Ysaline Arakelian

Design Research / User Centered Design

YCDI APP (You Can Do It App)
- Doelgroep: Students with low self-esteem
- Vraagstuk: What do students with low self-esteem need to face their fears and workout ?
- DPOV:
Doelstelling: The point is to make a student with low self-esteem start working out. To achieve
that Im trying to create an app and a ecosystem that puts the student into a comfort zone. With
the help of the app, they will be able to improve skills and feel better about themselves.
Probleemstelling: The problem is this research is to find out what exactly blocks the student
with low self-esteem to not workout or have any sport activity.
Onderzoeksvragen: What Im looking for is find out what blocks them, aswell as maybe
different types of sport which are better than others to increase self-esteem. We know that sport
activity increases self-esteem but why?
- Persona:
Name: Penny Porter
Age: 19 y/o
Sex: Female
Education: Law student
Penny is a law student who spends a lot of time studying.
Bullied because of her weight when she was younger, facing people at the gym or anywhere really is
a big issue for her.
Her fears are mainly what others will think of her or even being judged. Penny doesnt feel good
enough compared her friends or anyone really.

- Secondary research:

- Article EXPLORING SELF-ESTEEM IN A GIRLS SPORTS PROGRAM http://eric.ed.gov/?

id=EJ992133
Self-esteem is defined on different levels such as Global self-worth (which is the most stable
level and the most complicated to change); Domain-level (which is how one feels about

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oneself in areas of ons life such as family, athletic, academics, and friends); Sub-domain
(which is the domain of athletic competence) and the lowest level and the easiest to change
Situations. The lowest levels are the ones who are easier in increasing ones self-esteem.
The main influences on self-esteem are perception of competence ,which is how capable
one feel at a skill or activity. As well as social support which is how much one feels

supported or encourage by others. These two reasons are what we mostly come across as
influences when talking about self-esteem.
Domain self-esteem levels are levels who can change contextually and over time.
Individuals can have varying levels of self-esteem depending on domains but in these cases, it
is harder to increase the self-esteem lever because you have to work on many different points.
Girls who participate in physical activity report positive feelings about their body-image. When
ones body-image increases, self-esteem seems to increase as well because often it is linked.
Their self-confidence and motivation increases but their mood states are enhanced as well.
The perceptions of self-esteem is not always clear. In this study a few sentences were defined to
make this definition clearer/
- The way you think of yourself
- How you carry yourself
- How you view yourself
To come to conclusions, their study case was analyse girls in a sport academy. The results
came out positive.
- 85% of the participants of this sport academy had a high score on the global self-worth
sub-scale.
- An example to illustrate this improvement, one of the participants had a low body-image
of herself, thought would be the fattest of the participants. During the program, she
improved her skills and surprised herself by keeping up with the others. After this

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program, she increased her perception of her athletic competence, which lead to a
higher self-esteem.
- They found out that when someone with low self-esteem is surrounded by encouraging
people (in their case encouraging staff members), they felt a push that they needed and
so increased their self-esteem.
Conclusions:
- Sport participation increases ones self-esteem.
- Building skills can help build self-esteem because of improvement in the perception of
competence in the area they are working on, which leads to them feeling better about
themselves.
- When individuals feel enhanced perceptions of competences in domains they value,
strong support from others, or both concurrently, their self-esteem is likely to increase,
wether in one domain or in general.
- Structured activities that are focused on skill-building and supportive environments are
two main things that can help someone in increasing their self-esteem
- Increasing perceptions of competence and perceptions of social support are important
and this is what they recommend when working with people with low self-esteem:
Increasing perceptions of competence
- Facilitate and design practices that include skills component or a time to practice
or learn basic skills.
- Break the skills down into parts, so that there is a progression of learning. Start
with the easier parts and work up to the harder ones, or start with the smaller
movements before putting all the movements together.
- Demonstrate the skills, using all appropriate modalities, including kinesthetics,
auditory, and visual. Involve youth in peer teaching.
- Encourage youth to try new things. We never know if we have talent or ability until
we try.
- Adopt the attitude that failure is feedback. When youth make a mistake or feel
challenged, they have learned what they need to work on.
Increasing perceptions of social support
- Provide specific, positive feedback. Try to tailor your feedback to each person and
to capture the good. Be sure to mix it up; dont just say good job over and over
again. Be creative in finding what kids do well.

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- Use feedback sandwiches to build trust. A feedback sandwich has a positive
comment as the top of the bun, constructive or helpful comments as the meat or
cheese of the sandwich and a positive comment for the other bun.
- Help youth to work in pairs or small groups. If seating is involved, ask youth to sit
in different seats daily or weekly and to mix up so they meet new people.
- In team sports, modify the activity to include a certain number of passes before a
team can try to score. This way everyone gets involved.

