A key outcome of Youth-GEMS is the development of Gemmy, a self-assessment app designed to help young people track and understand their mental health. The app is being co-developed by clinical experts, technology partner Ab.Acus, and—most importantly—young people themselves. This collaborative approach ensures that Gemmy is both evidence-based and tailored to the real needs of its users- young people.

In this article, Laura Giani, software developer and project manager at Ab.Acus, provides insights into the work being carried out in WP2 and highlights how collaboration with Young Experts is playing a pivotal role in shaping the direction of the Youth-GEMs app!

What is the purpose of the Gemmy app developed in the project?

The Gemmy app is designed to be a personalised tool for self-awareness, self-assessment, and emotional well-being, tailored to the needs of adolescents and young adults aged 14-20 years old. It will work as a “build-your-own toolkit” because everyone is different and may require different resources to maintain mental well-being.

The goal is to provide a variety of features that help users manage emotions, navigate stressful situations, and boost self-awareness, positivity, and personal growth. The app’s name, “Gemmy”, was chosen to reflect the idea that young people are like gems—unique and valuable. Gemmy will act as a supportive companion, offering tools and guidance in a way that feels personal and relatable.

How will the app work?

Gemmy will be a well-being tool that helps users explore their emotions, thoughts, and sensory needs while developing resilience and coping strategies. One of its core features will be grounding activities – simple, research-backed techniques designed to help users regain a sense of calm when feeling overwhelmed. These activities will include:

• Immersive calming stimuli like sounds, vibrations, and animations
• Guided breathing exercises
• Soothing music and sensory experiences

In addition, the app will offer educational content on key psychological concepts, such as the window of tolerance – what do you experience when you go out of this window and things you can do to cope with what you’re feeling.

Gemmy will also include tools for goal setting, emotion tracking, and positive affirmations, supporting personal growth and healthy habits.

What makes Gemmy truly unique is its co-creation process – young people have been actively involved from the start, ensuring the app meets their real needs. Additionally, all content is under development in accordance with psychology researchers and experts, ensuring it is both evidence-based and practical.

How have experts been involved in the co-creation process?

From the very beginning, Young Experts have played a key role in shaping the app. Through Science Cafés and interactive workshops, we gathered insights on their experiences with self-assessment apps – what they already use, when they started using them, and which features they find most valuable. This helped us define the app’s target age group and identify the most relevant features.

We then presented potential functionalities and asked for their input on the content, like what kind of personal resources they would like to have (i.e., emotional regulation techniques, positive affirmations, coping strategies…), what format and topic for the educational content, which tools for goal setting and progress tracking.

To prioritize features, we asked them to rank the proposed functionalities from most to least important (Fig.1 ). Based on their rankings, we mapped these functionalities onto a prioritization matrix (Fig.2 ) using two key factors:

• User value (based on their feedback)
• Implementation effort (based on our expertise)

This process helped us define the app’s core features. Once the priorities were set, we collaborated with psychology experts to develop content, which young advisors then reviewed—offering feedback and suggesting additional activities or meditations that worked well for them.

Next, we shared preliminary mockups of the main features, gathering valuable feedback that refined the app’s design.