Bumi is an AI-powered mental wellbeing companion designed to help young people build sustainable emotional habits through behavioral science, gamification, and personalized support. Drawing on user research and my background in clinical psychology, our team explored how design could bridge the gap between emotional distress and professional care.
Role:
Duration: 4.5 months
Team: 3 Designers
Designed and built with:
The Challenge
Young people often struggle to bridge the gap between emotional distress and taking action. Existing mental wellbeing apps typically focus on a single aspect of the journey—such as meditation, mood tracking, or access to therapy—creating fragmented experiences that can make it difficult to build lasting habits or know when professional support is needed.
72.6% users reach for mental health apps because they find them helpful.
Engagement fades over time
Loss of interest is one of the main reasons people abandon mental health apps.
Use gamification and progressive rewards to encourage habit formation.
Many non-users perceive mental health apps as too impersonal.
Create a conversational AI companion that feels supportive and approachable.
Design Goal
An AI-powered mental wellbeing companion that combines:
to support users both inside and outside therapy.
Competitive Analysis
 |  |  |  | |
| Emotional Check-Ins | ||||
| Wellbeing Resources | ||||
| Gamification | ||||
| AI Companion | ||||
| Habit Building | ||||
| Evidence-Based Exercises | ||||
| Access To Therapists | ||||
| Emergency Resources |
= indirectly
Most existing solutions land on one stage of the mental wellbeing journey—but few integrate emotional awareness, evidence-based self-management, habit formation, and professional support into one cohesive experience.
This gap became the foundation for Bumi.
Design Principles
Throughout the design process, one principle remained essential: Bumi was never intended to replace therapy. Its role is to support users between sessions—or help them take the first step toward seeking professional care—while recognizing the limits of AI and the importance of evidence-based mental health support.
✓Grounded in Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT), Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (ACT), and Dialectical Behavior Therapy (DBT), Bumi translates evidence-based therapeutic techniques into accessible daily interactions.
✓Through emotional check-ins, personalized micro-actions, reflective exercises, and conversational AI, the experience encourages sustainable self-care while reducing the barriers to seeking professional help when appropriate.
Behavioral Activation
Daily micro-actions
Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT)
Thought journaling, emotional check-ins
Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (ACT)
Values-based excercises
Dialectical Behavioral Therapy (DBT)
Emotional regulation techniques
Designing an emotional companion
¡Hi! I'm Bumi and I'll accompany you on your wellness journey.
Rather than designing another mental health app, we wanted to create an AI companion that could make emotional wellbeing feel more personal, approachable, and sustainable.
Inspired by principles used in therapeutic support—such as encouragement, structure, positive reinforcement, and grounding techniques—Bumi, powered by AI, helps guide users through small, intentional actions without positioning itself as a replacement for professional care.
Designed and built with:
¡Hi! I'm Bumi and I'll accompany you on your wellness journey.
Based on the Sanskrit word Bhūmi, meaning earth or ground, the name Bumi symbolizes grounding, resilience, and growth.
It reflects the idea of providing users with accessible "grounding tools" while reinforcing that, just as a seed needs consistent care to grow, meaningful change happens gradually, through small and consistent actions.
Bumi reflects different human emotions to promote the user’s own emotional recognition and closeness through a digital experience.
To visualize that progress, Bumi begins as a seed and evolves into a plant as users complete wellbeing activities such as emotional check-ins, journaling, meditation, or therapeutic exercises.
This gamified growth system was designed to reinforce healthy habits while giving users a tangible representation of their own progress.
Design iteration
The initial design displayed all content categories on a single screen, creating a dense browsing experience.
We reorganized the content into a simple sub-navigation, allowing users to focus on one type of resource at a time and find what they need with less cognitive effort.
All resources displayed simultaneously
Focused browsing by category
Design iteration
From the early stages of the product, we incorporated both internal testing and user feedback into our design process. These iterations helped us identify friction points and continuously improve the experience, making it clearer, easier to navigate, and more intuitive.
During usability testing, users had to navigate through different sections to find wellbeing resources.
We introduced contextual shortcuts and "You might also like" recommendations across the dashboard and content pages to create a more connected content ecosystem with less friction between users and relevant resources.
During usability testing, users had to navigate through different sections to find wellbeing resources.
We introduced contextual shortcuts and "You might also like" recommendations across the dashboard and content pages to create a more connected content ecosystem with less friction between users and relevant resources.
Therapist pricing was initially revealed only at checkout, which generated confusion to our participants while user testing, creating unnecessary friction in the decision-making process.
We moved pricing earlier in the therapist profile so users can compare options and make more informed decisions before booking.
Therapist pricing was initially revealed only at checkout, which generated confusion to our participants while user testing, creating unnecessary friction in the decision-making process.
We moved pricing earlier in the therapist profile so users can compare options and make more informed decisions before booking.
The final experience
We wanted Bumi to be designed as a connected ecosystem rather than a collection of isolated features.
While the full product includes wellbeing resources and professional support, I believe Bumi Home and the Emotional Check-In flow capture its core: understanding where the user is and helping them take the next small step.
Throughout the experience, Bumi AI acts as a continuous companion, creating a cohesive and personalized journey across the app.
View prototype
I'm looking for a collaborative environment where curiosity and thoughtful design are part of the everyday process. I'm excited to keep learning, contribute with a fresh perspective, and help create products that genuinely improve people's lives.
