Journey
UX/UI
As the lead UX/UI designer for the Journey app, my mission was to craft an engaging, user-centric interface that motivates students to achieve long-term goals through gamification and community interaction. The project transformed from an ethical social media concept to a unique application aimed at enhancing students' goal-setting and achievement processes, integrating the principles of identity change and habit formation with cutting-edge digital solutions.
Journey is an app designed to support students in achieving long-term goals through gamification and community engagement. This case study offers a glimpse into the milestones, design decisions, and challenges that defined the development of Journey.
The genesis of the project was an ethical social media concept, which remained stagnant for several months. Realizing the need for a more impactful and viable product, I pivoted towards addressing students' long-term goals. Through interviews with peers, it was evident that while students aspire for self-improvement, there is a lack of clarity and motivation in setting and pursuing long-term goals.
Building on these insights, I delved into research on goal formation and the significance of gamification in keeping users engaged. With the understanding that a traditional habit tracker needed an edge, I conceived an idea to incorporate competitive and social elements in a gamified environment. This would differentiate the product from similar apps like Habitica, which is predominantly fantasy-based and caters to a niche gaming audience.
Inspired by “Atomic Habits” by James Clear as well a few academic papers, I recognized the importance of consistent systems over goal-setting. This led me to explore how users can change their identities through a series of habit formations. The initial prototype featured an AI-supported onboarding process, taking users through an assessment that culminated in a personalized identity framework. This was complemented by a “skills” feature encompassing various human skills (e.g., leadership, learning, time management) that users could develop and tailor according to their desired identity.
To foster social interaction, I integrated a community feature and avatars that visually represented users' characters. The avatars would evolve with the user, reflecting their growth in levels, badges, and aesthetics.
User testing revealed that the unlimited AI-generated identity frameworks were overwhelming, and the skills page was not intuitive. Moreover, the social gamification aspect was diluted due to the extensive permutations in identity frameworks. To address this, I drew inspiration from games like RuneScape, which offer a standard set of skills to all players. By implementing a unified skills set, I could facilitate easy comparison and relatability among users, thereby fostering community engagement.
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Using insights from the user testing workshop, I replaced the community page with a challenges page, allowing users to create and participate in challenges. This shifted the focus towards a fun and gamified experience, narrowing down the social aspects to challenges that could involve individual users or communities. I also removed the AI Assessment completely to keep skills consistent to allow a more relatable experience across users while simplifying the experience entirely.
Post ideation, sketches of all pages were developed, followed by low-fidelity wireframes. As the concept evolved, I transitioned to high-fidelity wireframes reflecting the final vision for Journey. I also created a video to showcase the challenges feature within the app.
To showcase Journey, I created three prints and a poster for the Year End Show at George Brown College, focusing on the app's ability to engage users in self-improvement through gamification and community challenges.
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Through this project, I learned the importance of structure and focus during the ideation phase. This experience highlighted the significance of sketching in materializing ideas and reaffirmed the role of user testing in UX design. The iterative process was crucial in identifying and focusing on the core features that resonate with the target audience. Moving forward, the insights from this project will shape my approach to UX design, emphasizing user-centricity, structured ideation, and iterative development.
The culmination of the Flow AR Glasses project is a suite of finely tuned features, each crafted to address specific needs identified through meticulous research and user testing. The final design is a testament to the project's core objective: to enhance the retail shopping experience through augmented reality. Here’s a snapshot of the key features brought to life:
The AR Glasses enhance the browsing experience by alerting shoppers to items that match their preferences and past search behaviors, simulating the feel of a curated personal shopping session. Also matching business needs by showing available promotions for desired customers.
Addressing the need for accessible information, this feature allows shoppers to view details like size, color, and price by simply looking at a product. It eliminates the wait for store assistance and enriches the decision-making process.
When users wishlist items online, these are highlighted by the AR Glasses in-store, making it effortless to locate desired products. This feature bridges the gap between online browsing and in-store purchasing, bringing a new level of convenience to the shopping experience.
In our fast-paced world, impulse buys are all too common. The Flow AR Glasses counteract this by providing a rundown of items the user has interacted with or plans to purchase, encouraging thoughtful spending and reducing buyer's remorse.
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