- ARTICLE THE EFFECTS OF PARTICIPATION IN REGULAR EXERICE ON SELF-ESTEEM

AND HOPELESSNESS OF FEMALE UNIVERSITY STUDENTS
http://zuyd.idm.oclc.org/login?url=http://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?
direct=true&db=pbh&AN=98513327&lang=nl&site=eds-live
- Self-esteem is a symptom of hopelessness and depression which are both important factors
in the psychological well-being and when you have these problems, you cannot have positive
expectations about the future and you feel incapable to improve and are both attributed to an
internal, stable and global cause.
Exercise is beneficial, participation in regular exercise can help people to cope with high levels
of hopelessness.
Self-esteem is a reflection of interpersonal and interpersonal processes, self-evaluation of ones
competence and abilities developed at a young age. Its an indication of the well-being of
individuals.
Sports participation and exercise have reported results that when people are physically active,
there are potential benefits in the psychological and physical department for them. Individuals
with low self-esteem tend to be unhappier than individuals who actually take part in physical
activities.
Self-esteem is composed by 3 principal components:
- Perceptual component: a persons perception of his or her personal worth and body image
- Conceptual component: individuals conception of his/her abilities, limitations and
characteristics. Relies upon the individuals thinking, perceiving, and acting to build a
cognitive understanding of him or herself.
- Attitudinal component: arises from peoples feelings for themselves
Some factors that contribute to self-esteem are: Physical appearance, athletic activity,
academic achievement, social acceptance, family, behavioural conducts and self-satisfaction.

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Which means that if you can improve any of these factors in someones life, his/her self-esteem
will increase.

Individuals who engage in sports had a more positive perceived body image than individuals
who dont

Conclusions:
-

Sport participation influenced global self-esteem by improving physical appearance and

increasing self-esteem

Results of the study show that self-esteem increases after doing exercise regularly

Physical activity has been found to enhance mental health and self-esteem.

Self-esteem is composed by different components who each have their characteristics.

- Article SPORT PARTICIPATION AND SELF-ESTEEM AS MEDIATED BY PECEIVED PEER

ACCEPTANCE AND SPORT SELF-CONCEPT IN TAIWANESE COLLEGE STUDENTS
https://www.sbp-journal.com/index.php/sbp/article/view/2613
Peer acceptance mediated the relationship between sport participation and self-esteem which
lines up with the findings of previous researchers.
Results to the study proves that more sport participation leads to greater self-esteem via peer
acceptance.
- Article EFFECTS OF SPORT PARTICIPATION ON SELF-ESTEEM AND BODY-IMAGE
http://skemman.is/en/item/view/1946/16684
Sport participation has been shown to positively influence self-esteem and body-image.
Self-esteem is the individuals sense of self worth, it refers to the extent to which a person
values their abilities and appreciates him- or herself.
High self-esteem has been linked to many positive behaviours and life outcomes and individuals
with high self-esteem seemed happier with fewer personal problems and are less susceptible to
social pressure.
Body-image can be described as body-related, self-attitudes and self-perceptions, including
thoughts, beliefs, feelings and behaviours. These issues are affected by the persons selfesteem, interpersonal confidence, eating and exercise behaviours and emotions.

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The standarts for attractive body-image are high and the desire to look like societys standard
can cause many psychological problems.
Sport participation increases feelings of physical competence, satisfaction with physical
appearance, which can result to an increase in self-esteem.
Researches had suggested that team sports had a greater effect on the participants selfesteem, reason to be that team sports provided clearer information on the individuals sports
abilities. Whereas the results of the study proved the opposite, participants who practiced
individual sports had a significantly higher self-esteem than those who practiced team sports.
The study showed aswel that individuals who practiced 5/6 times a week any sport activity had a
high self-esteem than those who only did once or twice.
- Conclusions:
Participants who practice sport were found to have significantly higher self-esteem than
participants who never do. The amount of sport participation in a week has an impact on bodyimage and self-esteem.
Individuals who practice individual sports showed higher self-esteem results than participants in
team sports. Individual sports provide clearer information about the sporting ability than team
sports because there is no team effort to take credit away from the individual and his
achievements.
There is no difference between male and female self-esteem results. However the results
showed that female participants had lower body-image (team or solo sport) than males.
Conclusion of the secondary research:
- All the articles are finding out approximately the same results even by doing different studies with
different groups of participants.
The researchers all agree that sport participation has an impact on self-esteem. Its been proven
that if you have any type of sport participation frequently in a week, your self-esteem will increase.
Individual sports are recommended because it allows the participants to focus on its skills and
wont have the desecration of having to focus on the other team mates. The advantage of individual
sport participation is that you get clearer information and due to that, the participant will be able to
improve its perception of competence (how capable one feels at a skill or activity) which is one
main influence on self-esteem. If one can improve its perception of competence, one will increase
its self-esteem.
Surrounding a person with low self-esteem with encouraging and supportive people will help a lot.
Social support is another main influence on ones self-esteem. The studies show that low-self

