RightNow: A Productivity App
August 2021-December 2021
Team
Me, myself, and I
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Tools
Figma, Adobe After Effects, Miro, Photoshop, Microsoft Excel, Google Forms
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Product
Centralizing productivity resources onto a minimal, meditative, and mindful platform
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Roles
UX Researcher and Analyst, UI and Visual Designer, and Product Designer
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Design Process
The inspiration
With the pandemic and constant change, it has been difficult to find a safe and peaceful way to work, study, and manage tasks, while also staying motivated and focused. The available digital resources are scattered across multiple sites.
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With this in mind, I wanted to centralize and streamline the resources into an app that people can use
The need
To create a safe centralized space within the application so that users can immerse themselves into their work in a peaceful digital environment.
How to best encourage a deep and mindful work session?
Empathizing with people
The target demographic is between the age of 14-50, anyone who works, studies, needs to focus can use the application.
Figuring out people's problem by conducting research on their current situation
Analyzing the existing solutions, and why they aren't enough
Researching to find new solutions to solve those problems by asking people what they want to see
Getting to the root of the problem
The aim of this survey was to find out how users currently manage their tasks and how they feel about their current method
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It included questions such as
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How has the pandemic made you feel productivity-wise?
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What do you use in your everyday life to help you manage your tasks?
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What do you like and dislike about your current method?
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What would you like to change about current work task management?
Research Insights
Competitor Analysis
To ensure that I understood the problem, it was important to analyze the current productivty apps that also cater to a similar audience.
Surverying to determine the Functions/Features
Evaluating existing applications by:
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Looking at the top 15 productivity applications
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Analyzing and grouping their features/functions into categories
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Sending these categories to user participants
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Understanding what they are looking for in a successful application
Based on the research, the 5 most valued/used features were
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To-Do lists
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Digital Planners/Spreads
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Calendars
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Study timers
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Muting social media/distracting apps
Solidifying the objectives
Based on the proposed solution, goal, and user research, here are the features and functions that were finalized for the application. All the features would be centralized onto one platform.
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​Do not disturb: Automatically put your phone on silent mobile while working to avoid unnecessary distractions.
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Session timer: This shows you how much time you have left to complete tasks, giving you a motivation boost towards the end of each session.
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To-do lists: Manage tasks and make sure everything gets done by the right team member.
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Calendar/Planners: Define your goal for the day, set your tasks, and get stuff done.
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Focus music: Play background music to help you keep your focus.
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A meditative and peaceful environment that helps users calm themselves and regulate their breathing
Bringing a Brand Identity to life
I decided to call the product "RightNow" because I want the app to enable and empower people to feel motivated enough to do their work right now, instead of procrastinating!
Color Psychology and it's impact
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Red – Excitement, bold, and youthful.
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Orange – Friendly, cheerful, and confident.
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Purple – Creative, wise, and imaginative.
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Blue – Trustworthy, dependable, and strong.
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Green – Peace, growth, renewal, and stability
Final Branding
The application’s UI would focus on being
minimal
mindful
& meditative
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User Flow Map
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Create independent features allowing for scalability
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Smooth navigation and entry point awareness through the home button
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Customizable profiles for music, study timers, and 3rd party application usage
Wireframe Sketches
I needed to get a very basic understanding of how my screens were going to look, and interact with one another, so to do this, I did a very low fidelty sketched out version of the screens.​
Low Fidelity Digital Wireframes
Once I had an understanding of where I wanted to go with the screens, I constructed a low fidelity grey scale version of the screens. However, I realized that I was missing out on one of the key features the users had wanted, a meditative and mindful experience.
Making it a "meditative and delightful" experience
To really understand this, I did research on shapes, meditation, and effective and mindful focus work. Additionally, I also did motion studies from apps like Headspace, Calm, and Buddhify to understand how they use motion to accentuate the experience.
Animation to replicate the respiratory speed of 15 breaths/minute (advised rate for average normal adults)
Animated to mimic main screen
Third Party Integrations
It was important to be able to integrate other prominent existing applications to make the usability easier and more cohesive, without the worry of losing data in multiple places.
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Interactive Prototype
User Testing
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For the next 2 weeks, I had 6 users go through the product, (as a form of guerilla testing) and each of them gave me feedback on what was working, and what could be improved
Objectives for user testing:
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Navigate through the RightNow application with ease.
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Log in or sign up for the app
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Mute their social media
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Add an item to the to-do list
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Complete a study session
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Add an event to the planner
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Questions to be answered:
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Do users find the interface appealing enough to return to the app?
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Is there a way for users to get to and from every screen?
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Will users get confused while navigating through the app?
Positive results and much more to do
​What I learned​
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User research is crucial to building a strong foundation for the rest of the process to flow smoothly
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Designing the user interface takes a lot more thought than it seems
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Shapes and motion really accentuate and enhance a product
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Entry point awareness is crucial
​What I would do differently
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Implement Apple's Human Interface Guidelines and Google's Material Design system to create high-quality digital experiences and make the handoff to developers a smooth process
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Explore UI on different platforms
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More in-depth research on how Motion can make the app more informative, expressive, and focused