Objective
The goal of the Define stage was to take everything we learned from interviews and research and narrow it down into a clear, focused problem. During the Empathize stage, we gathered stories, emotions, frustrations, and patterns. In this stage, we had to step back and ask: What is the real problem we are solving?
Through developing our personas and user journey maps, we realized that the biggest challenge wasn’t journaling itself, it was starting, staying consistent, and feeling emotionally safe while doing it. Many participants wanted reflection to feel low-pressure, private, and flexible. Our objective was to clearly define those needs and decide where AI actually adds value and where it doesn’t.
AI Usage
In this stage, I primarily used ChatGPT to help understand insights and evaluate how AI should (and should not) be used in our solution.
I used AI to:
- Refine and clarify our primary user needs
- Help structure our persona goals
- Organize our user journey map stages
- Evaluate where AI meaningfully enhances the experience
- Map user needs to data requirements
Benefits & Challenges
AI helped bring structure to complex information. After interviews and journey mapping, we had a lot of ideas and notes. AI helped us:
- Organize insights into a clear problem
- Connect user needs to potential opportunities
- Think through ethical risks
- Identify what data is necessary and what is not
However, there were challenges. One challenge was learning how to communicate clearly with AI to get the results we actually needed. When prompts were too vague, the responses were too general. I had to practice writing more specific, detailed prompts to guide the tool toward useful output.
This stage taught me that using AI effectively requires intention, clarity, and critical thinking, not just accepting the first answer it provides.
We also noticed that AI can unintentionally expand ideas into more complex systems than necessary. We had to stay grounded in our research and remind ourselves: just because AI can do something doesn’t mean it always should.
Reflection
In this stage, AI acted as a thinking partner, not a decision-maker.
Our team defined the problem. We conducted interviews. We created personas and mapped user journeys. AI helped us refine language, evaluate findings, and structure our thinking, but it did not replace our judgment.
The most important realization during this stage was that responsible AI design requires boundaries. We intentionally limited AI’s role to assisting with prompts, transcription, and pattern highlighting, not interpreting emotions or diagnosing mental health. That decision came from listening to users, not from AI suggestions.
This stage reminded me that AI is most powerful when it supports clarity and efficiency, but design decisions must remain grounded in empathy, ethics, and real human experience.