Everyone should leave something behind - Ileen Gibbons
LEAVING SOMETHING BEHIND
Journaling has always been an essential skill for the human race. It is how we learn about our ancestors and improve our lives.
Over a holiday weekend I was chatting with my 87 year old Grandmother. We were discussing my daughter and how well she did this summer with swimming lessons. My grandmother goes into a story of how when she was a lifeguard in the mid 40’s and how much she loved the water. This is the first time I have ever heard this story. If she never told me it would have been lost to time.
Another area where journaling can help is mental health. There has been a large movement of encouraging people to use a journal to help them bring in more mindfulness. to write down your issues and really reflect on what the positives and negatives you have in your life. These can be very important writings not only for you but others. You need a safe place for keep this writings so you can reflect when you need too.
New Leafs wants to create a digital platform where everyone can have a safe and secure area where they can record their thoughts and stories for future generations to read and learn.
PROBLEM STATEMENTS
Journal Keepers do not have confidence in digital journals. They are afraid of losing entries when devices are upgraded, damaged or lost. They also nervous about unwanted eyes seeing entries.
Elderly users feel confused about how to save their life stories with current technology. They need to record their stories but have anxiety using complicated devices like a smartphone.
RESEARCH
For the research I started off with desktop research. Looking at what other places are doing to create digital journals. What are the best practices for journal keeping and what are new innovative ideas for journal keeping. From there I moved into a competitive analysis to see what is available now and moved into user interviews. The key findings were very interesting which I will go over next.
DAY ONE
Private Journaling App Day One is the flagship app for journaling on iOS. It does a great job of creating a personalized experience for the end user. When looking at designing our new app focus on using best practices from this app and improve on dailey tracking and a sharing function.
JOURNEY
Cross platform Journaling App The amount of customization is what sets Journey apart. It has all the tools of other journal apps plus the ability to have it work on separate platforms. You will be able to write a journal entry on your PC and pick it up on your iphone. Most issues come from the user not fully understanding what comes with a paid membership.
MOMENTO
Social Media Capture app The ability to add all of your social content under one roof can create a very unique experience. By relying what users have already created they can make a really neat snapshot of the users life. There is also not more work that will be very interesting to some users. While this does not follow the normal journaling path it will create an experience that others might like.
KEY FINDINGS: JOURNAL KEEPERS
The first group of user interviews revolved around people who keep journals. The questions asked were all about how many times do they write in a journal, what do they do with past journals and would they feel comfortable keeping a digital journal. here are the key findings from those interviews.
1. Journal writing is a great way to bring your thoughts in line.
2. Most people write at least a couple times a month but would like to increase that number and create a habit.
3. Even if the user does not read past entries they are afraid to lose them. They don't want to forget what they wrote and be able to share with family at a later date.
4. People like to share journal entries with loved ones or close friends. It is a sign of trust.
5. Journaling is a good method to help you through hard times. It helps you look from the outside in and really see the main issues.
9. Other entry methods like talk to text or apple pen functions will enhance a digital journal.
6. Everyone has had positive insights come to them while writing in their journal.
7. If there is strong encryption, privacy, and safe storage ( cloud storage) people are more open to use a digital Journal.
8. All interviewers agreed that journaling is a very strong habit and have seen many positive benefits.
KEY FINDINGS: ELDERLY USERS
The second group of user interviews focused on users who were over the age of 80. This group has seen technology grow in ways most of us have not. They have been there for the radio, TV, moon landing, computers, the internet and social technology. It was fascinating to get their point of view when it comes to smartphones and current technology. Here is a small clip of an interview followed by the key findings.
1. Storytelling happens organically.
2. Users over the age of 80 tend not have a smartphone.
3. Elderly Users have some level of anxiety to use a smartphone.
4. Devices need to be simple and large.
5. The UI and service can not change or update constantly. "I can't change like that"
6. There are many health issues that elderly users have to work through. Shaking hands, eye issues and mental issues.
7. Patience is key. Smartphones move quickly, we need to have patience for their memory to come to them.
JUST AN APP WAS NOT GOING TO CUT IT
At the start of the project the idea was to create an app that all users, old and young would be able to create journal entries and capture stories. After the interviews it became clear that smartphones was a huge hurdle for the older users. A key insight was to pivot to a stand alone device that is dedicated to just capturing video stories.
New Leafs had to split into two ideas, New Leafs & Roots.
PERSONAS
For the personas I needed two users, one for the journaling (New Leafs) and one for the stand alone device (Roots). The personas were completely at the different ends of the spectrum. We have the younger user that has grown up with the current technology and the older user which has seen technology advance and have major reservations in using current technology.
JOURNEY MAPS
Next step was adding these two personas into a Journey through the new journaling app. These maps were vital to help identify the pain-points and areas of focus when developing the prototype. The two areas to look at is the experience for Sandy through the app and how Jeff reacts to sharing something that he didn’t want too.
PROTOTYPES
The prototypes for this project were very unique. The New leafs app was a standard build but the stand alone device need a different approach. First the UI needed to be scaled down to the bare minimum. An older user gets overwhelmed quickly so we needed to cater that experience to them. It was a completely different approach since instead since the design needed to be pulled back to the basic components like contrast, typography and hierarchy. Below you will see the working prototypes as well as the standalone device.
HIGH-FIDELITY PROTOTYPE
USABILITY TESTING
I was able to sit down with one of the the elderly users (my grandma) and watch her use the prototype, her first run pointed out some major flaws. We needed more direction on the large button, it was not crystal clear on what she needed to do.
Once I updated the prototype with the above change I had her test the device one more time. Here is a snippet of her thoughts
FINAL THOUGHTS
Storytelling is still very important to everyone
It was fascinating to see how much storytelling happens organically. Our elders are often forgotten and ignored, they have so much to share and to teach us. If we don’t listen their knowledge and experiences will be lost forever.
Technology moves to fast for the older generation
Technology moves so quick and is constantly refining and “improving”. This fast pace iteration alienates elderly users, sometimes fast speed iterations is not beneficial for the users
Journaling is an effective way to help defrag your mind
Journaling is a tool to help get your ideas on paper. While users see the benefits, it is a hard habit to form. One idea behind the new leafs section was to give the user simple goals like creating trees to help create that habit.