Little Moments - Case Study
A mobile application that generates inspirational quotes for users.
Project Overview
The Challenge:
People often turn to their phones when they are emotionally low, but the apps they use don’t always leave them in a better place.
The Goal:
Identify user needs and pain points at emotionally low times to create an app that helps users feel better.
My Roles:
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UX researcher
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UX designer
Empathize
Aggregated Empathy Map from User Interviews
For these interviews, I found participants with the following characteristics: People ages 18-29 who experience moments of anxiety or depression and use a smart phone every day including participants of different gender identities, sexualities, ages, abilities, and incomes. I prepared open ended interview questions including the following: What positive experiences do you have on your phone? What negative experiences do you have on your phone? How do these experiences make you feel? How often do you experience a moment of anxiety or depression during your day? When you do, what apps on your phone do you turn to? How do these apps make you feel? What mental health related apps have you tried? What did you like or not like about them? Which have you not tried? Why did you decide not to try them?
Pain Points
Users find mediation apps take too much energy and effort. We can help users by creating an app that is simple and effortless.
Users find mental health logging apps take too much dedication. We can help users by creating an app that doesn’t require any commitment or consistency.
User find they leave entertainment apps feeling tired and unmotivated. We can help users by creating an app that motivates and inspires users.
Users find social media apps often result in negative feelings. We can help users by creating an app that consistently promotes positive thoughts.
Personas
Jared Lee
“I’m only a freshman and I'm already stressin’!”
Information
Age: 18
Education: Freshman in College
Location: New York City
Interests: Gaming, Computer Science
Backstory
Jared Lee is a Freshman in college, and is already stressed out by the workload. Being the first in his family to attend college, he is under a lot of pressure, so he turns to entertainment apps to calm his anxiety between classes. Unfortunately, it keeps leaving him feeling tired and unmotivated to go to his next class. He needs to turn things around because he wants freshman year to be more fun than this.
Goals:
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Be the first in his family to Graduate College
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Have a good freshman year
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Make new friends
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Get first boyfriend
Frustrations:
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Watching videos and scrolling through social media just makes him feel tired and unmotivated
CMS
Part 2 - Define
Problem & Hypothesis Statements
Problem Statement:
Jared Lee is a freshman in college who needs a way to cope with anxiety and stress between classes so that he can have a great first year of school, other than using an entertainment app because entertainment apps leave him feeling tired and unmotivated.
Hypothesis Statement:
If Jared Lee pulls up the Little Moments app between classes he can have a moment to decompress and enjoy an inspirational and motivational quote which can help derail an anxious thought, and can be shared with his friends or classmates for fun.
CMS
Goal Statement
Our Little Moments app will let users easily and effortlessly generate inspirational quotes without having to commit to or consistently use the app, which will affect people who turn to their phone/apps when they experience moments of anxiety or depression by helping them feel more inspired, motivated, and positive. We will measure effectiveness by surveying users about how they feel after using the
Little Moments app compared to how they felt before opening the app.
Ideate
Big Picture Storyboard
Takeaways:
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Users should have the ability to share quotes via the app for people they are not with currently
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Process needs to be quick so users can benefit between activities
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Users should be able to navigate with one hand for a permanent, situational, or temporary disability like for a student holding books or a person with one arm
Close Up Storyboard
Takeaways:
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Users should receive a welcoming message on the home screen that briefly informs what the app is for and what they can do
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Users should be able to generate a new quote if the quote doesn’t resonate with them or if they want another quote
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Users should have a way to save a quote to look back on it later
Crazy Eights
Brainstorming design solutions that meet user needs by...
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being simple and effortless
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not requiring commitment or consistent use
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promoting positive thoughts
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providing motivation and inspiration
Prototype
Paper Wireframes
My wireframes helped me settle on a design with bottom tabs for easy navigation, a simple and effortless quote generator button on the home screen that shows the user quotes for motivation and inspiration, no login or signup so users aren’t required to have any commitment to or consistent use with the app, and a way to save or share favorite quotes to further promote positive thoughts and feelings.
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Digital Wireframes
No Sign up or login required
Comforting and informative welcome message
Quick and easy button to
generate quotes
Bottom tabs and large buttons for easy navigation
Re-generate quote button
for a new quote
Ability to easily save quote to favorites
Ability to easily share quote
Location to look back on saved quotes
Test
Usability Testing - Round One
Usability Testing Insights:
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All users want a confirmation that they saved a quote to their favorites.
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All users want a way to delete a favorite quote.
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Some users want a way to later share a favorited quote.
Usability Testing - Round Two
Usability Testing Insights:
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Some users can't tell whether or not the "inspire" circle is clickable
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All users with low vision can't see the circle shape around "inspire" and don't think it is clickable
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Most users are annoyed at how big the "save" pop-up is because it distracts them
Takeaways
Meeting Our Goals:
Our Little Moments app lets users easily and effortlessly generate inspirational quotes without having to commit to or consistently use the app, helping users feel more inspired, motivated, and positive.
Personal Findings:
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I was surprised to find that most users were looking for an app that doesn't require recurring use or commitment. Incidentally, eliminating the need for a profile/login helped users stay on their happy path.
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One of the biggest challenges of creating this app was adding the features that users expressed desire for, such as sharing and favoriting quotes, while keeping the app simple enough that users could effortlessly interact with it.
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Going forward, I would like to evaluate how users feel before, during, and after interacting with the Little Moments app and find more ways to increase the users feelings of inspiration, motivation, and positivity.
