The Problem

This was a final project I did for my UX Design Immersive at General Assembly.

My product began with an umbrella. More specifically, the abundance of umbrellas I had in my house because I always found myself unprepared for the weather and would buy a new umbrella every time I got caught in the rain. I thought that I could create a morning readiness app that would remind you to bring an umbrella, pack a sweater, etc. to help you be more prepared for your day.

I wanted to conduct some preliminary research to see if this was a problem for others as well, so I sat down with some of my friends and coworkers to ask them about their morning routines. Many of the people I spoke with shared in this frustration. One of my coworkers had the same pile of umbrellas in her apartment, which she called “panic umbrellas” - bought at a drugstore out of desperation and lack of preparedness. But a pivotal moment came when I spoke with my friend, who shared this insight:

Preliminary Research

Casting a wide net: online survey

This got me thinking about the impact of the night before. I had heard similar insights from a few of the people I spoke with, but I wanted to cast a wider net. I created and distributed a survey around nighttime and morning routines and how people stay organized and prepared. I received 26 responses, and sure enough, over 70% of my survey respondents got ready for their day the night before.

Most of my survey questions were open-ended. They included the following:

Synthesis: affinity mapping

With this qualitative data, it was helpful to use affinity mapping to categorize and find themes in these answers. I used sticky notes to write down some common words or ideas in the responses I got from my survey and arranged them into categories: bedtime routines, unwinding/relaxation, preparation, inertia, and mornings.

I noticed a stark contrast between the ways that people described their mornings and their evenings. People talked a lot about winding down and relaxing after work, making that transition from work to home. Evenings are slow paced, me-time, comfortable - people perform actions like changing out of their work clothes into comfy clothes. On the flip side, mornings are hectic, busy, and mostly focused on getting out the door and to work on time. 

Unexpected Observations

Something I wasn’t expecting to find from my research was that 23% of my survey respondents talked about their routines being impacted by or even dependent on someone else - a partner, spouse, or even a pet. In talking about her evening routines, my coworker shared that her signal to start getting ready for bed was tucking her dog into his bed after she’d taken him outside. Of course, I had to ask for photo evidence and it was just as cute as you’d imagine.

Diving deeper: in-person interviews

I was intrigued by this insight, so I honed in on some of these respondents’ answers by sitting down with 10 of them for in-person interviews about their nighttime habits. This is where I started to dive deep and have some really in-depth conversations about people’s habits and attitudes around nighttime readiness. I had a great conversation with my friend Gabe about how his nighttime habits changed over time. He said: “In college, I used to stay up til 2 am eating pizza and playing games because no one was going to stop me. When I met my wife and we started living together, I started getting ready for bed earlier and sleeping more consistently because we'd do it together.”

Many people like Gabe who lived with a partner/spouse had pretty consistent schedules when it came to getting ready for bed and sleeping. Since their routines involved another person, they had someone to keep them accountable and perform these routines together.

On the other hand, many of those who were single or lived alone struggled much more with getting to bed at a reasonable hour every night. Without someone or something to give them that push, they procrastinated on getting the process started. I spoke with many single twenty-somethings who expressed that they found themselves sleeping much later than they wanted to every night, or that they had inconsistent sleep schedules. Both of these things led to a less healthy lifestyle and increased stress. From my conversations with this population, I was able to create a persona named Carrie who embodied the pain points and lifestyle of my interviewees:

Building empathy: persona

Pivot: ready to unready

Carrie has a great routine that transitions her from work to home, but she struggles to make that transition into bedtime. Her only signal to start getting ready for bed is panic that she has to wake up in a few hours, and by that time, it’s too late to get enough sleep.

I loved Carrie’s word for the process of preparing for bedtime: unready.

This served as a turning point in my problem statement, which I initially thought revolved around morning readiness (remembering to pack that umbrella!). I understood now that it wasn’t a morning problem - the root cause lies in the night before.

User Journey

I also conducted some research on smartphone usage based on time of day. According to app analytics specialists Localytics, people are most active on their smart devices between 9 - 11 pm. Based on this research as well as feedback that I heard in my interviews, I would have a much better chance of introducing an app during this time, rather than in the mornings when people are rushing out the door to work and are getting inundated with notifications from the night before.

