Rhythm
Find the Rhythm in your life.
What is Rhythm?
For a final project, my classmates and I collaborated to create a sleep mask that improves sleep and promotes healthy habits. After conducting interviews, we found that stress, deadlines, and the lack of a consistent routine are common factors contributing to sleep depression in young adults.
Incorporating knowledge from our disciplines and backgrounds, we developed Rhythm, an app and eye mask product. The Rhythm mask will send sleep data from the user using EEG (measures electrical activity in the brain) and EOG (measures eye movement) sensors to the app for analysis.
The user can choose to sync and input other health and lifestyle data for the app's algorithm to analyze and, finally, generate personalized recommendations to change behavior that will support better sleep.
In eight weeks, we experienced the design process: developing journey maps, brainstorming, interviewing our target user group, framing and re-framing our how might we statements, ideating using various methods, storyboarding, concept testing, evaluating our value proposition and business model, and many more.
Who is our target user group?
Our User Persona
User Interviews
Journey Map
Customer Profile
User Persona
We found that our target user group valued staying healthy both physically and mentally. They are aware of the benefits of sleep, are concerned about whether they are getting sufficient sleep, and are open to finding a routine.
Balancing productivity and sleep is a big area of concern; time management.
How might we assist users in enhancing their sleep quality and promoting healthy lifestyles and habits?
The Circadian Rhythm
Brainstorming; Creative Matrix, Clusters, Abstract Laddering
Storyboards: Interaction and Ecological
Concept Sketches
Clustering our ideas.
Our initial physical product was a watch...and then we modified it to a headband.
The brainstorming stage was challenging, but we had fun generating ideas from feasible to wild. It was a tough process of eliminating, consolidating, modifying, and concept-testing ideas to arrive at the final concept.
Challenge #1: During the week when my group and I brainstormed ideas for the project, we struggled to decide who our target user group should be and what direction we wanted to take our product. Some suggested creating a product that would reduce screen time, while some wanted to gamify the product. A few members also wanted to avoid creating a physical product.
Solution: Writing down our ideas and using techniques like SCAMPER helped us modify and expand on our ideas. Conducting concept tests and market research also gave us a better understanding of what users want and need that current products in the market do not offer. Creating deadlines and meeting agendas was also vital for setting small goals to achieve our objectives.
How can we improve our initial concept?
Testing our Initial Prototypes
Low Fidelity Prototypes
Concept Test
Competitors-Complementors Analysis
Value Proposition Canvas
Challenge #2: After conducting concept tests and presenting our initial concept to our Design Methodology professor, we received feedback that our product's value proposition was unclear. Our product lacked uniqueness as its features could be found in other existing products. This made it difficult to convince people to use our product and app.
Solution: We went back to brainstorming! Expanded on and innovated from our old maps. It was important to ask ourselves, "What data can be used to represent the quality of sleep? And how to collect that data?"
Final Product
Making improvements based on feedback
High Fidelity Mockups
Finalized Mask Prototype
Challenge #3: One of our challenges was figuring out how Rhythm would collect data in all the areas of the user's life (diet, productivity, exercise, etc) to generate each score. We could ask the users to sync data with other lifestyle apps they use, but it's also possible that some users don't use those services.
Solution: Our solution to the problem of collecting user data was to include a questionnaire that users can complete. The questionnaire would act as a substitute for the data that other apps would collect. However, we acknowledge that this solution has its own set of challenges. Firstly, it would require forming partnerships with many other apps to use their data. Secondly, the information collected from the substitute questionnaire may not be as detailed as compared to other lifestyle apps, which could impact Rhythm's service. We have not found a solution to these problems yet, and I believe that Rhythm can be improved and expanded on.
What I Learned
The process of creating Rhythm was an enjoyable and educational experience collaborating with a diverse group of classmates.
How to effectively research the problem topic so that the solution we come up with is relevant and meets the needs of the target audience.
A compelling business pitch makes a big difference.
Communication between team members is essential. We may be working on the same product, but we can all have different interpretations of it, and it's crucial that we are on the same page.
The great thing about collaboration is that we have many minds and perspectives. I learned how to give and receive feedback to help refine and improve designs.