StressLess
iOS App Concept
Designing a productivity app for parents of young children.
Overview
The aim was to develop an app that supports parents throughout parenthood.
At first, I wanted to create an app that helped with organisation. Although throughout the research process, my initial scope changed as the needs of the users developed.
ROLE:
UX Designer, UI Designer, UX Researcher
PROJECT DURATION:
3 Weeks.
1 week of research + 2 weeks of design
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TOOLS:
Figma, Canva, Freehand
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DELIVERABLES:
4 mobile apps pages
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TARGET AUDIENCE:
Parents
METHOD:
The Double Diamond Method
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DISCOVER - What is the problem?
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DEFINE - What are all the needs of my user ?
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DEVELOP - How many options can I think of to solve this problem?
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DELIVER - What is my final solution?
Project Hypothesis
"I believe that most parents would benefit from an app in which they can log their daily tasks, moods and habits.
The validity of my hypothesis will be tested through user retention over a significant period."
User Research
Finding problems by researching the needs of parents.
I created a Lean Survey Canvas as a frame foundation for the questionnaire. As my approach was hypothesis-driven, it helped me to focus on the insights needed to validate my assumptions. My goal was to find the daily struggles of parents whilst juggling parenthood, homecare and personal well-being.
Findings:
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Home maintenance and child-related activities are the most common daily tasks.
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85% of respondents schedule their day although 72% are unable to finish the task set due to distractions.
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Most respondents use socialising as their only source of self-care.
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57% of parents feel guilt when indulging in self-care.
Empathy Map and User Persona:
I developed an empathy map, in order to know who my users were. I used the empathy map to discover whether there were gaps in my knowledge and identify the types of research needed to address it.
The "think and feel” category was lacking, therefore, I conducted a user interview with a parent. From this, I found that parents felt overlooked and overwhelmed, although they also felt blessed and grateful to be a parent.
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From this I created a user persona. "Lola" is a stay at home parents who also studies part time.
Problem statement:
Users struggle to balance parenting with personal time. Daily tasks and responsibilities leave them with little energy to pursue their own interests. Therefore, they seek a solution to prioritise tasks and find time for self-care.
"How can I help parents to organise their time?"
"How can I encourage parents to indulge in self-care?"
Competitor Analysis
What features do my competitor use which is benefical for my user?
I began by researching mobile apps that promote productivity and positive habit tracking.
Although I was met with difficulty as most apps either focused on journalling or habit tracking.
Daylio and Habit were the strongest apps as they covered the most amount of the features. Although these apps fell short in other areas.
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Customer feedback on the Apple Store showed that:
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Notifications were excessive
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There were mixed reviews about the social media aspect as users felt they had to compete with friends.
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Features behind paywalls were frustrating.
User flow
After researching I had a much clearer idea of what services I wanted my app to provide. Before I moved tot he ideation stage ideation I was designed a user flow which detaied the features within the app.
click to enlarge
Ideation methods
How many ideas can I think of to solve the problem?
Crazy Eights
​The aim was to design an app that promoted organisation and self-care. The crazy eight method challenged me to sketch distinct ideas in a short period. I was able to push through my ideas to generate a wide range of solutions to my problems. From this stage I was able to choose which design I would use for my low fidelity wireframes.
Low Fidelity
For my low-fidelity stage, I created paper wireframes to visualise each screen, test navigation and experience the user flows.
Displayed is the signup page, inital questionaire, to-do list, monthly shecudle and the achievement wall.
Mid-fidelity
I used Figma to create mid-fidelity designs based off of my wireframes. I targeted 3 areas of user needs while designing the app: organisation, self-care and mood tracking.
Brand Attributes and Mood Boarding
To define the brand, I came up with three brand attributes to differentiate my app from competitors.
Aesthetic-Usability Effect
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I chose a muted palette, sporting greens browns and yellows, as they were reminsiate of mediation centres.
I wanted StressLess to be:
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Efficient but not juvenile.
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Welcoming and encouraging
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Have wellness and task management
"Was I able to design an app which helped parents to fulfil their daily tasks and healthy habits?"
High Fidelity
What is my final solution?
Sign-up Questionnaire
The initial sign-up questionnaire aids parents with management. They are requested to log the members of their household, daily activites, personal habits, and how often they'd like to be notified.
Homepage and Calendar
Users name
Weekly
Calendar
Habit log
To-do list
Menu bar
Feelings log
Law of Common Region
Each section of the home page has been grouped by a border to create a common region.
This creates a clear structure and helps users quickly and effectively understand the relationship between elements and sections.
Law of Proximity
Features are close to show the relationship, such as the calendar begin directly on top of the to-do list.
Achievements
To entice users to return to the app daily, I incorporated an achievement wall. When users complete streaks, daily tasks, and habits they are rewarded with trophies that they can share on social media.
Goal-Gradient Effect:
Users are likely to complete tasks as they collect achievement. A clear indication of progress is displayed to motivate users to complete the tasks.
Jakob's law:
As users may be used to similar journalling apps I wanted to ensure this app had the same model design.
Let's Prototype!
Prototype #1
This is the users journey throughout the signup questionnaire.Users are unable to proceed to the next step without choosing atleast one option. The "next" button is only enabled once this step has been compeleted.
Prototype #2
Users log their daily habits by tapping the icon of the goals chosen. The user can add a note after this interaction if they wish. This screen displays the maximum number of goals. I chose this number to alleviate the pressures of habit tracking.
Prototype #3
This displays how users will input future task or activities. They are also able to allocate which family member the task corresponds to by choosing their names.
Prototype #4
The achievement wall entices users to complete goals, task and to-do list in order to receive the trophies.
