Emotion regulation app Emori wins prestigious Red Dot Design Award

EMORI, an emotion regulation app co-created between three Latvian universities, has won the prestigious Red Dot Design Award in the "Brands and Communication Design" category for 2023.

The EMORI emotion regulation app was created in Latvia and is the result of a joint work of three universities – the Art Academy of Latvia, Rīga Stradiņš University (RSU), and Ventspils University of Applied Sciences – and brought together both bachelor’s, master’s, and doctoral students and their lecturers. Winning the Red Dot Design Award is a significant achievement of interdisciplinary university cooperation in Latvia, and is the first project of its kind to receive a design award of this calibre.
 
EMORI is a prototype for a self-help, mental health app for Android/iOS, designed to develop emotion recognition and regulation skills in its users. It is also a research platform, for collecting and analysing emotion regulation data in the Latvian population anonymously. The app is illustrated, interactive, intuitive, and suitable for a wide audience. Healthcare professionals and designers, along with a large number of users have been involved in developing content at each iteration of the app. EMORI content has been clinically validated as therapeutic and results are empirically supported.

University representatives involved in the development of the app

Art Academy of Latvia: Assoc. Prof. Liene Jākobsone, Prof. Barbara Ābele, Asst. Prof. Matīss Zvaigzne, lecturer Markus Rožkalns, functional design master students Džūlija Ekuse (Trutiak) (process and interactive design) and Sandra Sugako (content structuring and testing), graphics and packaging bachelor students Dārta Galiņa (UX/UI design) and Ričards Znutiņš-Znutāns (illustration and branding).
 
RSU: Prof. Kristīne Mārtinsone, lecturer and PhD student Inese Paiča (app concept, content structuring), master students Maruta Linuža and Inga Iejava (content development and pilot studies), bachelor student Jete Anna Balama (pilot study). Elīna Ieva Smule, a PhD student in the Psychology PhD programme, is continuing the content development of the app.

Ventspils University of Applied Sciences: Lecturer and researcher Karina Šķirmante (software development work, technical consulting, system prototyping), student in the first level professional higher education Programming Specialist programme  Jānis Vīksne (software development and testing).

The Red Dot Design Award is one of the largest design competitions in the world, with around 20,000 global entries each year. The competition has been running since 1955 and is organised by the Design Centre Rhine-North Westphalia, one of the oldest and most renowned design institutions in Europe. This award has been presented in the categories Product Design, Communication Design, and Design Concept. The jury was made up of an international panel of independent designers and design professors. Red Dot is a worldwide recognition of excellence

RSU vertically integrated projects are implemented as a part of ESF co-financed project Improvement of Governance Processes and Modernisation of Contents of Study Programmes at Rīga Stradiņš University (No. 8.2.3.0/18/A/011).