Bee Yourself is a Mobile app designed based on research in the role of social support and practice of self-compassion as coping strategies for stigma-related stress. Members of minority groups, who belong to stigmatised social categories such as race/ethnicity, gender, sexuality, disability, immigrant status, or those with lower socioeconomic status, deal with higher levels of stress, which is associated with greater physical and mental problems. Psychologists and Cognitive scientists highlight the importance of social support and the advantages of having a high self-compassion, as coping strategies for stress. Empirical research has shown that members of minority groups suffer from lack of social support and bad self-image. This project attempts to fill in the gap by exploring the usability of mobile computing in supporting stress management of minority groups. This User Centred Design research recognises the idiosyncrasy of stress management and therefore, the proposed design intervention allows the users to use variety of tools specifically designed around the concept of self-compassion to encourage the users to develop skills to help themselves and change their approach to stress and then to help others by anonymously and safely, sharing their experiences dealing with minority stress.
