DaySync
2nd place winner
Fall 2023 Producthon
DaySync is an AI-powered time management app that helps busy students meet their sleep goals.
Role
UX Designer
UX Researcher
Timeline
October 2023
1 week design challenge
Tools
Figma
Canva
Miro
Team
Sydnie Chen
Sarah Jun
Kitty Vu
Hannah Wang
Why DaySync?
DaySync was created as a part of a week-long hackathon event for product design hosted by Tufts' Product Studio. The competition theme was "The Future of...", meaning our design solution should push the boundaries of what is currently possible.
The Problem
Students sacrifice sleep in favor of school work and other commitments.
Most college students, myself included, have had to sacrifice a good night's sleep due to an overwhelming amount of homework, exams, and extracurriculars. This is counter productive, as bad sleep can lead to a 40% reduction in our ability to learn. So how can we help busy students get better sleep?
The Solution
A productivity assistant that keeps sleep in mind.
A smart to-do list
-
Automatically compiles homework assignments and exams date from learning platforms (ie. Canvas)
-
Enter chores and other personal tasks
-
Check off daily tasks to focus on
Sleep tracker
-
Track number of hours slept + sleep efficiency and score (through iPhone's accelerometer)
-
Set your sleep goal + activate in-app alarm
AI-powered study planner
-
Calculates your optimal study schedule based on sleep data & energy levels
-
Automatically plans "focus time" between your scheduled events
-
Add additional "focus time" if needed
Personalized work timer
-
Pop-up timer reminds you to start studying or to take a break
-
Timer is set based on study habits & current energy level
-
Timer locks access to other apps until focus time is over
A productive week...
It was definitely a challenge to create a hi-fi prototype, a coded MVP, and prepare a design pitch within 1 week. After working through many sleepless nights (ironically), we managed to create a product we were really proud of!
Discover
⏳️ 7 days left
What should we design?
We spent around 2 hours just brainstorming design solutions based on the topics. Ultimately, we decided to focus on productivity as it relates to students. We discussed how gamification, AI-powered tools, and automated learning platforms might boost productivity.
We started by interviewing 5 students about their productivity needs.
Our user interviews revealed that students really struggle with staying productive, which adds to stress and sleep deprivation. They were interested in features such as AI-powered study schedulers and automatic homework trackers. They thought gamification might be distracting and impractical for student use.
"I stay up late to do work...but my brain doesn’t work well at night."
- User Interviewee
User Research
⏳️ 6 days left
Based on the interview data, we decided to focus on a product that tackles sleep, time management, and productivity. To learn more about student pain points and desires in an app like this, we sent out a user survey. In a single night, we collected data from...
120+
college, high school, and middle school students
20+
different schools across the country
Studying is the #1 reason behind lack of sleep among the students we surveyed.
What's the main reason behind why you might not get enough sleep?
I sacrifice sleep to get work done.
Getting less sleep negatively affects my productivity during the day.
Do you think it would be helpful to have scheduled break times during study sessions?
.png)
Define
⏳️ 5 days left
Affinity Mapping
We synthesized the quotes we collected from the user surveys and interviews through affinity mapping. This helped us identify 5 overarching student concerns about academics and how it affects other aspects of their life.
.jpg)
Competitive Analysis
After identifying students' 5 main pain points, we conducted a competitive analysis with 3 indirect competitors to identify the market gap where our product could shine. We found that there is no productivity app on the market that offers both personalization and automation.
Many apps require users to manually input lots of information, which is time-consuming. However, apps that do use automation are unable to accommodate many user needs because of their narrow focus.
Main Insights
Sleep-deprived students suffer from 3 main problems:
1
Scattered Assignments
There is no easy way to consolidate a list of assignments and tasks across various platforms, which makes students feel even more overwhelmed than they already are.
2
Overestimation of Productivity
Students don’t know how long they can remain productive while studying and when they should take breaks.
3
Underprioritization of Sleep
Many students struggle to finish their work on time -- but because most students prioritize work over sleep, they end up sacrificing their sleep to finish their work.
User Personas
We created 2 personas to represent our findings about user pain points. We continued to refer back to their needs when designing, making sure each user group is prioritized.
How might we make time management less overwhelming for students so that they can better prioritize sleep?
Develop
⏳️ 4 days left
How should we design it?
During the brainstorming phase, we talked a lot to our peers and mentors to come up with a solid design direction for this app. We then sketched, wireframed, and created mock-ups of the core functionalities, and continuously iterated our designs based on feedback.
Sketches
Mock-ups
Welcome Screen
- AI chatbot asks for mood
Calendar View
Day View
- energy level line graph
Expanded day view
- alternate background
Sitemap
After solidifying all the main features and how they interact with each other, we came up with a site map for our app.
How can we improve?
⏳️ 3 days left
On day 5, we decided to narrow the scope of our app. Originally, we planned to incorporate other health factors (ie. sickness, mood) that could affect the amount of sleep you need. However, this stretched our app too thin, making the focus stray from the original sleep idea. We also refined our UI design to prepare for hi-fi prototyping. Here are the main changes we made:
#1: Removed AI chatbot
-
The chatbot was used to gather mood information, but we are removing that feature to prioritize others
-
Removing the chat bot reduces manual input from the user and allows for more automation
#2: Removed energy level line
-
The line made the calendar cluttered and hard to read
-
The user doesn't need to see their energy level change; the algorithm already takes that into account
#3: Darkened color palette
-
The original color palette was too low contrast and not user friendly
-
A darker version color scheme is better for bedtime use
Deliver
⏳️ 2 days left
Building the final prototype
With 2 days left on the clock, we finished up the rest of the screens and created a hi-fi prototype on Figma. Here are all of our final app features, in action:
#1: Consolidate assignments in a smart do-do list
This simplifies the assignment tracking process, saving time and energy.
Checking off tasks to focus on for the day
Adding a new task
#2: Uses sleep data + past behaviors to estimate productivity
This helps you maximize your productivity during the time you spend working.
Schedule showing planned focus time and breaks
Manually adding focus time to the schedule
#3: Tools that put sleep first
Integrating a sleep tracker in a scheduling app is a reminder to make space in your calendar for a good night's sleep.
_gif.gif)
Setting an alarm based on your sleep goal
Tracker displayiing sleep summary, efficiency, and score
Our Design Pitch
⏳️ Final Day
We spent the last day refining our prototype and preparing our design pitch. We walked over our entire design process and introduced our prototype and coded MVP to the judges, who were especially impressed with the amount of user research we had gathered. We ended up winning 2nd place!
The most I learned in a week!
Completing the end-to-end UX process within one week was extremely difficult, but I definitely learned a lot from the experience, including how to:
-
Scale down complex ideas into feasible design concepts
-
Collaborating directly with developers
-
Pitching a design idea to judges/stakeholders
-
Create visually appealing UI using effective color palettes
