APP DESIGN
GO ON
Go On is an app that simplifies long-term goals by breaking them down into smaller, more accessible tasks. Go On also explores motivational tactics to help you break through an all-or-nothing mindset, and always continue progressing towards your goals, no matter how small the progress.
Client
Personal Project
Year
2016
Role
Branding, UX Design
THEORY
RUN A MARATHON
ONE STEP AT A TIME
Research shows that the key to reaching a long-term goal is to set proper expectations. It's easy to become discouraged if you don't see the results you wanted in the timeframe you'd hoped for. That disappointment can kill morale, and then it’s only downhill from there. In order for people to achieve their goals, they need to set and maintain realistic goals and expectations.
RESEARCH
WHY WE FAIL TO REACH GOALS
University of Toronto psychology professors Peter Herman and Janet Polivy found that the majority of people fail to reach their goals because they simply don’t know how to set realistic goals. When people fail to reach their goals, they usually fall into one of the following three categories:
1. Those who try to accomplish more than they realistically can
2. Those who try to accomplish more things more quickly than is realistically possible
3. Those who underestimate the difficulty of the task
INTERVIEWS
HOW DO YOU TRY TO REACH YOUR GOALS
Beyond my initial research, I also wanted to gather some more personal information about why people fail to reach their goals. I conducted interviews with 11 people who had either reached or failed to reach goals they had set. I tried to ask very open ended questions, to allow the responses to be as genuine and individual as possible. Some of the questions included:
Can you think of a time when you set a long term goal and worked to accomplish it?
Why did you decide to set that particular goal?
How did you know when you had accomplished your goal?
How was your overall experience?
What was most difficult? Why?
ANALYSIS
WE HAVE ALL TRIED AND FAILED
After conducting my interviews, I collected and organized the data. Identifying the pain points of those who didn’t reach their goals was particularly useful. When trying to determine what features a product needs, it's best to focus on the problems that need to be solved.
WIREFRAMES
PROGRESSIVE TESTING
I took my initial wireframes and built a quick prototype using the prototyping tool POP. After having several people try out the prototype, it was clear I had an issue with my layout. The design had too many layers and it was difficult for users to navigate. I took this feedback and built it into the next three iterations, testing each before moving on to the next, more refined design. With the feedback I received from user testing, I was able to iterate and gradually improve my design.
FINAL LAYOUT
SIMPLE SETUP FOR
COMPLEX GOALS
Throughout the testing process, I worked to improve the interface so that the interactions would feel natural. I modeled my designs after some common interactions found on mobile devices; specifically swiping & scrolling. I believe these types of gestures made my interface more accessible for the user demographic, and I am proud of the final design that came together after three rounds of prototyping, testing, and iterating.
WEARABLES
THE SAME EXPERIENCE ON
THE APPLE WATCH
While exploring interactions, I realized that time optimization was my goal. Having to open a phone app can be slow and cumbersome: pull out your phone, turn it on, unlock it, navigate to the app, open the app, then you finally reach useful information. A much quicker interaction is be through a smartwatch. I reformatted the app for an apple watch to make daily tasks much more accessible.
