New York-based Chinese graphic designer Wanqing Zhang creates the Semicolon app to address the significant global economic losses caused by depression and anxiety. [Photo provided to chinadaily.com.cn]
A New York-based Chinese graphic designer, Wanqing Zhang, has come to see an intertwined contradiction — global economic losses from depression and anxiety hit some $1 trillion annually, or 12 billion working days, while the global mental health application market is experiencing explosive growth, reported between $7.48 billion to $7.98 billion by 2025.
Faced with the explosive growth of the mental health application market — rising at an average annual rate of 18 percent to 19 percent — Zhang is leveraging design to explore this "dual-track narrative" by simultaneously targeting two sectors: digital products, through mobile applications, and content intellectual property, through animated short films.
"In a trillion-dollar mental health application market, the value of design lies in transforming unmet needs into perceptible, communicable, and commercially viable solutions," she said.
The Semicolon app that Zhang created breaks down the semicolon symbol into two personified characters that guide users through the interface, naming functional modules with everyday reduplication to lower the psychological threshold for users: Matchy-Match dynamically recommends social activities, while Talky-Talk facilitates conversations among users with similar experiences, and Secret Base offers a tree hole recording space.
