WEB APP DESIGN / UX / ART DIRECTION
We had an amazing opportunity to work with Jenee Dana Ariel, an amazing writer and a great person. The project was about creating a productivity and life management web app which will capture the essence of her book “Have Fun & Get It Done”.
The book helps reduce guilt and shame associated with time management which decreases productivity. Makes it easy to start asking ourselves the RIGHT questions in order to make progress faster and lead a more meaningful and fulfilling life. Keep everything in one place. Track goals, daily activities and personal development.
“Our web app should help entrepreneurs and students increase their productivity without sacrificing their quality of life. Hence...Have Fun & Get It Done. I have written a book and published a paper/analog version of the web app. Now we are transitioning the analog version into an online version.” - Jenee
Main purpose of the app is to inspire the user to achieve different goals. There are different sections that are connected with task management, other sections have a purpose to inspire the user.
MAKING IT PERSONAL
Our approach was to make the app unique to each user. Have “Focus Opus” learn about the user and to have a more personal experience. The user needs be able to customize most of the sections, create a personal friendly environment which helps in being productive. After some time playing with this idea, we’ve had different approaches where the customization options would overwhelm the user and take the focus away from the goals and productivity. It was important to get that perfect sweet spot where the customization is casual and still flexible enough to create a custom environment.
The main challenge is to create a perfect balance between inspiration and productivity. The user needs to be inspired to be productive. There are many different sections that need to keep track of your daily life, but this can easily make the app complex for the user. It is important to have a clear hierarchy and give most focus on inspiration and productivity.
NEW USER
When a new user logs in, they start with creating a “My Mission” statement. My Mission has a purpose to inspire the user to start the day with a simple reminder of what is important in his life. Determining your life purpose is very important because you will feel more fulfillment in your everyday life. By asking the user a set of questions that are connected with Jenee’s philosophy and book, the user will always have on his screen the values he finds most important and will help the user focus on reaching a specific goal. It is important for the user to always see this first before proceeding on tasks and goals.
We wanted to get away from the classic overlay with tutorial arrows that point to various buttons and showing all of the functionality at once. That can easily overwhelm the user. Instead our approach is to get the user to do one thing at a time and in their own pace move forward in the different sections of the web app. It should feel like a friendly chat with the app.
MY MISSION
When the user creates the “My Mission” statement, they are presented with the finished slideshow of this section. Once you are at the beginning of the web app, this section will take over the whole screen. The purpose here is to have the user first experience what are they inspired and motivated by. When the user scrolls down (or clicks on the down arrow), the top goal and the other cards are displayed.
So the user will choose when to see the tasks and goals. The slides of the presentation can change automatically or by user input. Also this approach will make the rest of the dashboard more clean by having the focus on the Top Goal and then the cards section. Simple edits can be made right on the same screen without the need of popups etc.
CREATE A GOAL
Once the user has finished with MyMission section, they are presented with the top goals and the process of creating a goal. The section is transparent (symbolizing that it is empty) and has a short description about the Top Goal section, also a prompt button to create the first goal. When the user clicks on “create a goal” button, then the process of creating a goal starts in the same goal field.
The process of creating a goal is similar to creating “My Mission” statement. The same philosophy is applied here so that to the user this is familiar. The steps of creating the goal are based on Jenee’s philosophy and are pretty self explanatory.
GOALS
In each goal the user can add a custom photo background or choose from the app’s library. Custom color code gives each goal a unique look by displaying it as an overlay. It is important that the overlay “calms” the background photo so that the info and interface is in focus and clear for the user.
Task management is contained in each goal. By completing tasks the user completes a goal so it is important to have a good tasks system in place. All tasks are divided in “completed” , “in progress” and “completed tasks”. The user can create/edit and simply drag n drop tasks in different columns. Everything needs to be intuitive and easy to use.
AMAZING CARDS
Each card has a different purpose and design. Custom to do lists, Healthy intake reminders, spiritual development, Quote of the day, appreciation reminder etc. When designing and creating the cards it was very important that they remain casual and don’t take away the focus from the goals. Each card is optional and can be closed by the user.
For a more detailed customization of the cards. the user clicks on the “enlarge” icon in the corner and a screen appears with all of the settings and a much detailed view of that card. Each card can be enlarged like this which is a good way to keep the flow of the dashboard without having different loading screens for the cards.
Each of the cards has a theme. For more customization and edits of the cards the user clicks on the “enlarge” icon in the corner and a screen appears with all of the settings and a much detailed view of that card. Each card can be enlarged like this which is a good way to keep the flow of the dashboard without having different loading screen for the cards. Cards are optional and each card can be closed by the user.
FULL VIEW CARDS
