Click Therapeutics

Urge surfing / Go No Go / HRT

Gamified therapeutic treatment for patients with psoriasis and dermatitis.

  • Urge Surfing

    Urge surfing is a technique for managing your unwanted behaviors.

  • Go No Go

    Go/No-Go is a cognitive training task that will train a brain to be better at regulating responses.

  • Habit Reversal Therapy

    HRT is a therapy designed to help patients rid themselves of undesirable and repetitive habits.

DiNamo (Digital Neuro-Activation and Modulation) gamified neurobehavioral intervention program that enables therapeutic treatment.

Similar to muscle training, our brains can change over time, but it requires regular exercise.

DiNamo

Urge Surfing

Urge surfing is a technique for managing your unwanted behaviors. Rather than giving in to an urge, you will ride it out, like a surfer riding a wave. After a short time, the urge will pass on its own.

Graph showing emotion on y-axis, time on x-axis, with a curved line peaking in "High Distress Zone."

When urges go unfed, future urges gradually become weaker. The first waves are some of the most difficult to ride.

“Riding the wave” instead of fighting it means accepting it without judgment, according to Dartmouth-Hitchcock. You’re not trying to deny or suppress it.”

Urge Surfing therapy

A meditative therapeutic experience of moving shapes on the screen.

Three smartphone illustrations show a finger-pinching motion on colored blobs: pink on the left and center, purple on the right, against a dark blue background.

Brainstorming

How do we best support individuals to accept and live with an urge?

Pain Points

• Affects quality of life
• Controls you
• Feeling powerless
• Physical harm - cyclic behavior
• Guilt
• Losing
• Non-socialization
• Loss of self confidence/self worth
• Presentation of living a full life

Principles

• Empowering
• Motivating
• Centering
• Discourages self harm
• Personal growth

Stylized blue wave pattern
A diagram with four categories: Empowering, Motivating, Discourage self-harm, and Centering. Each category contains related elements. Empowering includes duration of practice and personalization. Motivating includes showing progress and positivity. Discourage self-harm includes calming music and colors. Centering includes pace and tactical feedback.
Flowchart depicting a journey through emotional and meditative stages, including acknowledging emotions, measuring intensity, acceptance, active meditation, and checking in. Sections are labeled as Centering, Motivating, Discouraging, Empowering, and Motivating again with activities like breathing and games.

Ideas and possible solutions

Grid of eight options for relaxation and meditation apps or activities, including breathing graph, guided breathing, plant growth visualization, calming audio, sand coloring, lava lamp, psychedelics research, and customizable environment.
Green sticky notes arranged in a grid. Notes contain phrases: 'Breathing exercises,' 'Arm/hand movements,' 'Taking a walk/steps,' 'Self awareness,' 'Mindful looking,' 'Guided visual meditation,' 'Closing eyes?,' 'Neck/head movements.' Each note is credited to Nino Barraelt or Vanessa Jimenez.

Concepts

Treatment: in order for a patient to overcome the urge to scratch the “urge surfing” treatment will help them “ride out the wave” by having them occupy their hands on a screen with a therapeutic activity.

Here are examples of few concepts that I designed in collaboration with an engineer and a scientist.

Abstract image with concentric blue and purple circular patterns on a dark blue background.
Abstract design with gray circles and blobs on a dark background, featuring various overlapping shapes and sizes, creating a dynamic pattern.
Illustration of a Plinko board with colorful balls and triangular pegs.
Abstract geometric pattern with blue, green, and yellow hues

Concept Testing

After testing a few of those designs we saw that people responded the best to the “bloby shapes” design and some of the other designs made them dizzy.

New concepts based on the feedback that I got from testing.

Illustration of glossy pink blobs and dots on a vibrant pink background
Abstract red shapes and dots on a dark blue background
Abstract orange and yellow liquid droplets on a black background.

Final Solution

Treatment: in order for a patient to overcome the urge to scratch the “urge surfing” treatment will help them “ride out the wave” by having them occupy their hands on a screen with a therapeutic activity.

Here are examples of few concepts that I designed in collaboration with an engineer and a scientist.

