My Today

Role:

Concept
Research
Interactions
Visuals

Duration

May - June 2022

Project Vision & Goal

My Today is a mobile app that is aimed at helping people create positive change to their daily routines. My Today will remind the user to make healthy choices and to make sure they take time out for themselves, developing good habits in the process.

Challenges

Create an easy to manage reminder list
Design an intuitive, calming UI
Introduce user to other forms of positive change
Don't demand too much from the user.

Kickoff

When starting the project, I knew there was a place for this app. However, I had to ask myself who the primary user was and what sort of goals they would have. How would we inspire someone to make a positive change and use this app? After interviewing several people and building user archetypes, it was apparent that our users really needed an app that would help them make these changes in their lives.

My Today Users

Allison

Age: 32
Occupation: Program Manager

Allison is a busy Program Manager and mother. Some days she finds herself so busy that she forgets to do things for herself like eat a healthy snack, meditate or take a walk. She would like gentle reminders during the day to help her remember to do these things.

Lacy

Age: 56
Occupation: Retail

Lacy is a busy retail associate. As a part of her daily routine, she has to take medication at different times during the day. She has found that she often forgets to take her medication when she is working. She wishes she had a way to remind her to take her medication.

Paper Wireframes

Before moving on to digital mock-ups and wireframes, I wanted to get a good starting point for what the app would look like.

Digital Wireframes

I wanted everything to be accessible to the user upon loading the app so that it was easy to know where things were located. I also wanted to include a progress tracker so the user would be congratulated for milestones.

Lo-Fi Prototype

I wanted the flow of the app to be a very easy process of your routine list being the main focus and making it easy to add other positive changes to your daily routine.

Usability Studies

I conducted two rounds of usability studies during the development of My Today (one for the Lo-FI Prototype and one for the Hi-Fi Prototype). Each round had the user accomplishing the task of adding Meditation to their routine list.

Lo-Fi Round

There were too many steps to add an item to the list
Users want a wider variety of options to add to the list
Remove checkboxes and tracking system for list items - users claimed it was making them anxious

Hi-Fi Round

Motivator reminders requested
Need more focus on the main list and less on other things like list options.

Mock-ups & Hi-Fi Prototype

Users were interested in streamlining and condensing the apps main screen to be more focused on the list and less on adding more to the list. Users wanted to focus on the things they were working on.

The steps involved with adding an item to the list have been condensed as well.

Challenge 1

To keep the user happy, positive and calm, it was essential that the list in My Today be easy to use.

By tapping any of the items in the list, they can be easily edited and by tapping the plus sign at the bottom, you can easily add another positive habit to your list.

Challenge 2

The first thing I want the user to have is a feeling of calm when they first use My Today. This is accomplished by keeping the UI dim, cool and showing some gentle, pleasing illustrations on screen.

When you're greeted, you will notice the date and this date will always feature illustrated picture of someone enjoying life in some way. This is meant to inspire joy and positivity and gently suggest to the user that they could feel this way too if they keep working on themselves.

Challenge 3

In the grand scheme of things, keeping users on the right track with making positive change is very important. By further introducing other positive habits, this will help keep them invested in themselves and overall feeling better about their lives.

Knowing this, I wanted to make sure that I had plenty of suggestions for new habits and routines available for the user. When the user goes to add a new item to their list, they will have plenty of options, coupled with links for more information about that suggestion.

Challenge 4

The last thing I want the user to feel is pressured. At the start of development of My Today, the idea was to create a task list that featured options for positive change, and you'd be able to track your progress.

During usability studies, I found that users were feeling pressured to do things like meditate or read, which is the opposite of how you should feel.

I decided to completely do away with the checkmarks on the list and the progress tracker, so that the user has total freedom over how and when they want to create their positive change. This is "their today" after all.

Sitemap & Web Media

The My Today app also has a companion landing page. As this landing page is meant to be complimentary and mostly direct the user to download the app, the Sitemap was very straight forward.

Takeaways

As someone who is trying to make positive, personal change in their own life, I found building this app to be not only rewarding but eye opening. Although, there are features that I felt like would benefit users, it was great to hear that sometimes less is more and some of us need more of a nudge in the right direction, rather than a strict regimen.

Page updated

Google Sites

Report abuse