Helping night owls get enough sleep without sacrificing their nighttime productivity
TIMELINE
April - May 2024
ROLE
Product, Branding, UX/UI
TEAM
Lihini Gamage
Introduction
The Problem
University students often find themselves more productive at night but end up sacrificing their sleep to complete their tasks.
The combined pressure of assignments, classes and work cause students to feel overwhelmed, creating a perpetual cycle of panic and procrastination.
As university students ourselves, we find balancing and prioritising our deadlines, in addition to ensuring we get an adequate amount of sleep, a task in itself. All nighters seem to be a common occurrence (unfortunately) in university life which leads to us feeling tired and dragging ourselves through the day due to the lack of sleep. This creates a cycle of inefficiency as we prefer working at night but consequently find ourselves tired during the day time.
The Solution
Fennec is a platform designed to ensure users get enough sleep without sacrificing their night-time productivity.
By providing innovative features to work their sleep schedule around tasks, we support users in managing their time efficiently. Our solution supports night-owls, particularly students, in optimising their productivity while ensuring they get adequate sleep. To tackle issues of task and time management, we implement accountability by gamifying tasks, incentivising users to stay focused and committed to their goals.
Discover
PART 1
Desk research
To start our research and empathise with potential users more, we used online resources like articles, scientific papers, blogs and discussion forums.
People are built differently, and we have little say over our internal clocks, our chronotypes and when our melatonin is released.
“Students might prefer to study at different times based on their chronotype, aiming to optimize their performance.”
Everyone has individual energy levels and backgrounds to consider. We college students are also constantly "on," which makes falling asleep or resting especially hard even when we have the time. It has been recognised that the human body has its own internal timings and knowing the ‘time’ pattern is important for better productivity in conducting creativity-related activities.
PART 2
Brainstorming
Using the insights gathered from the desk research, we sat together and jotted down all potential ideas we had for our application. This is also the time we created the name ‘Fennec’, inspired by the adorable nocturnal fennec fox found in Saharan deserts.
PART 3
Survey
To further solidify our understanding of our users’ needs, preferences and dislikes, we conducted a survey with a sample size of 30 university students, asking them a range of questions to gain insights on the problem and our potential solution.
Questions
How would you rate your sleep schedule from 1-5?
What time do you usually sleep at?
On average how many hours of sleep do you get?
Do you think you get a satisfactory amount of sleep?
How often is your sleep schedule disrupted by your work or university assignments?
Do you function better during the day or night?
Do you find yourself procrastinating a lot during the day?
Do you use any task/time management apps? If so, can you name them?
How likely are you to use an app that is designed to help you be productive at night?
What features would be most helpful for you in being productive at night?
What would you expect from an app like this?
The findings we gathered from this survey helped strengthen the goals of our app. We had a much deeper understanding about our audience and the range of their wants and requirements.
Findings
Most students find their sleep schedules disrupted by the continuous load of university assignments and work. No participant rated their sleep schedule as good, with 24% rating it as very poor.
“I am typically more motivated and have more energy at night, having an app will lead to better focus on tasks and less procrastination.”
The participants all seemed to want similar features in our app which would help them with time, task and sleep management. These recommended features for our app included:
Timer
Interactivity
Music focus
Sleep tracker
Focus mode
Reminders
PART 4
Interview
Questions
How do you think an app could help you feel more productive at night?
Are there any specific features you would like to see in this app and why?
Is there anything you would like to share about your nighttime productivity challenges?
Do you have any specific routines or habits that help you focus at night?
Why do you think you are more productive at night?
Have you tried any existing productivity techniques for night-owls? What and did they work?
Can you describe a specific situation where you struggled with nighttime productivity? How do you think an app would have benefitted in this situation?
What features or functionalities would be absolute dealbreakers for you in a nighttime productivity app
Would an in-app reward system make you more inclined to complete tasks and be productive?
Let's say you're on a roll with a project late at night. How would the app ensure you still get a good night's sleep?
Imagine you're working on a task at night and you start to feel tired. How would you like the app to help you in that situation?
Findings
“I prefer studying at night because of the quieter environment and there are fewer distractions since everyone is asleep. ”
The interview was an extension of the insights gathered from the survey. We wanted to hone in on areas of uncertainty regarding the wants of users, and also understand their motivation behind the need for our app.
PART 5
Competitive Analysis
Define
PART 1
Affinity Map
We sorted through all the notes and created an affinity map from all the insights gathered from the research methods, especially the survey and interview.
1
2
3
4
PART 2
Key Findings + How Might Wes
Productivity Patterns and Preferences
Students find themselves to be more productive at night-time due to lack of distractions and the pressure of deadlines. They do want to fix their sleep schedule but find themselves more productive at night.
HMW?
How might we help students who function better at night organise their tasks and schedules?
How might we ensure students get enough sleep while also working at night?
Challenges with Organization and Time Management
Students find it difficult to organise and prioritise tasks, especially with the load of assignments and deadlines to meet. They are looking for a way for them to improve their organisation skills and reduce procrastination.
HMW?
How might we help students keep track of time spent on particular tasks?
How might we improve students’ organisational skills?
How might we reduce procrastination?
Sleep and Fatigue Issues
Majority of students have an unsatisfactory amount of sleep and hence oversleep or feel tired during the day. This is due to their early schedules not suiting the productivity of their body clock.
