Mobile Application
5 Week Time Frame
Madeleine Gradney • Mackenzie • John Sadie
This is a research intensive project that focused on how to make accountability apps more engaging. This app specifically targeted high school and college students that have a hard time managing their time.
Timeline
Worked an average of 4 days a week
Week 1
Day 1~2
Members individually brainstorm ideas, gather information and pitch their idea
Day 3~5
Idea is picked and members add more ideas. More indepth research is done
Week 2~3
Day 5~8
User interviews conducted, competitive and comparative analysis
Day 9~13
New member joined, initial project plan changed, utilizing some of the gathered research, conducted more user interviews and changed some of the competitors
Week 4
Day 14~15
Personas, Basic App Flow
Day 16
Prioritizing what screens to create, 5 rounds of 5-min sketches, & mood board research
Day 17
Lo-Fi screen distribution and style guide created
Week 5
Day 18~19
Usability reviews, mid-fi
Day 20~21
Create prototype, test, reflect, creating presentation
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My Contribution
I was the UX researcher for this project. Through my research the team's initial goal and ideas changed. With more information we were able to see what motivates people and find an easier way to create drive in an individual. The biggest outcome from my research was, people tend to do tasks that affect another person or thing before they start on an individual endeavor.
First Project Idea
First project was a job-hunting accountatibliy app that would allow the user and their friends to keep each other accountable. Here are the top three reason why this was not pursued
Sensitive Topic
Though many of the users interviewed and surveyed related to the struggles of job hunting, a few insights popped up:
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People would rather share when they already succeeded in getting a job
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How would a person's feelings be spared if their only job searching buddy landed a job before them
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Some people would rather get notes or support from someone who recently landed the job the user is aiming to get
Many Careers have Different Processes
From the diverse users interviewed and surveyed, it was uncovered that depending on the field a person is trying to get into, there are different processes and types of interviews to get the job. For example an actor trying to land a role, verse a software engineer preparing for the multiple types of interviews, there are different processes for both of these individuals to land a job.
Dislike Showing Valunability
One of the most received feed back from the user interviews and the surveys the individual's reluctance to share that they are struggling with someone close to them or not as close. They stated it is already a difficult and mentally draining process and they do not want to feel like it would taint the relationship they have with another person.
Pivot
The user interviews and surveys showed there was a lack of consumers willing to be a part of searching for a job with a buddy, but what every user had in common was an inaffective way of keeping accountabiliy for long term projects/goals. From this discovery I did more research to see what are the leading causes to losing sight on goals that are not completed within a few days.
Research
1
No Consequences or Reward
Users felt:
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Stress from procrastination did not change their behaviors
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"Not doing a task today did not affect affect anyone or anything"
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Completing a self-imposed deadline was not rewarding
2
Overwhelmed
Users would say they would feel overwhelmed by:
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sheer number of tasks
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feel bombarded by alerts
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experience negative emotions by amount of work have to do or put off
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not having assignments/due dates in one place
3
Not Engaging & Time Consuming
Users felt
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Accountability apps are dry
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Takes time to list information
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Nice to have information in one place but can put that in a notebook, want something to look at and view progress in a fun/entertaining way
App Flow
Onboarding Flow
Creating Task List
Iterations
Low
Low
Low
Mid
Mid
Mid
High
High
High
App Clips
Conclusion
What I Learned
For this project, my role was to mainly focus on research. With the numerous ways one could go with this app, the biggest thing for this project was scope. The role that user interviews have with research is a key point. Not until after the user interviews, did the issue of the first project come to light and cause the team to rethink the project.
Next Move
For this venture, our group only built out certain pages that would convey the idea and what the users really emphasized were pain-points during their interview. Some of the feedback we received was to allow the user to build a connection with the character, so the user will try to complete their deadlines so they character does not get a consequence.