Timeline:
8 days, November 2023
Tools:
Figma, FigJam, Optimal Workshop, Zoom
Project type:
Bootcamp project
Limitations:
-Very short timeline
Brief: I was tasked with researching and synthesizing a mid-fidelity prototype to potentially help users who struggle with limited working memory.
Problem: Working professionals and students who struggle to manage heavy responsibilities due to limited working memory need a digital tool to help them manage professional and personal tasks so they can live to their fullest potential.
Goals: The goal was to help create a tool that might help those who struggle with limited working memory to better manage their personal and professional responsibilities. To do so, first data had to be synthesized, then organized so that meaningful pain points and blockers could be identified. Then frames could be created, tested and then adjusted based on user's needs.
Research
Domain Research
Research showed that:
-The global mental health apps market size was valued at USD 5.2 billion in 2022 and is expected to expand at a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 15.9% from 2023 to 2030. This was greatly boosted by the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020.
-There has also been shifting trends from traditional methods of care to patient-centric and personalized care are supporting the adoption of mental health apps.
-Studies show that 1 in 10 students have working memory problems (10% of student population).
-Studies show that 1 in 10 students have working memory problems (10% of student population).
-Stress in general has been hypothesized that stress may reduce the efficiency of prefrontal cortex processing (working memory) and yet facilitate the efficiency of amygdala processing (aversive conditioning).
-Multiple resources show that to-do lists, reminders, and planning help those with decreased working memory better cope with it.
Competitive Analysis
The big takeaways of the competitive research was that existing apps either stick to planner apps or pomodoro style apps. The other takeaway was many of the planner apps had complicated or cluttered UX that made onboarding more difficult.
Affinity Mapping
For user research, 3 participants were interviewed to hear their insights on working memory, instances where they may have lower abilities to remember, their ability to juggle multiple tasks and their general experiences and feelings about those instances. From the interviews, some key topics were mentioned multiple times by participants such as:
-General tasks that are being forgotten by participants varied from personal hygiene, meetings, getting something from another room, or what is said in a causal conversation.
-Participants feeling they were more likely to forget if they were stressed, lacked sleep, anxious or depressed, which correlates to the domaine research done on the topic of decreased working memory and triggers for it.
-All participants noted they liked simple apps, with almost no onboarding obstacles. They also noted that they found it gratifying when they were able to check off tasks from their to do list.
-The most overwhelming part of these interviews was the negative emotions participants felt after realizing how they forgot to complete a task. Key words mentioned were frustrated, mad at myself, berating myself, makes them ‘feel like crap’, makes them anxious worrying if they forgot an appointment, ’kicking themselves’ for forgetting, or feeling like there is something wrong with their brain for not remembering at a ‘normal level’.
Research insights
User Persona
From the research, a user persona was created which reads as follows:
"Jill is 32 year old account manager at an office in Albany, NY. She lives with her 9 year old French Bulldog, Hannibal. As Hannibal ages, he needs to go to vet more to help alleviate his discomfort. Because of the constant vet visits and her demanding job, Jill finds it difficult to keep up with all the tasks she has to complete in order to care for herself, her clients, and her dog.
Empathy map
Using the user persona above, an empathy map was created to gather insight into how Jill might be feeling day-to-day and empathize with her pain points.
App goals
Mid-fidelity Wireframes
Crazy 8's
The iteration process was started with crazy 8’s focusing on the home page/ dashboard area, which mostly focused on the prioritized task feature and the upcoming task feature.
Card Sorting
Card testing was then conducted to confirm proposed feature placement correlated with what users thought. All cards were sorted as intended, with only three being split between different screens. These features could easily be housed in either area, so the card sorting correlated with that.
Usability test plan
This usability test focused on tasks the user would be doing throughout a typical work day. Participants had to navigate through two separate tasks that covered most of the features of the app. First participants added a pomodoro timer and reminder to the “meeting prep’ event. Then user got a notification from the app and started a pomodoro timer.
Later on in the day, so to speak, the users created a ‘grocery shopping’ event, with reminder notification and an attached list. Once users completed shopping, they checked off the event as done. The user then saw End of Day task celebration of all the tasks they completed.
User Testing
Participants both struggled to find ‘add list button’ to the grocery shopping event as well as didn't understand the copy for a button that would save edits to the event. Both participants also wanted to add a timer to an event through the timer page. After testing, I also think that the create event page could use some reworking as I don't think its the most efficient use of space, nor does it have enough options.
Actionable Recommendations
Reflections:
Next steps moving forward would be to take the actionable recommendations from testing and rework project to meet those needs, test the viability of changes with more rounds of prototype testing, flesh out other aspects of the app and again more rounds of prototype testing, and lastly settle on branding, Ui, and the marketing for app.