stressed & overwhelmed
Role: UX Designer
Duration: 2 months
Methods: root cause analysis, user profile, user scenario mapping, card sorting, feature prioritization, user interviews, user flows, usability testing, prototyping
Duration: 2 months
Methods: root cause analysis, user profile, user scenario mapping, card sorting, feature prioritization, user interviews, user flows, usability testing, prototyping
Stressed & Overwhelmed was a group project that sought to relieve the unease surrounding productivity in changing times.
We designed an app that would incentivize students to finish their to-do list items with in-app currency to spend on characters at the app’s store.
We designed an app that would incentivize students to finish their to-do list items with in-app currency to spend on characters at the app’s store.
view prototype 1 (task creation) & prototype 2 (shop)
preliminary report | second report | final report
search: how to be productive in a pandemic
By winter, we were 3/4ths of a year deep in a radically new lifestyle.
For some, it meant staying inside for months on end. For others, it meant opening the door to a world of uncertainty. 
Yet we get fed success stories of how people have turned it around for themselves and used it as a time of reflection. That productivity really can thrive, and was appeared easily achievable.
We wanted to figure out the motivations of those who kept it together and the deterrents faced by those who were “working on it” to discover the answer to the question posed above.
insights from research
focus group + target audience
As college students ourselves, we wanted to see how our peers were doing. We held focus group discussions with a total of 15 participants to learn more about the demographics and situations of other students.
In our user profile, we narrowed it down to technologically savvy undergraduates who balanced both school and work:
Here were the major takeaways:
![Person in circle]()
We opened up discussions of mental health and how our current situation influences the drive we have to finish even the simplest chores.
- external pressures like sociopolitical climate and family concerns heavily affect one’s mood to do work
- people fluctuate between high + low phases of productivity
- productivity heavily ties into “self-care”; sometimes it’s better to take a break and sometimes it’s better to push through
We opened up discussions of mental health and how our current situation influences the drive we have to finish even the simplest chores.
I was touched by the transparency of the people we talked to. They chose to be open about their struggles, which is hard to do when everyone strives to keep up the appearance of being “productive.”
We were not sure what our solution would look like, but I knew that I wanted to create something comforting, something that would not evoke stress at the mere thought of it.
We were not sure what our solution would look like, but I knew that I wanted to create something comforting, something that would not evoke stress at the mere thought of it.
We centered our conversations around Bella, an undergraduate student trying to manage her academics, extracurriculars, and sleep.
interviews + root cause analysis
From our user interviews, those who expressed difficulty in balancing their time often lamented about not being organized enough. There were many things to keep track of and update over time, and sometimes even looking at a full calendar was intimidating.
On top of all that, they did not feel like they had much of an incentive to overcome that hump. Many calendar and planner apps rely on their user’s need and willpower to use them, but once that motivation is gone, so is the act of checking the app.
On top of all that, they did not feel like they had much of an incentive to overcome that hump. Many calendar and planner apps rely on their user’s need and willpower to use them, but once that motivation is gone, so is the act of checking the app.
observation process + user scenario
Below, we have the ideal scenario:
However, sometimes even the thought of opening those apps can be stress-inducing. We saw the value in these apps, but wanted to bring something new to the table.
To avoid intimidating people, we wanted to turn the experience into a game. Apps like Forest were also brought up; apparently, the desire to collect every plant or to not kill a tree helped them focus and want to use the app again.
user flow
In the user flow, I break down the user scenario further but within the context of using our app.
We narrow down features we need to prioritize implementing in order to accomplish the essential action of adding and completing a task. It also establishes the gameplay of “planting” and “harvesting” crops for in-game currency, which creates incentives for users.
card sorting + app features
We compiled a list of potential actions within our app, but still needed to group them to create an intuitive organization structure. A card sorting activity was the approach we took to figuring out our navigation menus.
Using a digital tool OptimalSort, we had 5 participants categorize a list of potential tasks and actions under broad categories. Below are the results that I compiled:
Participants agreed on how to group social features (e.g. “study with a friend”, “view friend productivity activity”, etc.) but were divided on how to categorize additional features that did not necessarily belong in one place (e.g. “receive notification reminders”, “receive goal suggestions”, “enable alarm”).
An unexpected finding was that people would categorize features they deemed most important to see under the Home Page, which was additional insight that helped us narrow down what to include in our prototype. Meanwhile, features viewed as less useful were categorized under Secondary Features. These insights helped us create our feature prioritization matrix.
designs
creating a goal + task
shopping
usability feedback
The shop was well-received as an added incentive to using the app! Many were also delighted by how friendly the placeholder characters looked, which confirmed that having “cute” characters lowered our productivity app’s initimidation factor.
However, there were still concerns that our participants brought up that needed to be addressed:
people are hesitant to move to a new app since transferring all their events can be time-consuming
︎︎︎ linking to pre-existing calendar/to-do list apps would make the transition between apps smoother
“one-time exchange” incentives may not be enough to maintain long-term engagement
︎︎︎ the app could grow to support more variation in purchases like house upgrades for your characters to live in OR have real world impact (e.g. Forest allows you to plant real trees with the time you invest)
the “cuteness” of the app may unintentionally alienate a portion of the target audience and discourage them from using it
︎︎︎ strike a good balance between cute but practical OR fully embrace the audience that a “cute” app would attract
conclusion ︎
Overall, I had a fun time with my team trying to figure out how to turn productivity into something fun and relatively stress-free. As someone who turned to video games like Stardew Valley as a way to ease my nerves during this quarantine, I wanted to bring incentive / motivation systems from game design into app design to make the task-making process more explicitly rewarding for people.
I also gained more perspective on how to handle participant interactions, especially when dealing with personal and sensitive topics such as mental health. Our team was mindful of the way we phrased our questions and ensured that participants always felt like they could opt out of answering our questions. Once again, we were stunned by the honesty we received during our interviews and reminded me of the struggles that
For more insights, please check out our preliminary report, second report, and final report.
Thank you to my team for working together to coordinate interview times and debrief meetings in the middle of exam seasons. I would love to work on another fun game/app hybrid project like this!