{"id":151,"date":"2018-06-03T19:03:08","date_gmt":"2018-06-03T19:03:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/growlingwillow.com\/web170\/portfolio\/?p=151"},"modified":"2018-06-14T22:04:35","modified_gmt":"2018-06-14T22:04:35","slug":"case-study-mind-your-time","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/growlingwillow.com\/web170\/portfolio\/case-study-mind-your-time\/","title":{"rendered":"Case Study"},"content":{"rendered":"

Mind Your Time App Design<\/h2>\n

\"\"As a student and active volunteer at\u00a0Annex Theatre<\/a>\u00a0as well as someone who is exploring the field of web design and consultation, I have been tracking my time spent as well as mood to get an accurate\u00a0reflection of how well I am spending my time. After about 6 months of tracking, when people ask, \u201cAbout how many hours do you spend at Annex?\u201d I can now answer with an average number. I’ve also taken active steps to increase my downtime.<\/p>\n

I\u2019d like to share my technique with others who are interested in tracking time to make improvements. For\u00a0WEB 202<\/a>\u00a0at\u00a0Seattle Central<\/a>\u00a0with\u00a0Kathy Gill<\/a>, I discovered how to make this idea more useful for myself and potentially others. For the course I\u00a0researched potential users<\/a>\u00a0of a time tracking app by creating personas,\u00a0read about other similar products<\/a>\u00a0in order to design my differently, and\u00a0design the navigation, look, and feel of an app from start to finish<\/a>. From the perspective of learning UX design, I achieved what I set out to do: successfully explore and research potential interactions and design a time tracking app.<\/p>\n

Potential Users<\/h3>\n

Creating potential users was one of the most difficult aspects of this process. I knew that I am the target market since I built the prototype for myself and researching various types of time tracking\/mood tracking showed me that there is a potential user out there for my app idea. However, I was still unsure of who would be the target user. I used a combination of in-person interviews with friends and colleagues in order to develop three unique personas<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

Design Process<\/h3>\n

Mind Your Time was designed in a class, so there was a step-by-step design process I am thankful I worked through. I began with thinking about my product and how it might be different or similar than my existing google form. I researched competitors to discover what I liked and didn’t like about various types of time tracking and mood tracking apps. I completed assignments for persona research, navigation, and ultimately designed the look and feel with Adobe Illustrator.<\/p>\n

Sketches<\/h4>\n

I used a combination of pen and paper, brainstorm and discussions, and feedback from my small group in class. I hand drew my ideas for navigation in order to keep my thinking speedy while not being bogged down by technology. I iterated several versions, inspired by Slack<\/a>‘s introduction for first-time users, Instagram<\/a>‘s option layout, and\u00a0Clue<\/a>‘s option layout as well as calendar focus. Being asked to speak my plan out loud for how I wanted users to interact with the app showed me flaws in my plan and inspired others to come up with ideas of how to improve the process.<\/p>\n

Navigation<\/h4>\n

Thinking through the steps a first-time user will take when they open the app led me directly to Apple’s App Developer Guidelines, specifically their page on app architecture and navigation<\/a>. I spent a lot of time thinking, \u201cWhat is the first thing a user will want to do when they open the app?\u201d<\/p>\n

I learned quickly I wanted the user to be able to add a new post immediately when opening the app. One of my teammates suggested including a calendar integration, which I really liked. Why couldn’t the app read information from your calendar and prompt you to record it as an activity you want to track? Instead of having to enter in new information from scratch every time (much like I do with my personal form now), I wanted the user to be able to integrate the use of the app into their every day life. Either by being prompted by a custom notification or by choosing to open the app, the first interaction with the user is the day. Go to the day, choose an event or add a new one, and fill out the rest of the information from there.<\/p>\n

I changed my original placement of the \u2018add new\u2019 button in the bottom center to the bottom right. The button is now still easily accessible in the bottom right corner<\/a>, but not the primary point of focus when you open the app. Once I knew the calendar was going to be the first page, I began designing that screen first.<\/p>\n