I sketched a user journey to map out where this product would be most valuable and most often used given what I knew about my users’ lifestyles. The app would be used after users had returned home from work and had transitioned into being comfortable at home. Some users talked about some kind of signal, like taking a shower, which would kickstart their bedtime routine. For people like Carrie who struggled to get themselves to begin, this app would serve as that signal to start transitioning into bedtime.

Problem Statement

My problem statement was framed around my persona: Carrie needs a way to be inspired to get unready from the day because she finds it hard to motivate herself to start the process and ends up sleeping later than she'd like as a result. 

I began ideating on solutions. My classmates collaborated in an ideation session that resulted in some ideas like support, small habits, accountability, an alarm, rewards, and lists.

Sketching/Wireframing

I then began sketching out a concept for a bedtime checklist, which would help users get everything they needed done in order to go to bed (brush teeth, shower, etc.). Every night at a certain time, a push notification would send users to the app to begin their routines.

I also created a sitemap to lay out the architecture and navigation of my app.

Pivoting again: rituals

After looking back on the conversations I’d had with people like the woman who tucks in her dog every night, I felt that my bedtime checklist concept was missing something.

I realized that getting ready for bed and being prepared for the next day isn't just about adding notifications to help users get stuff done, but about helping them take the time to transition into bedtime. I started thinking about the concept of rituals, which are nighttime activities that could help get users into a positive mindset of transitioning into good sleep. I wanted users to feel like rituals were being made just for them - that they were being cared for. 

I hypothesized that users could be inspired to get unready and prepared for the next day in a relaxed environment which could help them sleep consistently earlier. The design challenge for me was to create an app that would make getting ready for bed a more enjoyable experience centered around self-care and personal improvement.

Competitive Analysis

To get some inspiration and to see what else exists in this problem space, I looked into two services that help people get better sleep and better health in general.

Care/of

The first of these was Care/of, which is a personalized vitamin service online. Their branding and marketing strategy was very much about a product that was “just for you” and personalized for your needs.

Headspace

I also researched Headspace, which is a leader in the mental health/mindfulness space.

Prototyping: MVP

With all of this inspiration, I began working on my MVP, which included a quiz to help personalize rituals for each user, a reminder that nudged you at a certain time each night to get unready, personalized rituals based on your quiz, and a progress page where you could access each previous entry. My priority was to create a clickable prototype as soon as possible so that I could get it into users’ hands for feedback. Research was baked into each step of my process, and it was important to me to conduct evaluative research with a prototype to ensure usability and get a feel for how users were navigating the app. I used Sketch to create the designs, then link them up with hotspots. I used Sketch Mirror on my iPhone and allowed users to tap through to emulate what it would feel like to actually use the app on a mobile device.

Iterate & Iterate & Iterate…

This step was hugely valuable, as it exposed some of the architectural as well as visual flaws in my prototype. Through testing I realized that my colors, particularly the lightest blue/purple shades, did not provide enough contrast with the white text. After realizing this, I made sure to check with online tools to follow ADA guidelines so that my designs would be accessible.

I received some valuable feedback about the placement of the quiz. Users initially felt that the quiz was a little out of place right after onboarding. Moving it behind “Add a New Ritual” in the empty state of the “My Rituals” screen contextualized this quiz and also prevented users from slowing down or dropping off in the beginning of the app.

Users also mentioned wanting some kind of feedback after they’d finished a ritual - something that confirmed that they were finished and might even make them feel good about their accomplishment. Rather than taking them straight to their progress, I added an interstitial that encouraged the user and gave them the option to continue on to another ritual or view their progress.

The Product

You can click below to explore the final prototype of the MVP. I linked my Sketch files up in InVision to create this.

Next Steps

I would love to introduce a social component to this app to fully embrace the idea of caring/being cared for and allow users to have a buddy system or a social support network. This would involve more research into how users might interact with others through this app, as well as how a feature like this would enhance the experience.

I would also like to use a different prototyping tool that would allow users to enter in their own responses rather than filling in the fields with preselected answers. This would allow me to see the app being used in a closer-to-real-life scenario.