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esteem people need a push , this push can be created with the help of supportive surroundings
because they will get feedback and comments that will make them feel like they can do it!

- Primary research:
4 interviews were held ; 4 students around the same age and have similar issues.
- Lea: 19y/o , veterinary student, never signed up in a gym.
Reason of self-esteem: Compares herself to other, feels like theyre better and shes not good
enough. Feeling of people criticising behind her back / making fun of.
Needs someone to reassure her and cheer her. Would feel safe if someone (like a coach) was
around her that wont judge.
Communicating and go work out with someone with same issues would be fun according to her
because it would bring motivation.
- Fauve, 18y/o, law student, signed up at a women only gym for a year
Agreed to sign up for it because it was women only and feels like women judge less / always
same members going so they didnt look at you like a weirdo.
Reason she stopped: Time! as for team sports or sports in clubs, comfortableness was the
issue
Reason on self-esteem: Feeling of not being good enough (skills wise) for club sports such as
swimming.
Confidence issue for fitness but after few weeks it improved because felt more comfortable.
Felt not pretty enough for some sports such as dance and body-image issues for swimming.
Doesnt feel like she needs professional help to get rid of low self-esteem. Surrounding herself
with people who are supportive is enough for her.
Communication with people with same issue would help a lot because it motivates.
- Galle, 19y/o, student to become teacher, signed up in a gym for a while
Stopped going because of lack of time because of uni
Reason of self-esteem: Lack of self confidence, feels not good enough compared to others;
feels like everyone is talking about her when they probably arent.
Bullied when she was younger => hurt a lot and now has trust issues.
Never felt like she needed professional help, thought she could do it on her own

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Having professional help would be handful to get over everything, it will help with the negative
image she has of herself
- Abi, 21 y/o, student in **, did not join a gym but did combat sports
Stopped because of financial problems
Reason of self-esteem: Break up (reason cheating), jealousy, self-esteem decreased, lost a lot
of people around her. Depression, anorexia
Followed by a professional psychotherapist, early stages but trying to figure out the depth of the
problem.
Professional coach - app = necessity to have someones support
Communication is motivating!

All the interviews have stated around the same problems:

- These students feel not good enough compared to their surrounding and this is one of the main
reasons they dont dont to the gym anymore.
- Some students I interviewed used to go to the gym but chose specific ones, for instance one of
them chose a women only gym which helped her feel more comfortable and less judged and/or
scared of what others will think of her.
- The ones who used to go to the gym stopped because of time and financial problems.
- What they needed is a push and someone who motivated them and made them feel like they could
do it.
- The feeling of not being good enough, pretty enough, being judged, being looked at and talked
behind their back are feelings I came across ever single interview.

- Points for the app/design:

Social media category: Social support is a main influence on self-esteem (social support =
how much one feels supported or encouraged by others)
People with low self-esteem need support, whether its from family or friends or even from
unknown people online.
Our current society is very centred around social media and technology. Students today use a
lot of different social medias to communicate with strangers / unknown people.
Having this category in my app will able the student to stay in its comfort zone of social media

