Monash Thrive
A student-designed mental-health companion, rolled out free to Monash's students and staff.
Role — Development and support services to the Thrive project
~100k
Programme outcome — Monash students and staff the free rollout reached
0
User data collected — mood check-ins and journal entries stayed on the device
2
Programme outcome — research trials with 60+ and then 150+ students before launch
The problem
University students carry a heavy mental-health load, and the pandemic lockdowns made it heavier. Monash's Turner Institute wanted a free, private, evidence-based wellbeing tool that students would actually open on a hard day. It had to be co-designed with students, tested in research trials, and safe enough to offer to an entire university.
What was built
Monash Thrive was a Flutter app for iOS and Android. It offered a daily mood check-in with a customisable buddy character, the "Wheel of Feels" journal, mood trends, curated evidence-based resources and a Pomodoro timer, with quick links to Monash's support services. Everything a student entered stayed on their phone; the university could not see any of it.
Warmth was the product. Interactive Rive animation — a character that reacts, transitions that breathe — made the app feel alive and calm instead of clinical, at a fraction of the file size of video or Lottie.
Bowen Chang Pty Ltd provided development and support services to the Thrive project.
Status
Thrive launched on both app stores on 26 October 2023 and was rolled out free to nearly 100,000 Monash students and staff. It is no longer listed in the app stores, so it appears here as a delivered research initiative. It is separate from Monash University Malaysia's own "Thrive" wellbeing programme.