A series of seven smartphones displaying a gradient screen with colorful abstract circles, showcasing different shades and time variations.

GO/NO GO

Go/No-Go is a cognitive training task that will train a brain to be better at regulating responses; in particular, the ability to withhold from responding.

In this task, the patient will be presented with “Go” stimuli, which indicate they you should respond, and “No Go” stimuli, which indicate that you should not respond. This training will help them regain control over the automatic action of scratching in response to itch.

Four circles labeled "GO" or "NO GO" are vertically aligned and separated by black lines; three are green "GO" circles, one is a red "NO GO" circle.

Initial Concepts

Challenge: we don’t have a competitor in this space and we didn’t have access to patients. Because of that the design had to work very closely with science to make sure that designs were effective treatment.

Constraint: from business perspective designs had to be innovative while remaining effective treatment.

Treatment: based on scientific findings patients best respond to a word stimuli. The idea was to show a mix of positive and negative word, a patient will have to react on a positive word and not react when a negative word shows up on the screen.

Mobile game interface showing a rocket pointing upwards, with the word "itchy" inside a bubble above it. Two buttons labeled "Shoot" and "Skip" are at the bottom.
Illustration of a game interface featuring a blue and red rocket aiming towards a gray circle with the word "itchy" inside, indicating a target. Below, two buttons are labeled "Shoot" and "Skip."

Each concept went through a science and business review.

Some of these concepts were too complicated or were not effective enough as a treatment.

Concept 1: a patient will have to avoid negative words and “collect” positive words.

Concept 2: a patient will tap on a cta only when a positive word appears.

Concept 3: a patient will drag and drop positive words into a center circle.

A mobile game interface featuring a gray road with dashed lines in the center. Words like "itchy," "trip," "skin," "scar," and "hike" are placed at various positions as obstacles or targets. A circle is positioned at the bottom as a game element. Text at the bottom instructs "swipe to play."
Digital flashcard with the word 'trip' displayed, featuring a counter and a button labeled 'cta' on a gray background.
Image showing words: basic, trip, hike, scratching, itch, connected by dashed lines with a central white circle and an 'x' in the middle.

Concept 1: a patient taps a cta when a positive word appears on the screen and “catches”

Concept 2: same as concept 1 except a patient gathers words in a net.

Interactive screen with 'TRIP' button, a countdown circle labeled '2,' a drawn net below, and a 'Catch' button at the bottom.
Graphic illustration with a circle labeled '5' at the top, a larger circle below labeled 'SCRATCH,' a slanted word 'TRIP' above a net-like drawing, and a button labeled 'Catch' at the bottom.
Diagram showing a labeled section 'skin' connected by a line to a dark circle labeled 'Catch' at the bottom.
Colored blob diagram with labeled nodes "skin" and "Catch" connected by a line.

Getting There…

Concept 1: patient will tap on a blob with a positive word only.

Concept 2: patient will swipe up the ball i the direction of the word on the screen. In this concept only one word as a time will appear.

Dark blue background with scattered light blue bubbles, featuring the words "Trip" and "Skin."
A bright starburst light effect on a dark blue background.
Illustration with the word "hike" inside a blue circle and an upward arrow pointing to it, against a dark gradient background.

Concept 2 was the idea that we went with but eventually had to give up on it because it was too challenging from the dev side.

Bright white light with blue rays on a dark blue background

Concept Testing

This was the final concept that was innovative enough for business and acted as an effective treatment based on our science department.

Prototype

Blue circular button with the text 'hike' above a connected blue shaded sphere, set against a dark blue background with a 'Pause' button at the top right.
Minimalist blue-toned interface with the word "hike" in a central circle, pause button in the upper right corner.
Meditation app user interface with a central circular icon and a dotted line on a dark background.
A glowing starburst effect on a dark blue background with a dashed vertical line extending downward, and the word "Pause" in the top right corner.

Final Solution

After testing this design I saw that people didn’t notice the ball at all and tapped on the word instead.

Prototype

Three smartphone screens showing a button with the word 'sign'; the middle screen has a hand touching it.

Next Steps

As a next step this treatment is going to go through a clinical study to see how effective is the treatment.