Offloading Stress to an App: Forget-Me-Not!
I have been taking the Coursera Interactive Design course for the past few year culminating to the final capstone project, where I needed to design an app. We were given several areas to explore: Time, Change or Glance. I love dashboards, so I decided that I’d like to create an app where you could just glance at a screen be assured that everything was in its right place.
This summer, I had a day visit to some old friends in another state. It was a big deal because I was introducing my 6-year-old twins to my elderly neighbors from when I was a little girl in Indiana. I had packed a shopping bag with a few things including changes of clothes for the kids in case anything went wrong as well as other things for their needs.
Unfortunately, I forgot the bag and didn’t realize it was still at home until my son projectile vomited 40 minutes into the trip. I ended up going to Target and buying new clothes and new everything that was in that bag so we could salvage the day.
What if I had an app that make sure I had everything before I left the house? It could use newer tech like RFID tags to take away the guesswork as to where I left my keys. This was inspired by the many mornings where I try to find my kids’ shoes or hat or even coat.
While doing initial fact finding, I found that people had different methods of deal with this issue, including paper post-its by the door, setting up smart-switches to turn off the coffee pot, and edgy tech like geofencing. The common denominator is that forgetting something at home is stressful and can ruin your day.
In my app Forget-Me-Not!, you can create typical situations based on your lifestyle: Leaving for Work, Leaving for School, Going to Church, as well as special one-off occasions like taking a trip. You can also add tasks to the list, such as “feed the pets” or “turn off the coffee pot.”
When you open the app and start the process, the app could track whether your typical list of items are on your person or somewhere else. It could auto-check “KEYS” if it senses your keys are within a few feet of your phone. If you click “FIND” it will tell you where to look in your house based in a “Find My Phone” type way. It’s also flexible so that if you don’t want to bring your umbrella today, you can skip it.
The initial setup of a departure would take less than 30 minutes and can save the user time in the future by removing the search for keys and running back home to retrieve something. The list can also be edited and expanded so the user wouldn’t need to start from scratch if needs changed.
When deciding the layout of the app, I tried to make the screens simple, clean and similar to a real world checklist. It’s also friendly, by telling you to have a great day once you complete the process.
I started with paper prototypes, which were fun, and moved on to a working Invision prototype. I didn’t realize what I was getting myself into until it was too late.
First of all, I am an Invision novice. It seems pretty straightforward but I’m sure I missed some shortcuts to how I handled the prototype. In just working through the “Go to Work” process, I had to design over 100 screens for various options and then add 10+ hotspots to each screen to allow for user freedom. I had to error out some of the other functions just so I could concentrate on having one task available from start to finish.
Next, I had to do an A/B testing of a change I’d make. Well, with over a 100 screens it was formidable to make a change that would cause me to have to make yet another 100+ screens. Knowing what I know now, I would have simplified the Work list. Instead of four items, maybe do two. I did do a pretty thorough job of this, but it was very tedious! I ended up making a minor change that most people didn’t even notice.
It’s also not evident from the prototype how the app knows where your keys are. More explanation of the RFID system would be needed for a better prototype.
I’m happy with the work I did and I think this could be an app that could help people organize their lives. With sensor and smart home technology maturing, I think this would fit in with giving people peace of mind when leaving the house instead of the panic that your laptop is still sitting on your desk instead of in your kinda-light-now-that-you-think-about-it backpack.