KEY INSIGHTS:
- Moods and feelings are usually mixed, so the binary of happy/sad in most of the currently available mood apps does not represent reality.
- The main motivation for people to track mood is to be happy, socially active and productive.
- Using colour to define mood is easy and fun.
- Mood is private especially negative mood, however knowing how others are feeling can help individuals express themselves better.
RESEARCH:
Our core target group are the students in the campus. We actively wanted to break away from popular mood logging app's binary approach ( smiley face for happy, sad face for un happy). I advocated a novel approach in lines of participatory research through design and gave user's tactile materials like playdough, image cards, lego block to share their day keeping emotions in center. This creative session was followed up with a debriefing session in form of in depth interview and a 5 why session. The sessions were video recorded and interviews data was coded to find insights.
positive actions and happiness theories. The Happiness Advantage by Shawn Achor and the Happiness Machine by Arron Marcus became the basis of our concept direction.
CONCEPT DIRECTION:
The findings from user research pivoted our concept from “mood logging” to “enhancing happiness”. So we conducted a desk research on 'happiness' to build the theoretical platform. This was done by referencing various research papers and online materials of
IDEATION: As a trained brainstorming moderator, I led the group to generate more than 50 concepts, which were later reduced to 3. I used my visual storyboarding skills and illustrate the concepts (as shown below) to communicate the idea in a nutshell.
1. Visualising/Representing mood
2. Mood Logging
3. Positive Action
“I like this one more, it has social impact, you feel part of the community”
“Some emotions are hard to express, seeing how other people are doing it, helps though.”
THE TALE OF 2 PROTOTYPES:
We used experience prototypes to test out two of our concepts : MoodBox and MoodQuest. I took the charge of prototyping the more challenging concept "MoodQuest" as it involved paper prototyping augmented reality. I devised an innovative approach of making the phone as a see through window, and hanging the UI elements in it. This allowed the user to have a very basic idea of augmented reality as they could see the real world and the UI on a same plane.
FINAL CONCEPT:
The touchscreen kiosk and large screen are placed in a centralised location (in this case at the Husky Union Building). The screen shows live mood data of the UW community based on the number of active responses by users. At the touch screen kiosk, a new user can download the MoodQuest app on his personal device after logging their mood. The regular users can log their mood and can play a fun and unique moodquest.
MoodQuest is a technology backed happiness system. The idea is to make people do small fun gestures for someone they don’t know. The current system is mapped over the UW campus but surely can be expanded. There are two parts to this system, one being a large screen with a small touch screen kiosk and the other being individual mobile devices.
CONCEPT DETAILING: Based on the learnings from experience prototype testing, we set out to refine the navigation and interaction elements for MoodQuest. I conceptualize and drew all the UI and GUI component on paper to refine the concept based on initial feedback.
Final UI : The central UI element of MoodQuest is a colorwheel, which allows users to mix colors to define and journal their mood. The overall visual language is inspired by water color art and provides a creative and fun feeling. There are two sets of screen that are part of MoodQuest System, a mobile app and a touch screen kiosk.
I am looking to team up with AR TECHNOLOGISTS to take this project ahead. If you are interested or know someone, please get in touch.