I did this project as a design challenge in roughly 12 hours to test my capabilities and my process as a designer. I loved delving into the human psychology part of this and thoroughly enjoyed the entire process especialy the high-fidelity designs and prototyping.
The Prompt
For many people, there is a great deal of purpose and self-worth tied to our work. We often face new challenges, which can turn into learning opportunities that foster growth and change. As we commit ourselves to meaningful endeavours in the workplace, how might we make sure that we're actively tracking our thoughts and moods to help promote and maintain good mental health?
Coming up with the solution
Step 1: User Interviews
The first step after going over the prompt was to understand the challenge a bit better by talking with some real people and some very interesting observations mainly to know how people generally see and do journaling and then what process do the use. What are the key motivations and why do people sometimes fail to keep up this habit. I talked to three friends and took their impressions about journaling.
Notes from the interviews
Challenges observed with people during User Interviews
Step 2: Desk Research
To get deeper insights I sat down and did some research on the challenges. The findings i had while searching for answers to my challenges were pretty amazing.
Resources I went through on how to help build healthy habits
Step 3: User Personas
From all the research, I identified two very broad user personas:
User persona A
This is someone who is already familiar with reading and writing (generally, the habit of writing starts from a habit of reading) and may require least amount of triggers to make them write something. They just need a reliable canvas where they can put their thoughts out.
User Persona B
This is someone who is not very acquainted with the idea of writing regularly. This user will require to be educated with the benefits of journaling and help in first building a lasting habit of journaling.
Step 4: User Journey
The user journey further helped in breaking down the user personas into two smaller groups. The overall goal with this was to eventually convert the user into a habitual journal-er
User Journey catering to both personas
Step 5: Low-Fidelity Wireframes
I created two iterations of low-fidelity wireframes before getting into final designs
First Draft Wireframe
Second Draft Wireframe
Step 6: Discovering Answers to Challenges
Post the second iteration of wireframes stage, I was able to propose solutions for the challenges that I had noted earlier during the user interviews.
Step 7: Branding and Style Finalising
I did a little research on how I wanted the app to look visually. I looked up on what would be the best colors and branding styles to go with my research. Finalised colors, logo, font style and a custom load animation.
Step 7: High Fidelity Designs
Stepped into high-fidelity design in Figma after finalising the styling rules.
First Version of High Fidelity Designs
Step 7b: Final High Fidelity Designs
Stepped into high-fidelity design in Figma and after 6 variations, landed on these designs.
Additional Notes
What got missed?
There were some very good ideas that could not make it to the high fidelity because I wanted to wrap this up but still I am really proud of the outcome that was achieved and I must say it was a really interesting problem statement because personally I don't journal myself yet but after reading on the subject this much, I am starting to build this habit myself .
What more could have been done with more time and resources?
When Is stepped into research there was just way too much valuable information and learning opportunity. I was able to identify some key problems and solutions but with a larger people to interview from different demographics and backgrounds and exploring more options. I am sure that there is still a lot of more insights that can be dug out in making the experience even better.Helping the users to understand their emotions even better.
A combination of Putchik’s and Dr. Gloria’s wheels of emotion, To help users in identifying their emotions when they are going through a roller coaster of emotions and feeling multiple emotions at the same time
More elaborate Gamification
To keep the users engaged over time and help aid the journal building habit. We could add a lot of gamification. There could be special perks and abilities that can be earned and used. As people build habit of journaling they could earn variable badges. The app can also have an ability to add friends and watch a friendly leaderboard.
