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Illumine
Folding cognitive insights into design thinking process for a holistic solution
Team
Individual Project
Role
UX Researcher UX Designer
Tools
Illustrator Figma Invision
Timeline
3 weeks in Fall 2021
2024 Update
I worked on this project as part of my application materials for grad school, which makes this case study OLD!
While there are many thing I would have done differently now, this still remains one of my favorite projects so far as I this was the first time I was able to apply the Design Thinking cycle end-to-end to topic that is really interests me. And I've always come back to it whenever I picked up something new at school I knew the project would benefit from. And I still might.
In all honesty, if I were Sisyphus, then this would be my boulder. But you must imagine me happy, because I genuinely am: with how far this project has come. Now, for your consideration...
Project Overview
Background
The idea for Ilumine arose in the summer of 2021. Due to the paradigm shift brought about by the pandemic, many working professionals, including me, were still struggling with productivity and a healthy work / life balance. However, like many before me, it wasn’t the first time I’d found myself on the app store looking for a self-help app as a quick solution until eventually I would fall back into the same pattern and end up not using it.
Maintaining consistency was an overwhelming challenge.
Identifying a need for innovation and a holistic solution that would stick, I set out to test the hypothesis and find a solution.
The Problem
An analysis of current market trends in the productivity led to some interesting insights which helped me identitfy the existence of some gap in the market that could potentially be addressed and formed the core question that drove this project.
7.62B downloads in the productivity market in 2022 Statista
20,000 apps exist in mental health and wellbeing sector Delloite Insights
~ 4% 30-day user retention rate for apps in this category Appsflyer
How do we find a consistent solution for maintaining productivity that addresses the underlying causes for drop-offs?
The Solution
A solution that reduces the negative emotions induced by the idea productivity while building positive momentum was key!
Design thinking 101 I applied an end-to-end Design Thinking approach for this project. From empathizing with user research and defining goals and design principles to prototyping solution and iterating through multiple user tests!
Cognitive and Behavorial Insights The challenges posed by this project also allowed me to explore some topic within cognitive science. Insights like Hick's Law, Fitt's Law, The Zeigarnik Effect, The Paper Clip Method and the Eisenhower Box technique were applied. See references section for more details!
feature #1 Gentle Focus Mode
Leverages the paperclip method to create a continuous, positive visual feedback loop.
No time pressure and gentle UX copy reduces negative impact of failure.
Customization options for phone profile and ambient sound for creating the best expereince.
feature #2 Proactive Daily Scheduler
Manage and track daily tasks at a glance.
Automatically categorize tasks with strategies for execution.
Unlocks tasks in cascading manner that quickly builds momentum, and as result motivation.
feature #3 Key Motivator Strengtheners
Explore sections allows users to explore topics of mindfulness, well-being and productivity to strengthen intrinsic motivators.
Extrinsic motivators in the form of gentle, daily reminders.
Multiple exit points with no user-shaming to reduce negative emotions.
The Research
Preliminary Survey
78% of particiapnts identified their own thoughts and feelings as a major barrier to productivity in a survey intended to understand general trends in productivity issues.
The sample group consisted of 50 individuals that were a mix of college-going and working individuals, from the age of 20 - 35.
When some of the findings were juxtaposed, they lead to some potentially interesting insights.
User Interviews
At this point it was important to acquire an in-depth qualitative understanding of the major pain points faced by the participants and current methods employed to address them.
The interviews were conducted with 5 participants where I asked a set of semi-structured, open-ended questions to allow for a more opportunistic interviewing style. I tried to make sure the answers were analyzed to reveal any underlying tacit needs the participants may have.
Question #1 How does your current work routine look like?
Question #2 What does thinking about productivity make you feel currently?
question #3 What are some issues you face, despite employing active solutions to increase productivity?
question #4 What feature would you like to see in an app that would specifically help you?
The resulting affinity diagram identified negative emotions associated with productivity as a major barrier, among some other themes.
Competitor Analysis
The parameters selected for this analysis were gleaned from the insights gathered from data synthesis. The applications chosen were a mix of highly rated scheduling, productivity, and self-improvement apps.
While some apps in the market provided phone locking features to protect time or provide some advanced task scheduling...
Almost none of the competitors applied task breakdowns or addressed the negative emotions related to productivity.
The Strategy
Meet Our User
Synthesizing the data further using personas and user journey helped create a clear outline the user goals and frustrations and identified key opportunities to leverage during their journey. This would help delineate the scenarios and pain-points faced by the users. This will help better inform the ideation phase that would come next.
Design Principles
A deep dive into psychological and cognitive insights behind the topics of productivity, distractions, and procrastination helped establish a set of design principles to guide the ideation process. It was necessary to understand the underlying causes for some these issues rather than simply proposing features to tackle the symptoms.
no more streaks
Negative emotions caused by broken streaks are a major reason for user drop offs.
more rewards, often Frequent rewards set up effective habits and help maintain consistency on task.
satisfying schedules Aiming for satisfaction rather than task performance increases overall happiness.
whys and hows Provide users with a platform to explore topics like productivity more holistically.
Testing and Improvements
The prototypes were socialized among peers and mentors for usability testing, which covered some of the major user cases for the app.
This resulted in 3 major improvements to the app carried out over two complete iteration life-cycles.
improvement #1 Rehauled Information Architecture
Earlier structure divided app into three disparate sections with no clear entry point to spur users into action.
Reconciling the two major user flows, i.e., sheduling and focus mode, allowed users to navigate the app naturally.
New information architecture led to reduction in feature overload.
Familiar checklist interaction pattern to complete tasks.
Cascading effect creates a happy path as earlier categories are easier to tackle.
Direct connection to Focus Mode reduces intertia of moving between major user flows.
improvement #3 Gentler Focus Mode
Reduced setup complexity along with contextual help text visible only in 'empty states'.
Reduction on pressure for completion and possibility of failure by removal of time factor.
Clearer alternative text for non-text content like buttons and use of primary accent color to leverage Hick's Law.
Final Designs
Try it out for yourself! Tip: Use the blue markers as guides for navigation.
Looking Ahead
Key Performance Indicators
Longitudinal testing and post-launch analysis would be crucial in understanding the solution's effectiveness and business viability. Some of the key research methods and metrics to keep in mind would be:
retention rate Consistent user retention rates would be the primary metric in validating the effectiveness of the productivity app.
user satisfaction A satisfaction survey deployed at the end-of-day would capture trends in user satisfaction and happiness using the app.
task efficiency over time An in-depth diary study would gather information on the long-term effects of the app on productivity.
Learnings
Role of cognition and leveraging psychological insights was key.
UX Laws like Hick's and the Zeigarnik effect are powerful tool that can supercharge your interaction design, however understanding some of their potential negative effects was also necessary to apply them effectively in the case of Illumine.
Rapid iterations were key for failing forwards fast.
Quick and formal user testing allowed for quickly implemented some of the major design changes to the app. However, the prototype was already in its high-fidelity phase. Testing the app sooner even in the low fidelity stages could have eliminated a lot of extra work.
