, you start to see how your answers have changed over multiple days. In this case, I’m able to see how anxious I’ve felt and I can think over what activities I was involved in when I responded “Yes” or “No”.

(*little oversharing - Today’s “Yes” was a result of my realization of the overwhelming backlog items that I need to complete before my upcoming “mini-break”)

What’s next for Fusion prompts?

The initial flow for prompts is just the beginning! I’m working with early users and iterating on feedback. Here are some changes top of mind!

  • Improving the design of the mobile app - it’s functional now but can look and feel much better!

  • Making it even easier to create & respond prompts by listing a couple templates to chose from & including timed notifications.

  • Correlating responses across multiple prompts e.g how do energy levels through the day compare with how anxious I’m feeling?

  • Connecting this data with other fusion sources (screen time, health, brain activity).

  • Exploring using fusion prompts in clinical or research settings! (more in a future entry)

I’d love to have more people using Fusion prompts and giving feedback! Please, join us!

Until next time,

Ore!

Some interesting reads

  • Haunted by Data - h/t Vicki for sharing this

  • How the Brain Lost Its Mind: Sex, Hysteria, and the Riddle of Mental Illness

  • Neuroscientist’s have created a mood decoder that can measure depression