College students report getting distracted and thrown off their daily schedules, often due to their mobile phones. We designed Mindful to solve this by creating friction when trying to open selected apps during scheduled hours and encouraging self-reflection.
timeline
6 weeks
team
Aiden Eichenour, Anushka Chadha, Cyril Stephen, Harsha Gowda, Shreya Kamath
my role
User Research & Synthesis, Ideation, Feature Scoping, UI Design & Prototyping
impact
Impact: user satisfaction scores on ability to follow through their schedule
design process
Project Timeline
research
We found that college students struggled with three key areas - assignments, studying, and time management
research
To dig deeper, we conducted follow-up interviews to uncover what made these three areas challenging
This was done by conducting follow up interviews with students from our previous round, and interviewing new participants who were screened for fit using surveys.
define
To converge on what to solve for, we picked time management. More specifically, we picked solving for phone distractions. Why?
Highest impact
While time management was the most repeated challenge that students reported, upon digging deeper, phone distractions emerged as the most common culprit consuming their time.
01.
Underlying cause of other issues
Our initial research identified assignments and studying as major struggles. In our second phase, we found that phone distractions were a key factor making these tasks even harder to manage.
02.
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problem statement
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persona
Meet Emma - we solve distraction management for her
ideation
Solution idea: A tool that creates friction and encourages self-reflection while distracted
wireframes pt. i
Findings From Our Low-Fidelity wireframe Testing
Core functionalities of restricting an app, and changing the app “tone” was intuitive to complete.
Lack of user control — Multiple users wanted to close the screen while trying to open a "blocked app" since they grew impatient of waiting.
Confusion about prototype integrity — Users were confused on why the timer wasn’t moving.
business thinking
So far so good, but how could this product make money?
We introduced a feature — “credits”, as an approach to make this project viable from a business perspective.
The idea here was that by subscribing, a user would have a limited number of “credits” which allow them to bypass the restriction that Mindful would otherwise impose.
Since these “credits” would be limited in number and would only allow the user to use an app for a limited time, we believe it balances the core functionality while simultaneously having an opportunity to make money.
wireframes pt. II
Findings From Our First Mid-Fidelity wireframe Testing: The Onboarding Failed To Activate The Users
Upon testing the onboarding in mid-fidelity, we understood that users didn’t properly comprehend the core functionality of the app. This lead us to re-working our copy writing for better user activation.
wireframes pt. III
Key Finding From Our Second Mid-Fidelity wireframe Testing: The Re-iterated Onboarding Successfully Activated Users
By rewording the copy to be more conversation-like, our user tests revealed better overall comprehension across the majority of the participants involved.
Increased comprehension across all participants due to re-worded copywriting.
Users wanted to absorb the onboarding content at their own pace, but the timed animation disrupted this.
design system
Finalized design system
solution
Final design Highlights: Restricted Screen
The core screen of the app — the restricted screen, is displayed once a user tries to open a blocked app during their scheduled hours.
solution
Final design Highlights: Tone of Voice Control
One of the goals we set to achieve among users was self-reflection, which looks different for everyone. By allowing users to control how the app speaks to them, we account for differences in personal preference. This feature was well received among our participants that we tested in on.
solution
Final design Highlights: Credits
By allowing a user to bypass restriction while opening a "blocked app" using credits, we lay the foundation for an avenue that can be monetized down the road.
For this MVP however, credits are free.
testing
Comparing testing Metrics Across All Fidelities
impact
Our final testing got an overwhelmingly positive response. But one quote stood out above others
Our idea for this solution was "A tool that creates friction and encourages self-reflection while distracted".
This quote perfectly captures that idea and as a team, we believe that this is a testament of our execution of that idea.
reflection
Lessons That Defined the Product — and Me
Seek first to understand
Actively listening to teammates and users deepened my insights, improving every decision I contributed to.
01.
Be kind to yourself & others
Approaching teamwork with empathy and patience not only improved collaboration but also led to better ideas.
02.
Stay curious, and keep learning
Challenging assumptions and staying curious pushed me to explore new perspectives, improving my work.
03.