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and have a social support from others who may or may not be in the same low self-esteem
situation.
The idea is to have people and admins from the app share their results of workouts, their
improvements and how they feel before and/or after a workout. Basically share whatever they
want. They will be able to support each other by commenting support notes such as Youre
doing great, keep on going!. Not only they will not feel on their own, thinking they are the only
ones in this situation, but also if theyre having a down moment, being able to get tips and tricks
from other members.
Feedback: Feedback is a key to increasing perceptions of social support and self-esteem.
Feedback allows the person to know what to work on the points they have to work on. The trick
is to use the feedback sandwich technique.
The feedback sandwich is created by two buns which are positive comments, and in between
you have a constructive or helpful comment.
Doing this will help the student or anyone to not feel belittle.
The idea to add a feedback in this app is to let know the member that they can do it and not
stop what theyre doing.
The feedback would be given after the workout when the results are given as well.
Show technique and skills: When someone improves skills their self-esteem increases, thats
what we call perceptions of competence. To improve someones skills, it is handy to have
precise descriptions of what they have to do and achieve. Break the skills into different parts will
help a lot because there will be a progression of learning.
When the student will see that hes improving his skills, he will feel better about himself and
know that hes capable of achieving his goals.
To put in place this skills improvement, the idea is to have a precise description of the
movement they have to do in the workout and give tips and tricks to know if they are doing the
right thing. Ex: If the member has to do squats, Id like to have an icon achieving the squat with
the movement so that the member can see how it has to be done. The tips would be: Make
sure you have your back straight Legs have to be parallel and at the same width than your
shoulders and so on..
Progress: Being able to see your progress on the app is important if youre trying to increase
someones self-esteem. If the app member can see his progress and see hes improving, his
perceptions of competence will increase as well as his self-esteem. Not only will it help with the
perceptions of competence but as well as self-satisfaction when seeing the progress.
Individual sports: Individual sports are mostly recommended for people with low self-esteem
because of the clearer instructions. The idea for my app is to mostly focus on different individual
activities/sports that the member can choose to do (presented through a list in the workout
section of the app). The members most likely will feel more comfortable when doing individual
sports/activities because they wont have the scenario of feeling judged by someone, which is

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one main reason of low self-esteem.
To not impose strict rules, the possibility of having team workouts would be available. The
settings would have the option to select team or individual sports so that if the member prefers
team sports, he can do it even if individual is recommended.
Professional support: Individuals with low self-esteem need a push. Not only the secondary
research proves it but my primary research confirms it. To make this push happen, professional
support is ideal. The idea is to program a professional personal coach that would be
programmed to push and help the member. Being surrounded by a personal coach makes the
member feel safer and more comfortable. The feeling of being judged will stop because a
professional coach doesnt judge his client.
Reward: Rewards motivate anyone, not only people with low self-esteem. What this will do is
motivate the member even more and making him want to continue having a sports activity. The
idea is to distribute a badge, at the end of every workout, adapted to the results the members
performed. This reward would bel linked to the feedback given.

- Points that often emerge:

Students with low self-esteem admit that their issue is often because they compare themselves to the
people around them. Due to that, they feel not good enough, not pretty enough etc..
Sport participation has increased a lot of individuals self-esteem.
Being surrounded by supportive friends, family or really anyone, helps the individuals to go on with
what theyre doing and make them trust themselves.
Clear informations are a necessity for someone who is trying to improve his/her self-esteem.
The improvement in skill performance is a domain that helps improve a lot someones self-esteem.

- Points that dont emerge:

There is no difference between male and females self-esteem. When I first started, the thought of
men have a significant higher self-esteem than women, but its not the case. There is a difference in a
mens body-image, women do have a lower body-image but self-esteem wise there is none.

- Chain of evidence:
Question: What do students with low self-esteem need to face their fears and workout?

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Answer: Students with low self-esteem need a push, find an activity where they feel comfortable
enough and someone that support them and will make them believe in theirselves.

- Reflection:
The research at first was difficult to start and find good and interesting secondary research. Once I
founded good articles and studies, I realised that all of them had approximately the same results and
facts.
The same happened for my primary research with my interviews. When looking for students with low
self-esteem at first, no one was really motivated and wanting to really talk about this subject. To find
good interviews, I asked friends and other people I know have low self-esteem. At first they were
hesitating but when I explained the project, they accepted and Im happy they did because I received
answers that satisfied me and how I expected and hoped the questions were answered.
All my interviews pointed out the same issues and feelings.
I have quite the trouble to go in communication with someone, especially ask someone to do an
interview. Interviews and communication with strangers is out of my comfort zone, and that is
probably why I had/have trouble finding interviews. Another issue I have is once I have a problem with
my work, that I dont understand something, I cant manage to ask someone for help, ask the teacher
to explain so for days and days I get stuck without doing anything because I dont have any solutions,
this issue clearly happened and this made my work slow down a lot. Id have to work on that to make
my research better.

Week

What I did

Time it took

Figuring out my first ideas and

building a sample DPOV

60 min

Looking for my first articles +

figuring out my app idea/DPOV

60 min + 120 min

Finish secondary research +

Decide on questions to ask in
primary research

240 min + 60 min

Finish primary research + write

out all informations about project
(DPOV/Secondary+Primary
informations etc (this document))

120 min + 280 to 240 mins a day

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Week

What I did

Time it took

Finalise and check all

informations in the document / if
something was forgotten + Make
presentation

120 min + 180 min

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