Research project overview
01
Acknowledge
A tool to reframe, tag, quantify, and celebrate small wins you achieve in life to boost confidence and satisfaction.
This project aims to redesign an app that empowers individuals by acknowledging small achivemenets. I was engaged in defining user groups, and optimise and re-designing the existing app's features.
Info
02
Client
Acknowledge
Role
Product Designer
Timeline
August 2023 - ongoing
Team
Solo
Tools
Figma
Illustrator
Miro
Maze
Overview
03
Problem
How might we enable individuals to recognise and harness the power of acknowledging small achievements:
to build more self-confidence,
while also reminding them to maintain a balanced focus on all aspects of life.
Solution
Through continuous user input and testing, I redesigned the app with an optimised user flow that incorporates features like:
logging entries, providing writing prompts, reviewing past entries, and adding gamification elements to encourages consistent engagement.
Background
Current APP & Analysis
As this version of the app is no longer available on the market, I was only provided with a couple of screenshots to begin the project, and was told this APP is “A tool to reframe, tag, quantify, and celebrate small wins“ .
Some issues identified are:
The app's intention is unclear; it appears similar to other diary entry apps, with the only distinguishing feature being the inclusion of tags.
However, users might find it unclear what these tags mean and what to write about.
Finding and tracking existing entries might be challenging when only pie and bar graphs are provided.
Many accessibility issues such as colour choice, visual representation, lack of text, etc.
Project Kick-off
Before redesigning, there are two important questions…
01.
Who is the APP really for?
‘Anyone‘ clearly isn’t the answer. We know no design works for everyone.
I was left with many ambiguities, and my gut feeling told me that simply redesigning the UI of the app wouldn't be enough. ‘A house is unable to stand up straight if its foundation is crumbling inside.’ said by my grandma.
02.
Then, is the APP providing the right solution?
Is the current app providing the right and sufficient feature?
Research
Expert
Interview
Expert 1:
A licensed therapist with 2 years of full-time work experience
Expert 2:
A DPsych student in Counselling Psychology with work experience in the field
After asking the client, ‘what inspired you to build this APP?’ This question gave me a lead to where to begin my research.
The conversations were helpful:
It's the lack of appreciation and gratitude for ourselves and the events in our lives, that prevent people from recognising the importance of small wins.
Consistency and repetition for self-acknowledgment are crucial for long-term results. To encourage long-term reflection, it is suggested to add features that reward users after each acknowledgment. This will help users recognise small wins, leading to positive outcomes.
Both pointed out that the app's purpose of celebrating small wins addresses the pain point of individuals with low mood or self-esteem issues, particularly those who rely more on external validation than self-validation.
Research
User
Interview
Research Insights:
People typically recognise and celebrate major achievements, such as getting a promotion or a new job offer.
Celebrations are often work-related, with less acknowledgment of personal or self-related accomplishments.
Many individuals are unsure about the purpose and benefits of celebrating small wins, and how doing so positively affects them in the long term.
Recognising that individuals with low mood or low self-esteem are the target audience, I interviewed 4 individuals aged 20-35 in the target audience group. Through semi-conducted interviews.
Defining questions:
I realised people’s perceptions of what is worth to be celebrated are often big wins, and since I didn't receive many responses regarding small wins, I decided to ask a more defined question.
A win can be anything that gives you a sense of achievement or accomplishment. What was the last thing that made you feel a slight sense of pride in yourself?
This approach led to more answers, and they were provided fairly quickly, from this I realised the importance of using good guiding questions.
User Stories
Empathy Map
Define
Feature Prioritisation
The key is to provide users with the knowledge of:
Why is celebrating daily achievements important and beneficial?
How to write? (How to reflect?)
What to write about?
Low-Fi and Testing
Low fidelity wireframes, testing & findings
After some initial sketches, I created low-fi prototypes to quickly test out interactions and flows. I conducted testing with 4 individuals remotely, I was looking to test the clarity, and comprehension of the user flow.
Issue:
Users were generally quite slow to reflect and know what to write.
Solution:
Adding the ‘Prompts’ page to the home page and also the ‘Writing’ screen, so a user could choose to see prompts when writing.
After writing, users were slow to recognise categories and tags due to a lack of clarity in the visual representation and the purpose of categorizing each writing entry and attaching tags.
Issue:
Solution:
Adding an action sentence to explain each category and tag.
Solution:
After conducting some research, I updated and finalised the categorisation for the Love-Play-Work-Health Dashboard by Stanford Life Design Lab.
Issue:
While selecting the categories, users took quite some time deciding which ones to assign to an event. Some provided feedback, mentioning that 'Play' and 'Living' have many overlapping areas.
Mid-Fi
Medium fidelity designs & wireframes
After gathering feedback from initial user testing, I advanced the low-fi prototype to mid-fi designs, as shown below. Previously, only the main screens were designed to gather feedback. For this version, I've completed the full user flow screens.
Design System
Atomic Design System
As this is my first time designing a complete APP, I saw this as a great opportunity to create a design system. I’m using the frame of the Atomic Design System and building all the UI elements to formulate a consistent interface and experience.
Currently undergoing this at the moment:)
Will be sharing more next week!