From San Francisco to Apple Storisco:
The case study of a
stress-reducing audio app.
Timeline: 7 - 18 November, 2022
Team: This was a duo project: There was me, myself, and Maxime
My role: Product design, branding, UX writing and copywriting
A real problem for an imaginary client:
In this project, Ironhack presented us with a hypothetical client, The Daily Health Conference - a non-profit organization dedicated to promoting health and wellness.
The challenge they faced was genuine: The Daily Health Conference had been slow to adapt to technology, resulting in a significant decline in memberships. To address this issue, they aimed to increase the value offered to their members by focusing on two main objectives:
Develop a suite of digital mobile apps exclusively for members, enhancing their membership experience.
Refresh their brand image by creating a design system that embodies an innovative approach to wellness.
Hold on a minute! An app, but what kind of app?
As the other teams quickly picked their app ideas and got to work, I couldn't help but feel puzzled. How was this happening?
A soon-to-be father opted for a pregnancy app
My favorite feminists settled on a menstruation app
And the two young girls surprised me with a facial yoga app
Now, I'm not judging; each of these apps has its own importance. However, didn't the brief state that "all members of the Daily Health Conference should be able to use the apps"? It seemed to me that the teams were choosing apps based on their personal interests and needs, perhaps even ones they already had on their phones.
I was determined to make every decision during this challenge with the needs and preferences of my client and target users in mind, and this included the app idea I needed to develop. The big question reverberated in my head: An app, but what kind of app?
As Michael J. Gelb so wisely said:
“If you don’t know where to start, then go back to the beginning and reframe the question.”
De-briefing the brief:
Upon examining the brief, we noticed a crucial detail: it was too broad. Therefore, we decided to narrow it down to better align with the "Daily Health Conference" brand.
As a result, we refined the brief to ensure our approach aligned with the client's vision and values. We added two key points:
Design an app that draws its core idea from the nature of the Daily Health Conference, ensuring the app concept is consistent with the organization's mission and purpose.
Make the app relatable to the Daily Health Conference brand, establishing a strong connection with the target audience and reinforcing the brand identity.
These additions to the brief allowed us to provide a more focused direction for the development of the wellness app, ensuring it would resonate with the members of Daily Health Conference and remain true to the brand's core values.
Wunderman & Thompson Future 100: A primary tool for a secondary research:
To find inspiration for our app idea, we decided to consult the highly respected Wunderman & Thompson's Future 100 Report. This valuable resource provides businesses and marketers with insights into emerging trends and behaviors across various industries, including technology, culture, and consumerism. As an avid follower of the report since its inception in 2016, I knew the 2022 issue would be the perfect tool for our project.
Before diving into the report, we needed to define the Daily Health Conference's purpose by asking questions like:
What problem does the brand solve?
What is its mission?
We initiated a brainstorming session to better understand the brand's purpose, values, and mission, identifying the following keywords:
Looking at this picture, two keywords immediately stand out:
Conference
San Francisco
The conference theme centers around sound, with attendees coming to listen and learn. San Francisco, the annual flagship location, attracts members from around the world.
Drawing inspiration from the sound theme, we turned to the Wunderman & Thompson's trend report. There, we discovered an intriguing trend called AUDIOHEALING on page 86, which seemed to align perfectly with the Daily Health Conference's purpose and values.
We have found our app idea!
An app that uses sound and audio as medicine for relaxation and mental restoration.
Interested in a quick look at the final design?
Surveys and interviews:
To further develop our app idea, we needed to conduct market research to determine if there was demand for the product. We initially relied on our assumptions and the Wunderman & Thompson's trend report, but now we needed data from potential users.
With the concept of using sound for mental restoration in mind, we launched our research by conducting both a survey and interviews. Our goal was to collect quantitative and qualitative data to better understand our target audience.
To keep our research focused on the app we planned to create, we used a screener with three criteria:
a relatively high stress level
a pre-existing practice of some form of mental wellness
and a love of music
We distributed an online survey to thousands of people, receiving responses from 119 individuals.
The results showed that most respondents experienced high stress levels and were actively seeking ways to manage their mental well-being.
We also found that music was a popular coping mechanism.
To gain deeper insights, we conducted one-on-one interviews with a select group of participants. We organized the collected information into affinity diagrams, helping us identify common themes and patterns in their responses.
During the interviews, we discovered that people experienced a range of emotions and had varying success in managing their emotions. However, music consistently emerged as a powerful tool for many participants, providing strength and motivation during stressful times.
Coming from a high-stress advertising background, I was excited about this app idea from the start. It was reassuring to see our assumptions validated by user interviews and surveys. We now had evidence of a genuine market for this product, and it wasn't just me who believed in its potential!
