Speak Easy
MOBILE
DATE
LENGTH
CLIENT
March 2021
4 weeks
National Wellness Institute
ROLES
UX Researcher
Information Architecture
UI Designer
Content Designer
Interaction Designer
Rapid Prototyping
PARTNER PROJECT : LAUREN RAMOS
Usability Testing
Branding
Brief
Conduct user research to understand people’s relationship with mental, physical, and emotional wellbeing in order to develop a tool that will drive them to action.
My proposal: Create a voice-activated journaling and stress management app which allows users to record their feelings verbally, view past journal entries, and review emotional trends over time.
Methodology: Design Thinking Model
01. Empathize
User Research
To begin tackling this challenge, Lauren and I held a brainstorming session and determined that we wanted to offer a product to help users manage their stress by creating a visual journaling app that would allow users to incorporate art into their wellness routine. In order to validate our idea, we used a Lean Survey Canvas to develop specific questions that would provide us with data on what wellness app or strategy users are currently using, why they use it, and the effectiveness of that app/strategy.
Out of the 18 survey responses we received, we learned that Exercise (88.9%) and Talking (61.%) were the most popular stress management strategies used, whereas Art was only used as a tool by 16.7% of survey takers. We also noticed that the likelihood to use an app for stress management was inconsistent, and that about half (55.6%) of survey takers believed the app or strategy they already used was effective.
Pain Points
Using an affinity diagram, we synthesized the data to flesh out pain points and design opportunities.
After synthesizing the user research data we fleshed out 4 specific pain points
Market Research
Next, we began researching competitors to better understand what products were already being offered, focusing on other mood journaling apps. We found that our main competitors were:
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Moodfit
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Woebot
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MoodApp
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My Life My Voice
We then completed a Market Positioning Map based upon the app’s complexity and whether or not its UI was more modern or traditional. Our goal was to focus on a niche that is modern, but with a basic, or minimalistic, and easy-to-use interface (the pink star).
02. Define
Persona
Lauren and I created a User Persona, Venting Veronica, based on our user research in order to define expectations, needs, and motivations so that we could design a successful user-centered product. Veronica is a young designer in need of a wellness app that allows her to journal quickly enough to keep up with her thoughts.
Journey Map
Veronica’s journey map shows multiple design opportunities including:
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Quick access dashboard
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Voice recording
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Data visualization
Veronica’s job to be done is to use our voice journaling app when they are feeling stressed or wanting to talk and to keep track of their entries over time.
03. Ideate
Mind Mapping
Based upon the market research, we used mind-mapping to ideate potential features that we prioritized using the MoSCoW method. From earlier user research we wanted to include the following key features without commenting:
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Emoji quick entry
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Voice recording
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Password protection
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And data visualization
Concept Sketches
In order to ideate potential user flows, I completed a Use Case for the Speak Easy app. This Use Case also helped in determining potential alternative flows.
User Flow
The User Flow also shows some of those alternative flows as well as the user’s “happy path”.
04. Prototyping
Low-Fi
After developing the primary user flow, we created a Low-fi prototype to test basic usability. From there, we moved on to the Mid-fi prototype with a more detailed task list through Maze to test the product.
05. Test
Using the Maze user testing platform, users were asked to complete the following Tasks:
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Task #1 - Record a session
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Task #2 Add details about what the session was about. Select “happy” and “meh” emotions. Add a brief entry
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Task #3 -Check the data by navigating from the journal to insights (graphs)
Mid-Fi
Based upon the user testing we determined:
Task 1 was the most successful with only a 9.5% mis-click rate.
Task 2 and Task 3 were not as successful. We determined from testers that “meh” be exchanged for a more specific and universally understood term such as “anger''.
Data analysis also showed that the words “dashboard” and “insights” were too similar which suggested that it would be best to change “dashboard” to “home” or something more related to the recording aspect.
06. Solution
Visual Competitive Analysis
After determining where in the market we wanted to be, we then completed a Visual Competitive Analysis for MoodApp and Moodfit. During our visual competitive analysis we noticed that the color palettes and typography were very simple and interfaces were either very simple with minimal features, or very complex with information that overwhelmed the users.
MoodApp
Visual inspiration was taken from MoodApp which offered a dark/atmospheric interface with pops of color. Lauren and I found MoodApp’s UI to be calming and cohesive.
Moodfit
Unlike MoodApp, Moodfit’s UI was much more generic, with simple blue headers and white backgrounds per screen. However, we were inspired by Moodfit’s use of emoji categorization because of its simplicity.
UI and Brand Design
To determine brand identity, we completed and tested a mood board featuring darker, saturated colors.
Desirability Testing
The first design featured a combination of the lighter colors from the color palette. After desirability testing, we completed a redesign that more closely matched the initial UI goal. The result was a more mature aesthetic highlighting the deeper colors from the color palette.
After the desirability testing, we also redesigned the logo and rabbit graphic to a less detailed version. The final design of the rabbit created a better visual contrast with the darker background.
The Prototype
