SleepLog

Client: Conceptual student project
Deliverable: Android app prototype
Timeline: 1 week
Role: Solo project

My first UX case study, SleepLog underlined the importance of user-centered design and iterative testing. Through hands-on experience, I learned how crucial it is to empathize with users, gather actionable feedback, and continuously refine design solutions to enhance usability and satisfaction.

Check out the process deck for a more in-depth overview!

SleepLog was a solo student project for the Google UX Design Certificate. The course tasked us to create an app and provided several prompts, such as an park reservation system. I chose go off the beaten path and address a problem from my own life: sleep. 

The Premise

Proper sleep is vital for health and well-being, yet in today's fast-paced world, it’s all too easy to neglect.

The Problem

A mobile sleep tracker only works if it is used regularly: The main constraint of this conceptual project is that it had to be a mobile app. That created a central issue my design had to solve for: Users don’t just need to like the app, they had to embrace it as a daily habit.

Constraints

Goals

Shaped by my constraints, prior to guidance from research, my preliminary goals were:

  • Find out what would make users return to a sleep tracker again and again.

  • Make an app that would encourage daily use, without employing dark/deceptive patterns. This is a health app. It’s use and practices should be healthy.

The Solution

The aim of SleepLog was to create a sleep tracker that users would find easy to use and genuinely helpful. My main objective became creating an intuitive and comprehensive tool that meets user needs with minimal friction along the main user flow. That ease of use, coupled with providing rich sleep data, is what my research indicated as the key reason users adopt and continue using sleep trackers.

(The initial design was executed on the smallest Android frame, for the ease of future scalability).

Main User Flow: Logging a Sleep Session

The Results

  • Over 2 rounds of usability tests, 100% of users were able to complete the main user flow and log a sleep session.

  • All testers found the app useful. Several voiced the desire to start tracking their sleep again.

User Impact

  • Established the foundation for the app’s Design System by leveraging a customized Material Design Kit and integrating bespoke components tailored to the app’s needs. This groundwork and documentation will speed up future designs and ensure cohesion.

  • Established the start of an accessibility minded culture for the app by ensuring the initial design included things like a keyboard option for the Time Picker and WCAG AAA compliant colors and notating these conscious choices within the Figma file.

Design Impact

Business Impact

After launch, I think one of the truest measurements of success for this sort of app would be KPIs like Retention Rate. 

SleepLog works best as a daily tool. It takes 66 days on average to create a habit. Retention beyond 66 days would prove I’d made a reliable and valued tool in the lives of users! Daily Active Users (DAU) would also be valuable.

Personal Takeaways

  • Never assume. Always solve for the User, not yourself. This point was driven home by the 6 user interviews and 2 rounds of moderated usability studies. The initial user interviews checked an assumption I had made, that users would want a more minimalist app, when in reality all interviewees wanted as much data about their sleep as possible.

  • Commit to a Design System early. I began this project in a more freeform manner and only really committed to a customized Material Design Kit about halfway through. This lead to a lot of backtracking as I corrected colors and font sizes throughout the file.