PERSONA
PERSONA
With our user insights in hand, the next step was to create a persona to help us better understand our target audience. Meet Emma, a 28-year-old client representative at an advertising agency.
At this point, I want to give a huge shoutout to my dear strategist friend Idil, who provided invaluable support in developing the survey and interview questions, as well as offering valuable insights for the persona development. As fellow advertising agency professionals, we could easily relate to the persona we created, Emma.
User journey:
After identifying the problem statement, our next step was to create a user journey. This crucial stage allowed us to understand and empathize with our target user, Emma, by exploring her emotions, perceptions, and motivations throughout a full workday. By focusing on Emma's experiences, we could now identify pain points and areas where she may struggle with stress management.
Opportunities for the audio healing app of Daily Health Conference:
Help Emma establish a morning meditation routine to start her day with a more positive and relaxed mindset.
Provide a calming and focused atmosphere during her commute to work.
Offer short stress-release sessions during her lunch break or in between meetings to help her recharge and refocus.
Enable her to better manage her emotions and stress levels throughout the day, leading to improved productivity and overall well-being.
Enhance her evening routine with relaxation sessions to help her unwind and reflect on the day.
Improve her sleep quality by encouraging a consistent relaxation routine before bedtime.
How might we help Emma?
Our competitor analysis revealed that audio healing was (and still is) a relatively new trend, so there was little competition, and whatever competition did exist had already been documented in the Wunderman & Thompson Report. However, as our research indicated that meditation was a significant aspect of our users' needs and preferences, we decided to include meditation apps as part of our list of competitors.
With that in mind, we started brainstorming and generating ideas using "How Might We" (HMW) statements:
How might we help Emma cope with stress?
How might we help her to control her negative emotions?
How might we help her to do this quicker?
How might we help her to avoid the side effects of stress?
Actually, how might we help her avoid stress at the first place?
Ideation & feature priozitation:
During the ideation stage of our case study, we focused on the opportunities identified in the user journey map to create a truly impactful and meaningful experience for Emma. By addressing her specific needs and daily challenges, we could tailor our solution to provide the most value.
In the second stage of the ideation process, prioritization became our main focus. With a multitude of ideas generated in response to our How Might We statements, it was essential to determine which solutions would have the most significant impact on users like Emma.
To accomplish this, we employed a Value Proposition Canvas, enabling us to identify the pains and tasks Emma need to address, and assess how effectively our proposed solutions met these needs. Additionally, we utilized the MOSCOW method to further refine our feature prioritization, categorizing each idea according to its importance and feasibility. This systematic approach helped us streamline the ideation process, ensuring that we concentrate on the most promising solutions for Emma and others who can benefit from our app.
Must-haves:
Meditational sessions and inspirational quotes were considered must-haves, as they were crucial to meeting Emma’s needs and expectations.
Could-haves:
Ideas such as having a celebrity endorsement, like Mel Robbins, were categorized as should-haves, provided we had the time & budget.
Nice-to-haves:
Other features, such as uploading personal photos or videos and customizing the app background, were considered nice-to-have, but not essential for Emily’s satisfaction.
Won't-haves:
Finally, opening the camera to see one's own reflection during a meditation session was deemed a won't-have, as it did not align with our users' needs and goals.
User flow:
To provide a clear understanding of how the Sound Francisco app would function for Emma, we created a user flow outlining the steps she would take to access the app's features. The user flow focused on two primary actions: continuing with a pre-registered session or completing a daily check-in to receive a personalized recommendation. Our flow was designed to be simple and intuitive, allowing Emma to easily access the app's audio healing sessions and receive support for managing her emotional well-being.
Building a Strong Brand Architecture: Name & logo
As Maxim focused on mapping out user flow and creating a lo-fi prototype, I took on the task of building the brand architecture for our wellness app.
With Daily Health Conference as our client,
and the app utilizing sound and audio for relaxation and mental restoration,
I set out to infuse our brand with the essence of San Francisco.
San Francisco is a city known for its iconic landmarks, vibrant culture, and innovative spirit. Drawing inspiration from these elements, I wanted to create a brand that resonates with our target audience and reflects the city's dynamic character. To achieve this, I first needed to develop a memorable and meaningful name for our app.
There, by merging "sound" and "San Francisco", I had a clear vision for our brand name: Sound Francisco! Maxim loved it, and I was quite happy as it could be one of the best names I have ever come up with, the first still being "bilyoner." With a name like Sound Francisco, we now had a powerful foundation for our brand.
San Francisco is a city known for its iconic landmarks, vibrant culture, and innovative spirit. Drawing inspiration from these elements, I wanted to create a brand that resonates with our target audience and reflects the city's dynamic character. To achieve this, I first needed to develop a memorable and meaningful name for our app.
