Project 1

Introduction

Journal 365, is a budding startup that intends to solve the problem of “journaling guilt” by providing key incentives and motivational guidance to keep users on track with their journaling goals. Journal 365’s key offerings include AI generated guided prompts, speech to text, mood tracking, and push notifications.

As an ambassador of Texas Convergent, Journal 365 partnered with Texas Convergent Forge Teams as we revamped the user experience and redesigned the UI, to get the app ready for launch in January.

My Role

I'm the product designer for this project. I collaborated with designers (Helen Kang and Eshitha Bangray) and design lead (Nhi Pham) throughout this project.

Defining the Problem

“How can we transform online journaling into a daily, transformative habit for our users?”

Goals

Business Goals

Strengthen our value proposition of standout features
‍In a period of time where AI integration is increasingly common, how can we separate ourselves from our competitors and turn this into an opportunity to develop a solution that not only encourages daily journaling but also enhances the overall experience.

User Goals

Utilize positive incentives and motivational guidance to encourage consistent journaling practices
‍Journaling has long been recognized as a therapeutic practice, promoting self-reflection and emotional well-being. However, many individuals struggle with consistent journaling, often experiencing guilt when they miss a day or fall behind. We will incorporate user metrics motivate users to keep up their journaling habit and celebrate consistent journaling

‍A delightful, seamless consumer experience
‍Eliminate friction, and give our consumers a seamless experience, from the urge to journal and using our journaling app.

Process

To accomplish these goals and address our core problem, the design team set 3 main goals Minimize user friction Establish a visual hierarchy to emphasize core features Motivate the user with positive reinforcement and their own progress over time

User Flow

We minimized the number of taps it would take the user to immediately begin journaling and established a hierarchy on features of the app based on user interviews.

Sketches

Our team iterated through sketches and very basic wireframes to get ideas down and vote on the ones we believed aligned with our design goals

Early Designs

Here is a peak into my design graveyard. We went through various iterations per screens, and these are the ones I designed that didn’t make the cut due to change in business directions, improved user experience, or shift in hierarchy of core features.

Final Designs

Let's walk through the revamped app!

Begin journaling as soon as you get the urge

No longer is it necessary to navigate through different of types of journal entries, the app opens right up to a new entry. You can choose the types of AI prompts you get from your customizable framework.

A fresh look at your previous entries

We cleaned up the UI on the past entries page and sprinkled in some user metrics to motivate and track their progress over time.

Journal with purpose and pride

We emphasize positive reinforcements such as weekly and month summaries unlocked by consistent journaling. We create a personable and colorful Me page that proudly shows off your accomplishments and wins on your journaling journey

Takeaways

1. Iterate freely. While it’s easy to get attached to the first design that pops in my head, I’ve found that iterating on designs and going through feedback rounds leads me to an end product that aligns more with business, user, and design objectives
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2. Embrace changes and think flexibly. The direction of the project and what I thought the core components of the app changed as the project developed and I was forced to think and design flexibly to keep up with fluctuations in business and design decisions.
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‍3. Communicate, communicate, communicate. Oftentimes the vision of what the product should be like on the development end, business end, and the design end may not always be aligned and it is important to always take initiative to ensure everyone is on the same page.

Thank you to everyone on the design team, couldn’t have done it without y’all. Thank you for reading through! Hope you enjoyed learning about what goes on in my brain when I create designs. :)