iSukoon: An App to Manage Social Anxiety in Designers

This paper aims to study the social anxiety in designers and design aspirants. Effective user-centred design relies on understanding and empathising with the target audience. However, social anxiety can prove a significant obstacle in this process. For people with social anxiety, everyday social interactions can cause irrational anxiety, fear, self-consciousness, and embarrassment. Designers have several tasks as professionals and learners, respectively, that require them to face people irrespective of their personal disposition. Given their inclination and the intensity of their face-to-face interactions, designers are likely to be socially anxious. To understand these struggles, surveys are conducted for forty-one designers, and five of them are subsequently interviewed. Preliminary observations from this research provide insights that can contribute to the development of user-centred solutions. A smartphone application tailored to the needs and experiences of designers is proposed to help manage and overcome social anxiety. The app offers various features, including a platform for connecting with designers and fostering a community where they can share experiences and support each other. Managing and overcoming social anxiety is important to help boost confidence in designers, enabling them to contribute more to the field and to society, leading to a more fulfilling career.