the challengE
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Anxiety as a result of mental overload is increasing negative emotions, disrupting productivity and impeding sound decision capabilities.
kickoff
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Identifying the opportunity
It’s a big challenge, but we believe we can influence behavior through self-care habits and focus related tactics to enhance motivation, productivity and well-being during the pandemic and beyond.
To succeed in addressing mental overload effects, we’ve identified the following:
Teach skills to form new habits taking control of feelings, thoughts and actions
Customize a sensory experience to overcome daily challenges
Declutter the mind to feel energized, motivated and productive
Combat anxiety through assistance, discovery and activities you enjoy
Research Approach
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Early insights
What we know about our audience and the effects of mental overload are a result of qualitative and quantitative research gathered from participant interviews, secondary research, and competitive analysis.
The following user research helps us to understand the differences in people’s experiences, attitudes and behaviors as they relate to their mental overload.
My target audience was women since they are twice as likely to be affected by anxiety as men. Typical persona data like age, location, marital status, income, etc. was omitted with the intention to not neglect a segment of users and ensure they are mapped on a scale that is bound by fundamental motivations.
““I can’t manage thoughts or retain information with so much happening at once. I feel scattered.””
““It’s hard to switch back and forth between work brain and parenting brain.” ”
DEEPER INSIGHTS
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Modes and Mindsets
After uncovering themes from synthesizing my participant surveys and interviews, rather than develop multiple personas, we leveraged a framework developed by Fjord’s innovation studio — Mindset Segmentation. Using Mindset Segmentation splits the audience into four patterns which speak to different needs and wants. This method helped to hone in where the most attention was needed. Contrasting behaviors contributing to increased mental stress and anxiety during the pandemic defined hypotheses leading to the feature sets we wanted to test and validate.
Pandemic Modes
Four distinct behaviors contributing to increased mental stress and anxiety
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Unhealthy Physical Habits
— Stopped going to the gym and sitting for longer periods of time
— Over snacking
Overconsumption of media
— 62.5% of participants track with news and social media updates 5 or more times a day
— No screen time limits
Poor Time Management
— Stimulus overflow and multitasking leading to forgetfulness and lack of productivity
— Distractions
Negativity
— Living in fear, loneliness, angered by politics
Pandemic mindsets
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Attitudes that impact people’s experience with mental stress + anxiety
FINDINGS
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Based on the research, data was distilled into
4 key findings that serve as opportunity areas.
Solutions
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The Experience Strategy
A conceptual experience facilitating deep focus sessions based off of the scientifically studied time-management method known as the Pomodoro Technique will be developed.
User needs are served through minimizing multi-tasking and integrating mindfulness into break intervals.
Periodic workflows for effectiveness
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How the Pomodoro method helps turbocharge your productivity
Science explains the role that the Pomodoro Technique plays in enhancing your productivity:
Short breaks help you concentrate better and fight cognitive boredom
The work-break pattern is great for your motivation
The Pomodoro technique fuels your decision-making
It slashes the stress of time management
The timer eliminates multitasking and minimizes interruptions
The technique ardently supports timeboxing and fights Parkinson’s law
the framework
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Improving output
The journey map below showcases a series of interaction and subsequent emotions likely encountered by our users. Initial wireframes map out a task sequence highlighting time management and short and long break integration features.
Customer Journey Map
App Wireframes
the vision
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We will offer two modalities: screen and voice for a flexible user experience.
bringing RYHTHY to life
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A productivity app to improve focus while delivering calm and relaxation in between tasks during breaks.
Features:
Simplified Pomodoro focus timer for concentration
White noise sound options including binaural beats, rainforest, ocean and fireplace sounds
Short and long break mindful activity options including guided meditation, breathing exercises, guided stretching and outdoor motivation for calm and relaxation
Customizable timers for focus and break durations
Monthly and weekly focus statistics
MULTIMODAL
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Voice Experience
Creating a natural conversational flow with voice triggers and speech playback that seamlessly integrates with the app.
