Siriusly
A guiding light to your goals
Background: What’s your “why” in the sky?
In today’s world, we have innumerable things swirling around us, fighting for our attention. What can we do to find the eye of that hurricane when we want to focus on what’s important to us?
Jerry Seinfeld had a large calendar on which he would put an X over the day he wrote a joke. After a few days he had a streak going and it motivated him to continue. After trying it myself, I realized what a simple, but powerful strategy it was.
I’ve also experienced how helpful it can be to have “accountability buddies” when pursuing a goal. With other people involved, I was more aware how I used my time and energy.
Siriusly aims to be a companion that helps you navigate past distractions so you can make the most of your time and energy.
Challenge
Create a mobile app that motivates users to stay aware & track the progress towards achieving their goals.
Outcome
100% of test participants were successful in understanding and navigating the prototype.
Summary
I began with user interviews to get an idea of how people stayed organized and motivated to accomplish goals. Next, I did competitive analysis to discover common features and see if any of the apps would suit my interviewees.
Using all of that information, I created a persona that would help keep my decisions specific in both personal and group goal features.
Once I decided on what features to include, I conducted a hybrid card sort to see if my organization assumptions were right. After reviewing the results, I created the sitemap. Task & user flows were then made to plot out how users would navigate through the app.
Low-fidelity wireframes helped me figure out how to clearly present the content. A space-themed moodboard was used as inspiration when creating the high-fidelity wireframes. Those wireframes were then turned into a prototype for usability testing. All the tasks given to the participants were successfully completed.
The Name
It wasn’t until a third of the way through the project that I finally thought of the name “Siriusly” for the app. The phrases “Shoot for the stars” and “Find your North Star” were early inspirations to go with a celestial theme. My initial ideas involved words like “star,” “stella,” “lumina,” and “Polaris,” but they were either taken or didn’t feel right.
Then while in the shower I thought, “Why is this so difficult? Seriously!”
Light bulb moment. That could be it! I quickly hopped out of the shower, checked the app store, and was relieved to find that it wasn’t taken.
Why did it fit so well? Sirius is the brightest star in the night sky, a specific light in the darkness. The app name is also a reminder to take our goals “seriously.” The “us” in “Sirius,” and the fact that it’s part of a constellation, reflects the group goals feature. And puns are fun!
User Interviews
3 people (2 females and 1 male), ages 26-39
Usually I begin with competitive analysis, but this time I wanted to get an idea of how people work towards accomplishing things and what gets in the way of that. From there I felt like I could be more precise in choosing which competitors to analyze.
What motivates them to take action?
Health-related goals & habits they want to build.
Realizing an idea of themselves they have in mind.
An accountability buddy so that they don’t procrastinate.
Needs
A simple system to enter & keep track of their tasks/goals.
To break down large goals into smaller, manageable ones.
A healthy outlet to occupy them while trying to break a bad habit.
Wants
A hub where a group can be transparent in their progress.
All tasks in one place to help stay organized.
Gamification elements to help with motivation.
Frustrations
The addictive nature of social media.
Useful app features being put behind a paywall.
External expectations that take the fun out of enjoyable activities.
A distracting, disorganized environment.
Competitive Analysis
I learned about a couple of habit-tracking and productivity apps from my interviewees, but I wasn’t expecting to discover so many when I began looking into competitors. My ideas were still in the early stages, but they were continually shuffled throughout the research and analysis.
It made me hesitant and I wondered, “What hasn’t been done yet?”
Streak tracking, social accountability, and reminders were some of the features many apps had in common, but I still felt like I was trying to cobble something together haphazardly.
Thinking back to my interviewees helped bring clarity and purpose to what I was trying to achieve. It should be easy to use, yet allow for deeper personalization. Gamification elements could help motivate users without being confusing or distracting. Help users be aware of how they spend their time and energy so they can focus on what’s important to them.
Simple. Flexible. Fun.
Persona
Considering how much it helped to refer back to what I learned from my interviewees, creating a persona felt like the logical next step.
Would Siriusly be able to help him with his personal and professional goals?
Was it flexible enough that he could figure out what works best for him?
Could he learn how to use the app easily?
These kinds of questions helped me get specific, and that in turn breathed life into the app.
Sitemap
To keep things simple, I divided the app into 4 sections: Personal Goals, Calendar, Group Goals, and a menu. A hybrid card sort helped to confirm that I organized each section in a way that made sense to people.
While I knew things could still change along the way, it was helpful to have a visual reference handy, especially when considering the task and user flows next.
