4-5 min read
Timeline
Nov. - Dec. '23
Technical—The platform is limited to a mobile platform only.
Time—I was given an 80-hour total timeframe to develop an MVP. With more time, I would like to explore design solutions prominent in intrinsic and extrinsic motivating features.
Business Impacts
Drive revenue growth through increased consumer usage.
Establish a strong brand identity through unique features, such as group challenges, within the productivity app market.
PROTOTYPE AND OVERVIEW
Grow is an MVP designed to replace distractions with communal goal-setting in the pursuit of productivity.
For impact, I decreased the drop-off rate by 20% while increasing the NPS score by 10%.
View Final Prototype
The Problem
Recent statistics indicated that: Globally, the average screen time is 6 hours 58 minutes/day. Americans spend an average of 3 hours and 43 minutes on their phone/day.
Why are we designing this?
The total revenue in the Productivity market is projected to reach US $5.63bn in 2024. There's a business opportunity to partake in the growth rate. People are also challenged more than ever in a digital age full of distractions to be productive.
Who will use this?
A med-school student, a consultant, an insert here. Grow is designed for those seeking to conduct intentional and focused work.
When and Where?
Users may be using their laptop to get work done, and may be in a quiet and focused place (home, library, etc.)
What are some ideas?
Some of the ideas that I had were:
Group challenges and accountability—introducing community.
Implementation of psychology-based practices that promote both productivity and rest.
Real-time study buddy video calling.
Prioritizing
Reach—This product has the potential to reach multiple target audiences: students, working adults, those seeking to start and keep a hobby, etc.
Value for Consumer—The chosen solution should make users feel engaged and be seamless in integration. It should deformalize productivity.
Impact and Success
Business:
Measure the level of engagement and retention with users.
Increase brand reputation within productivity market (long-term and indirect impact metric).
Niche: How many group challenges are conducted?
User:
Increase positive habits pertaining to productivity.
Develop a brand identity that users positively enjoy.
The Goal
A product that promotes focused work, with unique features to distinguish itself from the productivity app market. Personal and group goal-setting, and other ideas were to be considered.
I virtually interviewed 5 adults who currently use or have used productivity apps, including focus-timers and digital organizers.
User Pain Points
DISCOVERY
COMPETITIVE ANALYSIS
I conducted a SWOT analysis on three popular apps in the productivity space. I learned that:
Notion offers strong utility and customization.
Flora is built off of a low-friction feature of blocking off time to complete a task.
Progress is recorded in Focus To-Do, and users are able to set deadlines for their goals.
Notion does not offer a functionality to deliberately set time aside for focused work, and functions more as a giant checklist organizer.
Flora’s UI resembles early-stage startup and is very unrefined.
Focus To-Do’s UI resembles a calendar or reminder app.
Full Audit + Analysis Here
USER FLOWS
The Rationale
Productivity comes in many different forms, and I wanted to provide users with an opportunity to celebrate all wins, no matter the type or even the size.
The Opportunity
The productivity market space often feels too formal. However, users can be productive outside of formal work, with tracking progress as staying accountable of their goals.
Business Impact
This would attract new users who seek to be productive in different areas. This could increase revenue while improving the brand image of Grow within the existing market space.
The Rationale
Users being to view their consistent growth adds intentionality to their sessions. Users will be able to view the progress they are making, which contributes to positive psychology in reinforcing good habits.
The Opportunity
The existing market space does not promote sessions of focused work enough. I also sought to expand on this by introducing a communal factor—group challenges.
Business Impact
This doubles down both as a productivity and habit tracker, pulling from different demographics. When combined with distinguishing communal features, an expanded customer base is expected.
Full Audit + Analysis Here
BRANDING
LOGO
Grow
TYPEFACE
This type helps to bring a feeling of security and achievement. It feels slightly futuristic, a tribute to what an individual will achieve with commitment.
PRODUCT THINKING AND RATIONALE
I wanted the brand values for “Grow” to be:
Warm and Inviting
Simplistic
Humanizing
The typography choice of “Clash Display” complements the branding, due to the informal, yet focused look. Humanized productivity—realistic and focused.
Productivity over a period of time is rooted in small, consistent wins. The logo mimics a sun—a warm and universally recognized object. Tying this logo back to the theme of consistency is the embodiment of carpe diem, or to seize the day.
To grow is to consistently seize the day.
UI KIT
Exploring Solutions
I wanted for “Grow” to offer sources of accountability and community—through group challenges with friends.
Personalizing goal-setting and productivity, while allowing for users to view their tangible progress.
External research affirmed to me the merit of psychology-based practices that promote both productivity and rest.
Reach—This product has the potential to reach multiple target audiences: students, working adults, those seeking to start and keep a hobby, etc.
Value for Consumer—The chosen solution should make users feel engaged and be seamless in integration. It should deformalize productivity.
Scrapped Ideas
I created a mindmap to explore other ideas that leaned into external and internal cues in pursuit of boosting productivity. These ideas didn’t eventually make it onto my final iterations, largely due to feasibility and time constraint concerns.
High-Fidelity
Testing
I tested out two different flows: setting and recording a goal of reading once a day for the coming week, and viewing the progress of a group challenge.
1/5
Drop-off Rate
8.6
NPS Score
While the initial testing results weren't terrible, my designs weren't perfect, and there was room for improvement.
User Feedback
2 Participants felt that the task was suboptimal in experience, from confusing text to a UI that could be less cluttered.
Next Steps
The UI had a fairly established visual hierarchy, but it lacked depth in color. It also needed to be decluttered of unnecessary elements.
With these results, I created a feedback priority matrix to determine how I could improve the overall product UX and UI.
Iterations
I added a tab bar for the goal-adding screen in order for users to customize the dates of their goals. I also lessened the use of black for selected goals to clarify the visual hierarchy.
I also widened the primary action buttons to increase hierarchy through distinction, influencing users to complete the different tasks.
I added a subtle and warm gradient to create more depth within the Ul.
I removed the unnecessary borders for cards to decrease the cognitive load and secure the visual hierarchy.
The previous summary screen held a lot of quantitative data, leading to metrics visually competing against one another. I created a separate card in order to progressively disclose information and to reduce the cognitive load for users.
View Final Prototype
SECOND TESTING RESULTS
0%
Drop-off Rate
9.4
NPS Score
Next Steps
Further customization to allow users to create saved goals could be a UX improvement.
CONCLUSIONS
Challenges and Constraints
Technical—The platform is limited to a mobile platform only.
Time—I was given an 80-hour total timeframe to develop an MVP. With more time, I would like to explore design solutions prominent in intrinsic and extrinsic motivating features.
I would've loved to explore opportunities to expand on growth, engagement and monetization for this MVP. Adding routine check-in screens for users to record their feelings on this journey would be a very technically feasible way to maintain engagement, for example.
Things I Would’ve Done Differently
My usability testing participants were a little overwhelmed when given multiple tasks to complete in one-go. In hindsight, I should’ve separated tasks into separate tests rather than group them into one.
The usage of cards for goals could be explored to create a bit more variance, there is opportunity for space to be further optimized.
Takeaways
Depending on how the product expands and grows, the design system and branding must be scalable and accounted for.
OTHER PROJECTS
© Richard Du 2023