Elevating Stock Apps
Stock applications are pre-installed applications on phones made by the manufacturer. While not everyone uses stock applications for every function, they are still the primary way many use their phones for different tasks.
The Goal
To analyze the habits of mobile applications for Android users, and look for opportunities to improve their daily experience using stock applications. Android has many operating systems and I choose to focus on Samsung Galaxy S4 users for this project. The goal was to propose updates and modifications to one of the stock application that would meet their daily needs.
Project Timeline
This was a solo project that took 2 weeks to complete. I worked on UX research, usability testing, UI Design, and interaction design.
Research
Survey
A survey with 10 users was conducted using google forms. The questions were based on habits, motivation, and challenges. The responses were collected in the form of multiple choice and short answers and the following were key insights which lead me to dive deeper into the Clock application - It seemed the alarm feature was the most popular feature being used.
90%
Users use the alarm feature most frequently followed by the timer
86%
Users use the alarm to wake up in the morning followed by reminders
54%
Users have at least 2 alarms for waking up and instead of using the snooze feature
Interviews
Next, I conducted user interviews in order to get a better understanding of some pain points within the alarm feature . The interview took approximately 10-15 minutes and included topics to get to the core of what users are trying to do. I relied on zoom meetings, screenshots, and screen sharing. Some of the comments I got regarding the alarm feature were:
“My alarm lists are too long and it’s hard for me to stay organized”
“ I need to have multiple alarms just incase I hit snooze”
“I have to manually switch off my other alarms when I wake up”
Current User Flow
When it comes aiding users with busy changing schedules, the current alarm feature gives users the ability to add an alarm, rename them, and set the day of the week they want it to go off. These basic features have created long lists of alarms for my typical user type.
My research lead me to focus on the alarm feature with users needing it for two main reasons:
1. Alarm to wake up
2. Alarm as reminders
Defining the Problem
The User Journey
Meet Sarah a typical user type based on my user interviews. She’s a yoga instructor, entrepreneur and consultant. She has a busy schedule that changes all the time.
Sarah has a need to organize her long overwhelming list of alarm.
The Problem
How might we streamline users' experience with the Alarm feature so that they can focus on adapting to their busy and changing schedules.
Through affinity mapping I began to find common trends of what users were saying. Below is an evolutionary process of how I got from the three main pain points to the three solutions I wanted to test out:
The Ideation Process
After mapping out three solutions I began sketching out ideas of what that would look like. I love rapid prototyping and creating mock-ups as it helps me with my thought process. Below are my low-fidelity sketches of the three solutions I wanted to tackle.
Solution 1
Since users had multiple “back-up” alarms for waking up, their lists quickly grew with their changing schedules. I wanted to add a grouping feature so that they could organize their lists of alarms.
Through interviews and contextual inquiry I also learned that users had one time reminders that they never used again. With the new “do not repeat” feature, reminders would automatically get deleted after they have served it’s purpose.
Solution 2
Now that users can create a group, they can go in and see their relevant alarms visually minimizing cognitive load.
Solution 3
Understanding the capabilities of Samsung Galaxy S4’s hardware allows me to explore concepts in software. Learning that most smartphones have an accelerometer used to detect orientation and movement I leveraged that and created a feature that would aid users to do less work. When their phone senses they are awake, their remaining alarms would be enabled.
Build & Test
I tested out my low-fidelity prototypes, iterating them along the way, and slowly working towards a high-fidelity prototype. Below are key insights and learnings which led me to make the following changes to meet my users’ needs.
Users did not know that the "+" button was where you add a new group. This led me to create a folder icon which also eliminated the 2 steps in version 1.
Users wanted control over auto cancel when they were awake. This gave them better control.
My solutions focused on assisting users with changing schedules organize their list of alarms so that they can focus on their busy lives.
You can view my high-fidelity prototype on Figma below.
