Yolk: How Music Can Help Trauma Survivors Address Emotions

An exploration of UI, music and mental health, Yolk explores the needs of trauma survivors and how music can help those with trauma address complex emotions.

Tools Used:
Figma
P5 (Processing)
After Effects

The term music therapy began as a response to war veterans in the United States but the history of sound as a form of healing dates back to indigenous tribes.

Known to relieve states of anxiety, music can have a positive effect on managing anxiety as a consequence of trauma but there is still a lot of research to be done to examine the neurological effects of sound as part of therapy.

RESEARCH

Some of the initial concerns included identifying how much of our connection to music was physical or visceral and how much tactility plays
a role in our relationship to sound.

Here, below, are some of the results from initial interviews conducted to understand what general users values and initial design explorations in Blender, exploring a physical solution. 

The UI focuses on three primary features:
1. Building a platform that responds to user input,
2. A sound component which allows users to either listen to or create their own music.
3. Allowing users to address how they feel while keeping their anonymity (by selecting to upload any image and displaying a username of their choosing, similar to Reddit). 

EXPLORING INTERFACE DESIGN  & SOUND

Exploring sound and interaction through the use of design computing in .p5. This was done in order to understand the possibilities for Yolk's musical interface.