top of page

Scrolltime

Creating a wellness app that empowers people to use social media on their terms.

Project Overview

Task

My task was to identify a market opening for a new wellness app that could enhance users' wellbeing, perform UX research, create a brand, and use UI design to bring a new app to life.  This project was capped at 10 days.

To skip to my prototype, follow this link.

Strive to enhance users' wellbeing through an app focused on habit tracking.

Market Research

Competitive Analysis

Reviewing competitor apps like OneSec, Forest, Freedom, Space and Anti-Social - as well as adjacent wellness apps like Apple Health, Noom and Headspace - delivered several key insights.

Many apps looking to moderate social media use take all-or-nothing approaches like site blocking

Several apps focus on cutting down on time spent on social media to improve productivity or mindfulness

Several successful wellness apps engage with their users via friendly messaging and assurance that they are backed by science

User Research

Survey

I started my process with a survey covering facts and perceptions related to users' social media use - including time spent on social media, types of social media used, emotions involved in social media use, previous attempts at habit change, and experience with wellness apps.


The survey had 63 respondents spanning the ages of 18-55+.  Of the respondents:
 
User Interviews

People aged 25-30 frequently reported making previous efforts to moderate their social media use on my survey.  They also reported wanting to change their patterns further.  I conducted 6 user interviews to dive deeper.

“I try to stay away from Instagram’s discovery page - it’s a time suck!”
“I scroll through social media out of habit.”
“I want to spent my free time more meaningfully.”

Expert Opinion

Subject Matter Expert Interview

I spoke with an NCC certified counselor from University of Pittsburgh's Medical Center to gain insights into how to design for my user with habit psychology in mind.

When I help clients break habits, I work with them to find activities they can replace their habits with so they don't feel a void.

User Persona

gabrielle-henderson-RZgDCQA1g60-unsplash 1.png
If you're scrolling on social media when you're alone, that isn't really alone time spent well.
Tahira J.  |  The Conscious Scroller

Tahira is a 28-year old consultant based in the Bay Area.  She enjoys learning new things and connecting with friends on social media, but also experiences FOMO and comparison. 

 

She has tried to cut down on the amount of time she spends on Instagram, but still wants to feel more in control of her social media use.  When she is scrolling, it is hard to stop.  After long days of work, the cognitive load of consciously choosing new activities to redirect her attention to feels cumbersome.

*This persona was the result of affinity mapping my user interviews.

User Journey Map

Pinpointing the Problem

I distilled my research down into a problem statement, and then reframed it as an actionable question to kick off my ideation process.

Social media users need gentle, tailored habit disruptors and tools to help them use social media effectively and in moderation so that they can experience the benefits they get from social media without feeling like they are wasting time.

How might we empower social media users to develop social media habits that align with their values?

User Story & Flow

Overarching user story

As a social media user, I need gentle, tailored habit disruptors and tools so that I can use social media effectively and in moderation, and experience the benefits I get from social media without feeling like I am wasting time.

Simple onboarding flow

Modeled after Apple Health, Scrolltime requires little user input.  I chose to focus my efforts on the input-heavy onboarding process.

User Testing Highlight

Changing App Features

My wireframes originally included a leaderboard where friends could connect and keep each other accountable on their progress toward their individual goals.  Through concept testing, I determined that users would be more likely to use the app if it were introspective.

Moving into the mid-fi design, I removed the friends feature and mood rating on the app's home page and replaced them with a journal feature for users to write about their experiences with social media.  Daily reflection prompts would also be added to the home screen.

oghome2.png

Original wireframes.

Mood Board

Drawing Inspiration

My goal was to brand Scrolltime as 

upbeat, friendly, and trustworthy to stand apart from competitors that had either serious, studious, or calm designs.

 

I drew inspiration from Apple Health's clean UI with white space and bright colors, Noom's enthusiastic onboarding process, Vessel's smooth data visualization, and more colors from Behance's library of projects.

Mood-board-excerpt- wellness shots.png

Brand Attributes & Style Tile

  • Users preferred the chosen colors over peach and yellow tones, which they found to be be gender-exclusive and untrustworthy.

 

  • Users found Spartan to be more fun and approachable than my Montserrat alternative.

  • Users found illustrations from undraw.co to be more engaging than icons alone.

Hi-Fi & Prototype

Through testing, I further refined my design to accommodate user preferences.  This included adding a section on notification preferences to the app's onboarding, alphabetizing rather than categorizing values, and simplifying the first chart on the home page.

hifiwixvalues.png
hifiwixnotify.png
hifiwixprofile.png
hifiwixhome.png

My prototype is available here.  You can toggle between the onboarding flow and notification/main app flow on the left sidebar in figma.

bottom of page