My Project Journey
Introduction
This piece explores how I’m incorporating User Experience principles into TherapTea, my major project. Rather than simply reviewing UX theory, I’m documenting my practical application of research and design methods as I build, test, and improve this website.
TherapTea connects mood recognition with Sri Lankan tea traditions. Users explore their current emotional state and discover a tea suggestion designed to encourage calmness, mindfulness, or emotional grounding. Given its focus on personal experience and emotional resonance, UX design is fundamental to how people engage with the platform.I’ll walk through my integration of UX research and design into TherapTea’s development—from building user understanding through personas and empathy mapping, to creating user journeys, applying UX principles, and using testing and feedback for continuous improvement.
Project Overview: TherapTea
TherapTea creates a digital experience centred on the emotional and cultural significance of tea. The platform connects emotional states with specific Sri Lankan teas through a peaceful, contemplative interface. My goal is to help visitors create brief pauses in their day, fostering mindfulness through a culturally resonant and familiar practice.
This isn’t a medical or clinical tool. Instead, the site provides gentle wellbeing support by promoting mindful moments tied to daily habits. I chose tea as the foundation because it holds deep significance in Sri Lankan culture—representing comfort, routine, and connection.
From a UX perspective, the platform’s success depends on how users feel while navigating the site. The experience must feel calm, intuitive, and emotionally supportive. This makes understanding users and designing around their emotional needs essential.
Deciding Tea-to-Mood Pairings
*One of the key point discussed while feedback*
A core element of the TherapTea experience involves linking each tea with a specific mood. To ensure these connections feel authentic rather than arbitrary, I’ll draw on cultural knowledge, sensory qualities, and user perception.
My process starts with identifying common emotional states that users may experience, such as stress, tiredness, calmness, or reflection. For each mood, I’ll research Sri Lankan teas and consider their commonly understood qualities, including strength, warmth, aroma, and associations with comfort or alertness.
For example, stronger teas may be paired with moments that require grounding or focus, while lighter or herbal teas may be connected to calm or rest. These decisions will be informed by cultural context, such as how certain teas are traditionally consumed in Sri Lanka, and by general sensory expectations rather than medical claims.
I’ll also test these pairings through informal user feedback. By asking users whether a tea recommendation “feels right” for a given mood, I can refine the pairings based on emotional response and intuition. This ensures that the tea-to-mood system is user-centred and emotionally believable.
This approach enables TherapTea to provide thoughtful, experience-based pairings that encourage reflection and comfort without positioning itself as a medical or therapeutic tool.
Understanding Users Through UX Research
User Personas
One of the most valuable UX techniques I learned was creating user personas. For TherapTea, I’ll develop two to three personas representing the primary users of the site. These personas help me design with real people in mind rather than assumptions.
For example, one persona may be a university student who feels stressed and overwhelmed by academic pressure. Another persona may be a creative individual who seeks quiet moments of reflection. Each persona will include goals, frustrations, emotional needs, and behaviours related to wellbeing and daily routines.
Creating personas will help me answer key design questions, such as:
Why is this user visiting the site?
What emotional state are they in?
What kind of experience will feel supportive rather than overwhelming?
These personas will be created as visual documents and saved as PDF files, which will be linked from this article.
this is my user persona https://jathumathews.uk/mydesign/wp-content/uploads/2025/12/userpersona.pdf
Empathy Mapping
Empathy mapping is another UX technique I plan to use to better understand users’ emotional experiences. For TherapTea, empathy maps will focus on what users think, feel, see, and do when they are stressed or emotionally tired.
This process helps me identify pain points, such as mental overload or lack of time, and design the site to reduce these issues. For example, if users feel overwhelmed by too much information, the interface should remain minimal and focused.
Empathy mapping ensures that the design decisions I make are grounded in emotional understanding rather than visual preference alone. These empathy maps will also be created as PDF files and linked within the article.
this is my empathy mapping https://jathumathews.uk/mydesign/wp-content/uploads/2025/12/empathymapping.pdf
User Journey and Interaction Design
Understanding how users move through the site is a key part of UX design. For TherapTea, I’ll create a user journey map that outlines the experience step by step.
A typical user journey may include:
Landing on the homepage
Being introduced to the idea of mood-based tea pairing
Selecting their current mood
Viewing a tea recommendation with a short explanation
Reading a small calming ritual
Leaving the site feeling more grounded
Mapping this journey allows me to identify moments where users may feel confused, rushed, or disengaged. It also helps me design transitions that feel smooth and intentional.
Journey maps is visualised and saved as PDF documents.
this is my journey map https://jathumathews.uk/mydesign/wp-content/uploads/2025/12/user-journey.pdf
Design Decisions Informed by UX Principles
UX principles strongly influence the visual and interaction design of TherapTea. The workshops highlighted the importance of clarity, accessibility, and emotional usability.
For this project, I’ll prioritise:
Clear navigation with minimal choices
Readable typography with appropriate contrast
Calm colour palettes connected to emotional states
Avoiding visual clutter or distractions
Accessibility is also an important consideration. Text size, spacing, and colour contrast will be designed to ensure that the site is comfortable to use for a wide range of users.All design decisions will be guided by the question: Does this support a calm and reflective experience? If an element does not serve that purpose, it will be removed or simplified.
Testing and Feedback Plan
User testing is an essential part of UX design, and I plan to conduct informal usability testing during the development of TherapTea. I’ll ask friends and classmates to interact with the site and provide feedback.
The testing process will focus on questions such as:
Is the site easy to navigate?
Does the mood selection feel intuitive?
Does the tea pairing make sense emotionally?
Does the experience feel calm and supportive?
Feedback will be collected through short conversations or written notes. Based on this feedback, I’ll refine content, layout, and interaction flow. This iterative approach ensures that the final site responds to real user experiences rather than assumptions.
Reflection on UX Learning
The UX workshops helped me understand that design is not just about appearance, but about experience. Techniques such as personas, empathy mapping, and journey mapping have changed how I approach web design.
For TherapTea, these methods allow me to plan with intention and design with empathy. Instead of starting with visuals, I begin with users and their emotional needs. This approach leads to a more meaningful and effective outcome.
Conclusion
This article outlines how I’ll integrate User Experience Research and Design into the planning and development of my major project, TherapTea. By using UX techniques such as user personas, empathy mapping, journey mapping, and usability testing, I can ensure that the site is grounded in real user needs.
UX design provides a clear framework for turning an idea into a thoughtful digital experience. For TherapTea, this approach supports the project’s goal of creating a calm, culturally meaningful, and emotionally supportive space.
Use of AI
AI (chat gpt) was used as a tool to enhance clarity and visualisation of my UX ideas, but the research, concepts, and design decisions are entirely my own work.