Case Study
iOS, Android | B2C IoT | 2022-2023
After experiencing the frustrations of constant"Slack attacks", interrupts, and at-times diminished self discipline, we decided to work together and create a tool that would help us counter all these.
After our initial discussions, a lot of people seemed interested in something like that as this was a pain shared across companies and continents (as we learned from our research).
Design a seamless iOS, iPad and Apple Watch experience to help people improve their focus and get their work done.
I was the lead Designer and UX Architect of the project. My role was to find what we should build in order to help our target group improve their focus. I started by testing our hypothesis -people in tech want to improve their focus and keep out interrupts and distractions. After we got some pretty encouraging signals, I worked to design the iOS, iPad and Apple Watch parts of the Seque system
This is a simplification of the process followed in this project. The actual process was a lot more iterative, with many back and forth as we gained new understanding and we received more insights and evidence.In this short selection of steps we wont see all the steps we followed
This is the main reason for existence of Seque. There are a lot of people that need this, and are paying money for it.
Internal distractions, is another main reason we've identified as a factor of focus reduction.
This is one of the main reasons people loose focus and have a reduced productivity, and quality of output.
The system should work seamless across all touchpoints, enabling the users to focus on their tasks and get their job done!
We interviewed and observed how 23 people in tech roles work.
We spent more than 35 hours learning what drives people mad, and how they cope with interrupts. This greatly improved our understanding and opened our eyes on how we could improve our solution.
Also, we got a huge confidence bump as our hypothesis was confirmed.
Too many interrupts make it hard to focus and do the work as best as possible. Users reported that they received a lot of interruptions, making their work more tedious. Each interruption made them loose focus and cost the more than 15-20minutes to reach their previous focus state (self-reported data).
Many people couldn't recall how they've spent their time. This had an impact when having to write annual reports. A lot of people reported they've felt the pain of missing wha they've done though the week, and where their time went.
The were a lot of distractions interfering with the user's focus. This was happening especially after someone had interrupted them.
Every single person we've spoken to, mentioned they felt they were requested to be in too many meetings. A lot of times, these meetings were booked during the day, when they've planned to work on tasks that required deep focus. This made delivering quality work more stressful, and a lot less enjoyable.
Having an overview of what happens when, and viewing all paths -instead of just the happy paths- helped us to align and make decisions on how to better handle certain situations. This helped us to move faster and avoid pitfalls.
We had discussions based on sketched flows and basic UI views. This helped a ton to move faster and iterate cheaply.
This helped a lot with the communication with the developer. Each behaviour was described and this helped us avoid errors that would create frustration and delays
Fully describing how the was supposed to work and what was expected, helped the discussions and development process.
Improved consistency, and faster iterations and release cycles
We created a design system based on the iOS components to make sure we don't reinvent the wheel each time we needed to use something.
This increased the speed of both design and development, allowing us to iterate faster and more efficiently, minimizing consistency errors.
We were abel to fix usability issues, improve on the copy on certain sections to make it more understandable, and iterate to release a better version of the app
We created mock apps to test the usability and understandability of the concepts.
We tested the top tasks in in-person sessions, followed by a semi-structured interview. Our goal was to extract information about the participant's experience with the app.
During these sessions, we uncovered a couple of usability issues we could immediately fix, and two paths that we could get the app going forward on future iterations.
This allows users to plan quickly and set goals for themselves. They can track their progress in the Optimize section shown below
Here users plan the work they want to tackle. They create their tasks, and assign them time they'd like to focus on.
Seque offers the ability to link to a users calendar and enable the user to automatically create tasks based on the calendar event names and duration.
User can set a daily focus goal for the day.
Start by adding all the tasks they need to complete, and how much time they’d like to work on each one.This is the Backlog; all their focus tasks in one place.
Once they see the tasks they need to complete that day, they can prioritise and set their focus goal.
Focusing on one task at a time, enables the users to reach a deep work, flow state and get the job done
Here users begin their focus time. This helps to define a predefined session of avoiding distractions, and complete focus on the task at hand.
Users can hide all UI besides the clock counting down. We used bright colors on this screen so people that see it can take the hint and not interrupt the user working.
We also provided an option to create a calendar event for the duration of the task, so that team members can see that the user in not available.
Users can pick the task they want to get done first. And, focus on this task until it’s complete.
Let their coworkers know they’re in the zone by automatically blocking out calendar slots or displaying the countdown timer where they work.
By keeping data on user behaviour and usage, we can provide analytics and insights on how the user can improve their focus time
Data on what occurred each day, week, month, year can be viewed on this section of the app.
Visualizations show how much a user focused on their tasks each day. Patterns of behaviours can emerge, enabling them to improve their focus.
With Seque analytics, users can get an overall view of their productivity.
See how they spent their time and what tasks they’ve completed.
Find out what days and times they’re most productive so they can plan and manage time better
We had the honour of Apple promoting Seque on multiple occasions and on multiple of their platforms. This is something that is granted to very few of mullions of apps on the App Store.
iOS, Android | B2C IoT | 2022-2023
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