Flows
For the task flow scenario of creating a goal, it was similar to most of the apps I analyzed. Making goal creation a simple process was important so that people wouldn’t feel like the app was more trouble than it was worth.
Scenario: Nicolas creates the simple goal to cook his meals in order to build up his consistency and discipline.
For the user flow, I imagined that Nicolas liked Siriusly enough to recommend to his friends so that they could pursue a goal as a group.
With the addition of other people, more variables have to be taken into account. This forced me to consider further possibilities, and if the solutions were still simple and flexible.
Scenario: Nicolas wants to set up a Group Goal to help his gamer friends stay focused in preparing for an upcoming eSports tournament.
Wireframes
Figuring out the layout was like getting a box of various Lego pieces and making sense of them. Starting with pencil sketches, I played around with how the various features would look and work together. Gradually things began coming together, revealing Siriusly’s “character.”
I switched to Photoshop and used a Wacom tablet to see how things looked with a little more refinement. It was still loose and allowed me to maintain the energy of exploration.
Feeling more confident in what I had, I then moved to Figma to see if everything held up in a form that would be closer to the high fidelity wireframes.
It became immediately clear when creating the hifi screens that I didn’t consider the dark theme enough. I referred back to a couple of the competitors that had a dark mode to get some ideas on how to adapt my designs.
The colored rim indicates progress made on a goal, and is supposed to look like a shooting star.
The “new goal” function was moved to the top after receiving feedback from other designers. This keeps it always accessible, whereas in the lofi wireframes the user would have to scroll to the bottom.
Before and after
When creating a goal or task, various options are presented to the user. It’s up to the individual to determine what they feel would work best for them.
Choosing a color and icon for each goal/task works in the way that people use sticky notes and highlight markers when writing notes, as a means of quick visual recognition and categorization.
Achieving some goals may be made easier when broken down into smaller, more manageable tasks. Tapping the blue circle will change it to the icon and color the user chose when creating the task.
The calendar section is a place where users can see what’s due for the day, or review what was done on a previous day. The filter helps users to quickly see only their personal or group goals.
The group goals section is like the personal goals section, but with the addition of a friends list and chat function.
Group tasks list who’s responsible for each (similar to party planning, with different people in charge of bringing various things). Like on the calendar screen, the filter can show the user which tasks they’re a part of.
Goal constellations are a feature unique to Siriusly. Using the icons chosen, users can arrange and connect them to create custom constellations. These would give a visual representation of their achievements.
Usability Test
Of the 5 test participants, 2 were returning from the interview phase. 4 had never used an app like this, so I was excited to see how new users interacted with it. Would it be easy to navigate? Would the organization make sense and reflect the card sorting results? If something didn’t work the way they expected, how easily could they figure out the solution?
Participants were asked to complete the following 3 tasks:
1. Create a goal, then add a task to the goal created.
2. Review what tasks were completed on July 4th.
3. Mark the group task to “register” as completed, then tell the others in the group chat.
Test Results
All 5 participants completed the 3 tasks, although there was a consistent issue with task 2.
Despite being dropped into scenarios they didn’t create in tasks 2 and 3, they were still able to successfully recover from errors and understood what to do in the future.
They said if the prototype had allowed them to explore and experiment to see how things worked, the issues wouldn’t have seemed as pronounced.
Everyone liked the appearance and layout of the app, said the features were easy to learn, and were presented in an interesting way.
Priority Revisions
I wasn’t expecting the calendar task to have as many issues as it did, but thankfully the participants were able to figure it out quickly.
4 participants wanted to slide the week across since the 4th was in the previous week, either by tapping the carat next to July or by the streak connector line. I moved the carats down to the week so users can easily go forward or backward.
Before and after
Tapping on July still reveals the month in its entirety, and the carats return on either side of the month when you do so. The tasks shift down the screen, which allows users to preview a day’s tasks if they tap on other days of the month.
One participant gave the great suggestion of changing the border of completed tasks to the color selected when creating them. This would make it similar to the color rim of goals.
Looking Back & Moving Ahead
Finding a unique angle that wasn’t already done by another app was an exciting early hurdle. Knowing what to include and exclude, blending those things seamlessly, being mindful of not overwhelming users… It was like I had to use Siriusly on this project before Siriusly even existed!
Having a strong understanding of what the app was aiming to achieve was key, otherwise it would have just been a junkyard Lego monstrosity of an app. Any questions or problems that came up, I could ask, “Would this help Nicolas? Is it in line with being simple, flexible, and fun?” Explore, experiment, and adapt, all while facing that guiding star.
“Direction is more important than speed.”
