Smoothly
For smoother mornings ahead
Waking up in the morning isn’t always the easiest thing to do. Some people wake up feeling motivated while others wake up feeling already defeated. And, we’ve all been there before -- we make a commitment to ourselves, do great for the first week or so, and then we slack off a bit, slowly reverting back to our old ways. Smoothly is a solo project designed over the course of five weeks to help people build strong positive habits by incrementally targeting their mornings. They say how someone spend their mornings often tells what kind of day they’re going to have -- why not encourage a peaceful and positive morning to promote a wonderful productive day.
"How do people develop good long-lasting habits?"
Challenge
Finding a way to help people keep motivated, on schedule and consistent was a huge challenge in the development of smoothly. There were quite a few factors in play, such as what motivated people? How do people develop good long-lasting habits? And, people’s schedules change all the time, how can smoothly change with them?
User Interviews
On a mission to answer some of these challenging questions, I interviewed four young adults; three of them were new college graduates and one had been out of school for quite some time. The goal was to get an idea of what approaches they’d take to develop a habit, and which approach worked and which did not.
Discovery
In those interviews, I discovered a pattern amongst the group of users; every time they attempted to develop a good new habit, they’d try to wake up earlier than usual to knock it out of the way but waking up early, consistently was somewhat “gruesome”, and they could not stick to it.
I also discovered the new graduates were having trouble adjusting to a life without a college schedule, and the user who’d graduated over a decade ago, also needed an adjustment to life due to new life circumstances, like raising a new child.
There were quite a few discoveries, but these were the ones that seemed to concern them the most.
"How might we gradually increase the amount of time users feel they have for themselves in the morning to ease their anxiety and get them into a consistent daily routine?"
The Problem
People struggle with developing a consistent healthy morning routine and normally just “go with the flow”. They struggle with the constraints of time, the feelings of anxiety, and the introspection of accomplishing something. How might we gradually increase the amount of time users feel they have for themselves in the morning to ease their anxiety and get them into a consistent daily routine?
User Journey
and Personas
I put together a user journey map to identify which areas, when developing a new habit, presented an opportunity for adjustments and improvements. I discovered that our users knew what to do, they just need help doing it. They needed something that will help them, plan and prioritize, break down tasks into smaller tasks, as well as remind them to do said tasks. And, then, the personas were born!
" And then, the personas were born!"
The Happy Path
The idea behind smoothly is users would wake up to a motivational phone call which has been previously recorded by either themselves, a friend, or a friendly smooth-bot. Users preferred a call over an alarm or reminder. Each day the call gradually gets the user into their goal wake-up time.
Users see their daily routine which has been customized and prioritized based on the habits they want to develop and the time afforded at check-in.
Users reflect daily to see their weekly and monthly progress which gives them a sense of accountability and accomplishment.
Sketches Wireframes
and Prototypes
After several iterations of the main screens, I put some wireframes together in whimsical, and designed a prototype using Invision to test with potential users.
Usability Testing
I tested with three ideal users. Their feedback was extremely eye-opening. Overall, the users had an idea of what the purpose of the app was and how to complete certain tasks such as checking in, adding activities to their routine, and editing their wake-up call time. There were few requests amongst the users that really stood out to me, one of them being a journaling feature.
The "final" Product
I took the users' feedback and added the journaling feature and removing others. This is what the final product looks like.
Main screens
Takeaways
Designing Smoothly was extremely fulfilling. The process from start to finish allowed me to try different methods of researching. I learned how to screen participants to get ideal users to interview and test with. I learned the importance of removing yourself from the design equation and putting yourself in the user's mind. I learned the beauty of iteration and getting feedback from your peers and mentors, and I learned that the users are usually just as excited as you are to see the finished product. I absolutely love seeing the evolution of Smoothly, this is definitely a project I will continue to work on and hope to see in the app stores.