Kira
Kira is a virtual community which can help students aged from 18 to 28 who are easy to procrastinate to manage time and tasks efficiently.
My role
UX/UI designer
Skill used
User Research, Competitive analysis, User journey map, SUS testing, UI design
Skill used
User Research, User journey map, A/B Testing, UI design
Time frame
Two months
Problem
College students failed to accomplish their academic goals.
As a college student, I noticed that students around me are able to stick to academic pursuits, but they still fail in their academic performance and cannot reach their academic goals. This sparked my thinking about the reasons behind this phenomenon.
Solution
Study buddies are the key.
Join a study room
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Filter the study room by the parameters of room size, the star grade, attendance rate, attribute, room category, and communication style.
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Influenced by study vibe.
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Supervise each other.
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Increase productivity.
Match with a study buddy
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Filter the study buddy by the parameters by the star, followthrough rate, major, grade, and personalities.
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Provide extrinsic motivation.
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Supervise each other.
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Increase productivity.
Stay in the study room and upload evidence.
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Provide features of the video room, message, timer, progress bar, task card, upload evidence, and tick the task.
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Supervise each other in the video room.
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Manage time by using a timer.
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Compete with buddies when seeing others' progress bar.
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Upload evidence to stay accountable.
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Provide positive feedback and encourage them to insist on learning.
Create a task and separate it into manageable steps.
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Reduce overwhelm and make it easier to start.
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Manage your time and tasks more effectively.
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Increase productivity.
01 / DISCOVER
I found 88% of college students procrastinated and 70% of students were distracted when studying alone.
I started with secondary research to discover the reason behind the phenomenon that why college students fail their academic goals when they preserve toward their tasks. According to the research conducted by the National Library of Medicine
College students experienced
procrastination.
Hard to concentrate on the task for a long time.
Procrastinate in a consistent and problematic manner.
The Hawthorne effect showed that people will work harder and perform well when being observed.
Then I turned to the articles and resources about goals, motivations, and accomplishments and find out the way to increase productivity. I discovered an interesting psychological effect named the Hawthorne effect that brings inspiration of improving productivity.
"Hawthorne effect is to refer the tendency of some people to work harder and perform better in response to the awareness of being observed. And this is usually applied to work."
Students are likely 65% to meet goals after making goals public and increase success to 95% when they have specific accountability partners.
I found the data from another article from the American Society of Training and Development that can verify this effect and it contributed to the design thinking of the product:
“...people are 65% likely to meet a goal after making their goal public. But their chances of success increase to 95% when they have specific accountability partners to report to.”
Competitive analysis
Competitors specialized in time and task management and did not focus on an accountability partner. The feature I can borrow is the study room from Bidow.
After gathering the statistics above, I continued to do research on the competitive analysis and selected popular products, Forest, Tomato-to-do, Fiveable, and Bidow. I found Forest and Tomato-to-do focus on time and task management which are crucial to high productivity. Fiveable and Bidow are focusing on the study room which can provide a rich learning vibe and students said they tend to be impacted by the learning vibe. However, none of them explore the aspect of accountability partners.
Therefore, I realized that I can explore the opportunities in this aspect.
Primary research
Understand the user
I found the main reason for procrastination is no motivation and perfectionism the main reason for distraction is that the task is heavy and difficult.
After finding some of the biggest problems in students' procrastination and know more about the features of existing products, I deployed a survey to gain more insights from those students who tend to procrastinate and distract to understand what they are thinking and what they want.
I asked questions like...
Questionnaire
96
Responses
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Do you prefer to learn in a group or alone?
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Which ones best describe your reasons for procrastinating? (respondents be able to choose multiple options)
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Which ones best describe the reasons for distraction?
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If you finish a task with an accountability buddy, what parameters of the study partner will you consider?
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If you want to join a group study room, what parameters of the study room will you consider?
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If there are accountability partners supervise you when study, will you be more productive?
Which ones best describe your reasons for procrastinating? (respondents be able to choose multiple options)
Which ones best describe your reasons for distracting? (respondents be able to choose multiple options)
Interviews
I conducted 9 interviews with college students inside the
target demographic.
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If you want to finish your academic task with study partners, what do you think it's important leading to the success of finishing the task?
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In which conditions do you work productively?
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Tell me about a time that you accomplish a heavy task.
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Tell me the process of achieving your academic goal.
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Tell me a time when you fail at an academic goal.
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What’s the most difficult part of achieving the academic goal?
