The mood scale
The eight moods, from frustrated to happy, and why orange and blue mean what they do.
Elysian uses eight moods, ordered from less to more pleasant. Every screen shows them the same way, so a colour always means the same thing.
- Frustrated
- Frustration usually means something matters to you.
- Anxious
- Worry tends to shrink when it is written down or said out loud.
- Down
- Low days happen to everyone. Go easy on yourself.
- Meh
- Meh is a perfectly honest answer.
- Calm
- Worth noticing what helped you get here.
- Good
- Whatever went right this morning, it counts.
- Energized
- That energy is useful. Give it to one thing you care about.
- Happy
- If someone helped make today good, it might be worth telling them.
Orange and blue
The orange side, Frustrated, Anxious and Down, is unpleasant. The blue side, Calm, Good, Energized and Happy, is pleasant. Meh sits in the middle in warm grey: an honest, neutral answer.
Orange and blue also stay easy to tell apart for most people with colour blindness, which red and green often do not.
Two directions at once
Each mood also has a level of energy. Anxious and Frustrated are tense and high in energy, Down is low. Calm is settled and quiet, Energized and Happy are bright and high. That is how the class weather on a teacher's Today page places each student: across by how pleasant, up by how energized.
Heavy check-ins
Frustrated, Anxious and Down count as heavy. Elysian only points a teacher to a student when heavy check-ins repeat: three in a row, or five in one week.