HMW?
How might we improve the satisfaction of sleep in students to prevent them from feeling tired during the day?
Use of Technology and Productivity Tools
Most students do not use currently any productivity apps but are willing to. They find themselves usually held accountable through gamification and progress tracking in apps. The use of social media is the primary distraction and cause of procrastination in their lives.
HMW?
How might we reduce distractions like social media in students’ lives?
How might we elevate the pressure of students’ deadlines?
How might we introduce gamification to hold students accountable for their tasks?
Goals
Using our key findings and how might wes, we narrowed down on three broad goals for our app, aiming to tackle as many problems our users encountered with productivity and their sleep schedule.
Ideate
PART 1
Brainstorming
We then used the goals to brainstorm potential ideas for the different sections of our app, categorising them into 4 different themes based on their overarching goal.
PART 2
Storyboarding
We created a storyboard of how a regular user would be incentivised to use our app. This storyboard also helped us determine a generic user flow of the app.
PART 3
User Flow
The user flow documents how a regular user would open the app, add in their daily tasks and sleep time, complete their tasks, and go to bed based on the customised sleep schedule given to them.
PART 4
Information architecture
PART 5
Wireframing
We created low-fidelity wireframes and used them to conduct A/B testing with 3 participants to gauge whether certain features and layouts worked, and what required further refining.
ONBOARDING
Testing Takeaways
Participants wanted the option to skip past the onboarding process and add in the necessary details at a later point in the app.
They preferred option B, stating that it was more roomy and had a better overall layout.
HOME PAGE
Testing Takeaways
Participants liked a mix of both the options. They preferred the size of the sleep notification in option A as it was the main feature of the section and should be large.
However, they liked where the progress bar was located in option B, stating that it created a better user flow.
TIMER
Testing Takeaways
Participants preferred option B for the timer layout as they wanted a cute and motivating visual on the page.
They noted that the break mode page was redundant as they would prefer to use their phone during their break. I then devised an option of changing this page to a widget or notification which would alert users when their break was nearing an end.
CALENDAR
Testing Takeaways
The testers appreciated the calendar page overall and did not have many suggestions to offer.
They liked how there was a clear distinction between tasks and events, and suggested having allocated colours for each.
SLEEP
Testing Takeaways
For the main sleep page, the participants liked option A. They said the overall flow was less complicated and made more sense. They also liked the incorporation of widgets to display features.
For the sleep tracking page, participants liked option C. They did not like how the analytics were displayed in the other two options, calling them distracting and unnecessary.
PROFILE
Testing Takeaways
The testers once again liked a mix of both the options. They preferred the profile section of option A as they layout was more intuitive and what they were used to in other apps.
They liked the achievement section layout of option B as it was less crowded.
Prototype
PART 1
Style Guide
We created this mood board as an inspiration for all our branding assets, like our mascot, logo and colour palette. We wanted to create a warm and inviting environment for users, keeping desert-like hues of yellow, orange and purple as our main palette.
Typeface
Colour palette
Mascot
PART 2
Final Prototype
ONBOARDING
Introduces users to Fennec
The onboarding quiz acts as a introduction to new users, allowing them to learn the goals and features of the app in an interactive and engaging way.
It also records important information regarding their sleep related goals.
Users have the option to skip past this quiz and enter these details through their profile later.
HOME PAGE
Quickly view task progress
The home page displays to users their progress and upcoming tasks.
It also shows them their allocated sleep time.
Users can add Quick Tasks through their home page and view all allocated ones.
SLEEP
Track sleep goals and patterns
The Sleep page allows users to track their sleep patterns and analytics.
It provides users with recommendations for their bedtime, based on task and event durations.
Users can enter Sleep Mode to track their sleep and switch their phone to Do Not Disturb.
CALENDAR
View tasks and events
The Calendar page allows users to view past and upcoming tasks and events.
Users can view their calendar in day, week or month mode, based on their preference.
Users can add tasks or events and customise them to their preference.
TIMER
Time tasks and enter Focus Mode
The Timer page allows users to enter Focus Mode which switches their phone to Do Not Disturb.
Users can customise their focus and break times to their preference.
Users can view their progress and time taken after completing a task.
PROFILE
View progress and achievements
Users can view their progress, analytics and achievements through their individual profile.
The achievements and progress levels incentivise users and created accountability, which makes users more likely to achieve their goals and complete their tasks.
Conclusion
The End?
Creating Fennec was an enjoyable yet challenging process. I got to work closely with another designer (and my good friend) Lihini, and it was interesting to see how my design process changes when I work in a team.
Not yet…
KEY TAKEAWAYS
Working with a team is fun! I thought I’d prefer working individually, but this experience really opened my eyes to the importance of a variety of design opinions in a project
Research is the most important step. We spent a good chunk of our time researching our problem and user base, which greatly helped in every following step in our design process
User testing is key! We tested most of our design steps with users before proceeding, just to make sure we were on the right track. This helped us be more certain and confident in our ideas.
What’s next?
This is nowhere near the end of Fennec for us! We are still working on improving every feature by doing extensive user testing and feedback. We are also working on incorporating more features once we are satisfied with the current ones. We strongly believe in Fennec (being potential users of the app ourselves) and will work hard to see it come to life one day!
