First
Design
Round

Workaholics are not simply people who choose to work long hours, they are people that can't turn off "work mode." Much like with other addictions, it is not as easy as working less; it requires treatment just like any other addiction.

The general population does not treat workaholism like other addictions. Unlike other addictions, it is often viewed as a choice. A conscious decision made by the person with workaholism.

Anyone can be an insomniac or workaholic. Workaholism isn't reserved for people in suits. Students, nurses, artists, architects, athletes, and more can be workaholics.

There are gross misconceptions about both workaholism and insomnia. Both words are used very loosely, diminishing the often deadly effects of both. Much like someone without depression should refrain from saying they are depressed, the same mindset and respect should be applied to workaholism and insomnia.

Many insomniacs don't want to be medicated. While medication can be a very helpful aspect of treatment for insomnia, it should be paired with therapy.

Insomnia is often rooted in other mental disorders such as anxiety and depression. However, insomnia can also be a primary disease. Primary insomnia is sleeplessness that cannot be attributed to an existing medical, psychiatric, or environmental cause.

The interface I will design should aim to aid people with insomnia and workaholism. This is not an easy task. There is no one treatment for either so I should not have the expectation of this being a cure-all interface. Instead, I should aim to create an interface that can be used along with medication, therapy, and so on.

Key
Research
Takeaways

User
Testing

Key User
Testing
Takeaways

Second Round

App Design:
Ideation

1. Who are you designing for?





2. What is their relationship to the collection?





3. Which content are you ‘interfacing’?





4. What type of interaction is fitting for this?

Typography Exploration

Initial User Interface Flowchart

In order to organize my thoughts and sketches, I created an initial user interface flowchart. While the flowchart wasn't complete, it gave me a good idea of what screens I should start creating first.

After creating the user interface flowchart, I started designing the main screens in Adobe XD. At this point, we were only supposed to have sketches so I didn't build out my prototype too far.

"Design at least three options for how you would like to apply typography in your design, keeping in mind your specific user group. Which typefaces are you using and why? Which hierarchy of information are you designing and why? How can typography contribute to your navigation and interaction?"



"Kimmy and Megan will talk about different examples and inspiration on typography and text-hierarchy. We will do a series of exercises on typography to practice working with fonts in relation to text-hierarchy. These exercises will generate insights for you to apply in your design."

Kimmy & Megan: From Sketch to Prototype







Kimmy & Megan: Practicing typography and text-hierarchy

//

Next: Final Interface

After user testing the interface, my main feedback was to clear up the premise of the app and create a tutorial for the users. I ended up designing three onboarding screens that explain the app and a tutorial for newly registered users. I also began finishing the trips which included adding icons and carefully selected artworks from the BKOR archive.

Tutor
Feedback

"End of trip" screen: change the question and opt for a numbered scale to collect more data from the user. The options at the moment are too limited. This feedback was easy to include in the final version so I felt like it would be plausible in the time I had left.



"Trip Selection" screen: Use design to further distinguish the different trip options. While this was definitely good advice, I was already running out of time because I had many changes planned for the final version of the interface. Therefore, I decided to save this edit for the end if I had time to spare.

Tutorial screens: Elaborate on the options the users have. This could be by writing more detailed description in the tutorial pop-ups.

Arjen






Kimmy

5. What type of medium is fitting for this?





6. In general: what are you trying to accomplish through the interface you want to design?





7. Which visual design elements have you already collected/designed that can be useful for this?

I am designing for Insomniacs. My personal research revolved around workaholic insomniacs but I am planning on designing for all insomniacs.



A lot of the artwork in the BKOR collection could provide the insomniacs with a source of distraction or could serve as a location to relax and reflect.



I am interfacing the insomniacs with content from the BKOR art collection. This is an archive of paintings and sculptures all around Rotterdam.



I believe a guided tour through the artworks would be a fitting interaction for this interface.

My goal is to create an app for this interaction. It is fitting because it will provide the user with an easy and familiar navigation system.




My main goal is to provide the users with a new method to deal with their insomnia. I imagine the guided tours would help insomniacs that are struggling to fall asleep.




I have looked all over Behance and Dribbble for user interface inspiration that could help me design my app.

For my user testing, I chose people that have, or have had, recurring issues with their sleep. I had them run through the prototype without any input from my end.

The following are highlights from the questions I asked at the end of the user testing. While the answers were, for the most part, longer, I selected the most important takeaways.