Overview
Project Goal
A two-week challenge to craft a wellness app focused on young parents juggling bedtime routines for their children.
Problem
Sleep is crucial for preserving our overall well-being. Yet, parents with little ones often face slumber difficulties due to their children's resistance and unpredictable sleep patterns, which ultimatly undermine the family's overall well-being.
Solution
Napp is a dedicated iOS mobile application designed to assist parents with young kids in establishing and sustaining sleep schedules, monitor their overall success, and gain credible guidance from experts in childhood and sleep.
Early research and competitor analysis confirmed our initial assumptions regarding the impact of bad sleep habits on physical and mental health, as detailed by various sources like the USA’s National Heart, Lung and Blood Institute or sleepfoundation.org. Concurrently, we conducted a competitor analysis, which unexpectedly led us to discover a Pokemon-themed sleep app. Despite this surprise, we meticulously analyzed various features offered by competitors, including meditation guides, soothing sounds, sleep tracking capabilities, and detailed analysis features. Recognizing the need to differentiate ourselves, we identified two target audiences: working young adults facing stress and parents, particularly those managing young children. Notably, we observed a gap in sleep apps addressing parenting issues, setting our project's direction.
Primary research involved gathering insights through interviews and surveys with young parents, focusing on challenges related to children's sleep habits and parental routines. Despite time constraints, we collected responses from 14 survey participants and conducted interviews with 7 individuals, yielding valuable insights such as the demand for educational content on children's needs, challenges in establishing routines, and the struggle for work-life balance. Concerns included the difficulty of consistently using an app to track sleep patterns and the hectic nature of evenings. Using empathy maps, we developed a user persona, Laura, a 36-year-old mother striving to establish effective bedtime routines for her 3-year-old daughter, Emma. This guided us in envisioning Laura's journey and informed our design solutions.
Crafting a minimum viable solution within a tight deadline, we generated ideas using the Crazy 8s method, focusing on features like personalized routine planners, bedtime storytelling, and access to expert resources. For our Minimal Viable Product (MVP), we concentrated on a routine planner allowing users to personalize routines and access bedtime features, addressing concerns about forgetting to use the app through notifications. The app would prompt users to inform about their bedtime experiences via a simple Q/A page each morning, simplifying data input.
Initial sketches and Mid-Fidelity wireframes depicted user flows and features, including a "Features" page for favorites and a weekly calendar for modifying routines. Feedback highlighted the importance of simplicity in data collection, leading to the inclusion of straightforward questions about bedtime experiences during the morning. Despite some uncertainties, users grasped the app's flow and weren't confused, guiding our design decisions.
Hence, with time ticking away, we progressed to styling and high-fidelity, commencing with the development of a moodboard :
Drawing inspiration from existing sleep apps in the market, we observed their tendency to incorporate calming and nighttime colors. Please share your thoughts in the comments regarding what it evokes for you. Our goal was to capture the following brand attributes :
Family
Relaxation
Comfort
You might have also noticed our logo in the introduction slide. Due to the limited timeframe, I created it using Midjourney and made manual adjustments in Photoshop to ensure it harmonized with our moodboard and overall color scheme.
Here's the quick style guide we chose, aiming for nighttime vibes with cozy colors and gradients, along with rounded, playful typography.
High-Fidelity Prototype
Following that, our focus shifted to completing the High-Fidelity prototype before Thursday morning, giving us time to draft and rehearse a concise 5 to 7-minute presentation encompassing the entire project. Here’s the product that we presented.
Finally, I spent a few extra hours here and there working on the feedback we received that day, mostly alignement concerns, as well as a dashboard rework. Indeed we didn’t had much time to make it original enough. But of course there’s still work to be done ; it’s a never ending process.
Given more time going forward, our next steps would be to :
gather more insights through ongoing usability and desirability testings ;
continue perfecting the overall high-fidelity quality, especially the dashboard ;
add a feature allowing users to specify the routine’s target (for example, « Emma » in this scenario) ;
add the « profile » page ;
add the « Learn » page we intially imagined for users to get relevant expert advices and resources on sleep and bedtime routines.