There, by merging "sound" and "San Francisco", I had a clear vision for our brand name: Sound Francisco! Maxim loved it, and I was quite happy as it could be one of the best names I have ever come up with, the first still being "bilyoner." With a name like Sound Francisco, we now had a powerful foundation for our brand.
Next, I started working on the logo, first with pen and paper, and once I was happy with some of the concepts, I moved on to Illustrator. The goal was to design a logo that would visually represent our brand and embody the spirit of San Francisco. The logo needed to be simple, yet striking, and easily recognizable.
After working on many alternatives, ultimately I landed on a logo that captured the essence of Sound Francisco through typography. The word "sound" takes center stage at the top, followed by "fran," "cis," and ending with "co" at the bottom.
By using this layout, I wanted to convey the chaotic and overwhelming nature of daily stress, which transitions seamlessly into a more serene and peaceful state symbolized by the solitary "co."
Plus, this typographic design was easy to read on small screens, could fit inside a box, making it suitable for app store display, and could be used across a range of branding materials, making it a versatile choice for our app's identity.
Building a Strong Brand Architecture: Brand framework
To build a strong brand architecture, I wanted to create a brand framework consisting of brand attributes, vision, mission, and promise. Although this wasn't a formal requirement of our Ironhack project, I knew from my previous experience in advertising that defining these elements would be crucial for creating a consistent tone of voice, conceptualization, and UX writing.
This exercise even led us to our brand tagline:
SOUND FRANCISCO:
Beat by beat, you will start feeling better.
Daily Health Conference presents:
The healing benefits of binaural beats and isochronic tones are embedded in each Sound Francisco session.
Headphones and/or earphones allow you to hear each sound much more clearly, creating stronger and more intense physiological responses.
Integrating content & design from the beginning:
As a seasoned copywriter and a big admirer of Janice (Ginny) Redish's work, I decided to forego the traditional lorem ipsum and dive right into UX writing right from the start. At Ironhack, we were taught to focus solely on the flow during the low and mid-fi stage, otherwise the users would be distracted by the content. However, Janice knew better:
“...why do that? The design has to support meaningful content, so we should evaluate design and content together... Real content is critical for successful design. ”
With Janice's wise words in mind, I worked hand in hand with Maxim during the mid-fi stage to ensure that our design and content were in perfect harmony. By integrating meaningful content from the beginning, we were able to create a more immersive and engaging user experience.
Crafting the look and feel of Sound Francisco:
We wanted the look and feel of Sound Francisco to embody our brand attributes of being friendly, caring, empowering, innovative, and calm.
For our color palette, we chose a beige background color to represent neutrality, calmness, and balance. This color is often used in environments where relaxation and focus are important, such as meditation spaces or yoga studios.
We paired the beige background with navy typography and footer background. The navy color represents professionalism, trust, and stability.
We chose a sans-serif font, Dita WD, for headings and display text to add a touch of friendliness and innovation. For body text and other small elements, we went with the clean and versatile Roboto font to ensure readability and adaptability across different devices.
After establishing our brand attributes and creating a solid brand framework, the next step was to develop the tone of voice for Sound Francisco. We believed that a user's experience should not only be calming and relaxing but also personalized and engaging, so we focused on creating a friendly, caring, and calm tone of voice for the app.
To achieve this, we started by writing down all the frequently asked questions and their answers. This approach helped us to craft a tone of voice that felt like we were having a conversation with our users.
Our conversational tone made every interaction with the user feel like a personal conversation. Our goal was to make the user feel like they're talking to a friend, rather than a machine.
Hi-fi: Bringing the app to life
With our foundations in place, we were ready to bring the app to life with hi-fi designs.
Beat by beat, let’s see the prototype in action:
Now you can dive into the healing benefits of “binaural beats” and “isochronic tones” for 40-something seconds. 😑
What did they say?
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Good to have a key resource to drive your idea (Wunderman & Thompson). Slide design is cool and modern. Interview learnings are clear. Great job explaining the origins of the name of the app. Strong storytelling.
Rachael Fong-Gurzinsky
UX/UI designer & Project manager -
Nice intro. Nice slides: Soft, blue color. Liked the topic: Music brings people together, it’s universal! Loved the brand vision. Liked that this is really connected to the conference. Nice logo. Really consistent presentation: You even thought about the tote bag!
Sarah Delannoy
UX/UI designer -
Great intro, makes me want to hear more. Really nice presentation, the perfect amount of text and good size; Amazing naming and logo (and slogan). Cozy look & feel very accurate for the topic. Love color palette and how you use it in the design. Lots of white space which is good for the user.
Carla Vives
Graphic designer & UX/UI designer