PPA: a Personal Productive Assistant APP
Spring 2019
Introducing PPA! A hypothetical app that centers around optimizing productivity and time management with the support of a familiar friend/mascot. The problem this app is designed to solve is:
“HOW MIGHT WE INCREASE WORK PRODUCTIVITY AT HOME?”
But of course manifesting this app was easier said than done. I first had to get into the minds of our users…
RESEARCH:
USER Personas, User Research, Interviews + Key Insights
PERSONAS: The first step that I took to approach the problem was to create three personas. Inspired by real friends surrounding me, we have Harry - a night owl who get things done at the oddest hours of night, Natasha - a studious girl who enjoys cafe hopping, and Joey - a bright and chill guy who naps all the time. I wanted to create personas to imagine a scenario of what may be hindering their productivity or in this specific case - studying. All three are college students and the problems of time management are in close relation to their academics. A general rule I made for the app is that time must not be restricted considering the difference in when each persona does his or her work.
USER RESEARCH + INTERVIEWS: On top of this, I used secondary research and read an article about productivity indoors by Nicholas Bloom. This states how there seems to be an increase in work performance in correlation to focused productivity at home. In addition, I also included an implementation of qualitative methods. This consists of actually rounding about 10-15 students and asking them questions about their work habits and productivity throughout the day. The questions should not indicate bias so I asked questions such as: “Where do you study the best?” “What distracts you from being focused?”
KEY INSIGHTS: From the interviews, I tallied the factors that popped up the most frequently in my conversation. Among my interviews, these key insights include:
Having a set study schedule
Maintenance of physical well being leading to higher levels of productivity
Incorporating comfort to optimize productivity
Having an incentive and knowing goals
KEY QUOTES:
"If it was able to collect data on your recommended average hours of studying, that would be great."
"If the app can locate you, it can help with where specifically you are the most productive."
I decided to focus on the first bullet point on how can I implement more structure or organization to a study schedule. Everyone’s study schedule is different, so how can I create an app that satisfies everyone? Then I thought of Flora - an app that prevents the user from distraction by keeping them on the timer screen without exiting out. I wanted to modify it by adding the presence of a mascot that is more like a friend. In addition, I wanted to instill the themes I stand for which include self growth and the appreciation of little things and the little steps toward being a slightly more productive individual than the next day.
PROTOTYPING:
Ideation, Low to High Fidelity
IDEATION + LOW FIDELITY: To quickly get all my ideas out to see, I sketched out a quick brain dump and storyboard. I wanted to unclutter my mind as quickly as possible before I either forgot or replaced ideas. The idea of the 'prize' being a cute icon of Baymax holds its youth, I wanted some attributes of some of the many distractions we have such as game apps that also give you similar prize checkpoints. In addition, I wanted to highlight the increased work productivity in home where one can save money, so I wanted the reflection to be on the savings one may have if they were productive at home.
MID FIDELITY PROTOTYPING: I wanted to highlight the key screens I wanted to include in PPA! This would include adding an event of what to study, a visual overview and implementing a timer. Color palette was also taken in consideration to bring a more playful and lighthearted vibe to reduce stress/pressure.
HIGH FIDELITY: Below include some of the final screen captures of the finished product.
USER FLOW DIAGRAM:
Visual Design and Final Prototyping
USER FLOW DIAGRAM: My vision with this app is to show the benefits of optimizing productivity at home. Thus, I let the user set up where they usually study outside and made it more personal and tailored. Then, the user would go through the process of setting up an event to study and then starting on the timer. The user has options and is welcome to back out and restart if needed. To set an encouraging tone and help users stay focused on studying, I used playful graphics and motivational wording. The app ends with a reflection quota of either the time spent focusing or the money saved in the process.
REFLECTION
PPA! is the first app I ever made from bottom up. I learned a lot and also realized my obvious areas of improvements such as my organization with the wireframes and the subtle yet imperative presence of UI elements. Also making the color palette to be more of a gradient helped elevate the level of maturity in the product. If I had more time, I would implement some sort of location tracker that takes in your favorite places and how much money you spend on your favorite latte to help with the data and eventual incentive in how much you save. Also, I would focus on implementing a more structured calendar component to the app: event adding, color coding, setting up reminders, etc. This app needs more dimensions that I hope to remind myself in my future projects.
For an interactive demo, click here!
Copyright @ 2014 Walt Disney Animation. All Rights Reserved.
The model for this app was inspired by the lovely character, but will never be implemented or designed for any monetary gains. If I ever have the opportunity to design fully with this idea, it would be with a newly designed mascot of my own. PPA! is a hypothetical app.