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What motivated you to start the work in the first place?
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What will motivate you to concentrate on learning for a long time?
02 / DEFINE
After secondary and primary research, I gathered qualitative data (ideas, opinions, and issues) and organized them into groups based on their natural relations.
I obtained 3 points and 9 insights from the interviewees and found that they need a study buddy for supervising each other and accountability. They also need motivation and time & task management.
Main insights
Motivation
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Interviewees will be impacted by hardworking people and vibes.
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Interviewees want to leave a good impression on others, so they will perform well in working in a group.
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Studying with someone whose characteristics, age, time availability, and goals are similar to oneself will promote mutual.
Study buddy
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When observed by others, interviewees will be motivated to work harder.
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Positive feedback will encourage interviewees to keep learning.
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Starting a heavy task is harder than working in the rhythm of the task.
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Deadline is the primary motivation and productivity.
Time & Task
Management
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Separating heavy and difficult tasks into several manageable small tasks will help increase productivity.
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Blocking off specific times for studying, working on assignments, and taking breaks would help to stay focused on specific tasks and avoid multitasking, which can be a major source of distraction.
Problem Statement
How might we help college students to start the task quickly and keep working on the task for a long time?
Meet the user group
Age
Location
Grade
18-28 college students
Any locations
Freshman to graduate
Painpoints
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Easily to give up the ongoing task and turn to social media
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Hard to start the task early
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Usually rush to submit the assignments right before deadline
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Struggle to find a way to manage time and tasks.
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Hard to find a partner whose personality and goals are congenial and have the same time availability as mine.
Goals
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Start the task earlier
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Keep focused on the task until it's done
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Accomplish the academic goal productively
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Accomplish goals and obtain a better career goal
Ideate 4 possible directions and move forward with the concept of mobile app.
I ideated four directions and analyze their feasibility and impact. I found that hardware device (chatbot), augmented reality, and distraction detection keyboard and mouse are more or less have weakness. The reasons I move forward with mobile app and give up the rest of three concepts are as below.
03 / DESIGN
I listed some features that should be included in order to fully be correlated with the research. I pinpointed the main insights and provide possible solutions based on insights.
MVP feature rationale
Userflow
During usability testing phase, I used methods of System usability scale (SUS) and survey to gain user feedback.
Based on the usability testing, I had 3 main improvements.
Iteration 01 Homepage
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Remove the calendar icon and replace it with floating button of a Plus because of its high prioritization.
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Move data analysis from profile to the top right on home.
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Move swap button above the top of search.
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Simplify filter parameters and combine it with search.
Iteration 02 Create a task
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Remove the whole calendar and replace it with the recent six dates to make selection to save more space for task list.
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Show the current day's task card and its steps of completing a task. And show the time length and deadline of each manageable step.
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Add the button of start to let users start immediately.
Iteration 03 Study room
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Change the timer into a circle and show the time consuming more straight forward.
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Move the message, video icon to the bottom.
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Removing the encouraging quotes.
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Add the button of "Focus" to swap to focus mode.
04 / Final Design
Hi-fidelity
I conducted 3rd-round usability testing, asking 12 users to mock using scenario. 80% of users care more about the buddies' progress rate instead of what tasks others were working on.
And they didn't realize the timer is actually a button to stop timer.
Before
Study room(before)
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Remove buddies' task cards and replace them with top 3 progress rate of buddies in this study room to create motivating vibe.
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Increase the area of users themselves task card.
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Provide the access to next page of all buddies' progress rate.
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Add pause and quit button under the timer.
After
Study Room(After)
All buddies page
CLICKABLE
PROTOTYPE
Click around the app here
Impact: I did an evaluation and asked 20 people to use the product with their buddies and obtain some positive feedback.
92%
Interested &
Would use it
60%
Increased productivity
6times
focus time than before
Style Guide
Reflection
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Ask more why in the design process because it helps to uncover the underlying motivations and goals of users which in turn, lead to more effective and creative design solutions.
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Usability testing is important because I can identify specific areas that users are struggling for and adjust it in time to make it more intuitive and user-friendly. When I have no idea about which option I should choose, I will turn to users and let them tell me the answer.
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Task prioritization and time management are important in a tight schedule and this can also be applied to work because it enables me to allocate my time more effectively and maximize the productivity. It's crucial to meet the deadline and avoid delays in timeline. By having a clear understanding of what needs to be done and when it needs to be done, I can focus my energy on completing tasks rather than worrying about what needs to be done next.
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