Focus Up!
(2023)
Concept + UI Design
In 2023, as part of a university class lectured by Prof. Dennis Paul, I designed an app called "Focus Up!".
I developed an entirely unique concept that goes against traditional productivity apps— rather than pushing users to fill up their minds with many tasks, "Focus Up!" encourages users to pick just one task to focus on a day. Adopting the idea "quality over quantity", it ensures a healthy boost in productivity that takes away any feelings of being overwhelmed.
I developed an entirely unique concept that goes against traditional productivity apps— rather than pushing users to fill up their minds with many tasks, "Focus Up!" encourages users to pick just one task to focus on a day. Adopting the idea "quality over quantity", it ensures a healthy boost in productivity that takes away any feelings of being overwhelmed.
The app's overall focus is on maintaining a feeling of accomplishment and encouragement daily, allowing users to remind themselves of positive things in their life, or tasks they may do to make them happier.
My goal was to design a productivity app that didn't have the same aspects of toxic productivity, that plague modern internet culture. Many productivity and task oriented apps seem to create an atmosphere that you have to achieve as many tasks as possible every day. This often leads to burnout and overwhelming pressure. Many users using these apps already feel overwhelmed and heavily tasked, and this stress may be further exasperated.
I sought to invent a concept that solves this problem, and thus provides a healthier, more positive sense of achievement and a clearer mind, as user focus on one task that is the most important.
Once I had finalised the development of the concept, I began the researching stage of the app's creation. Beginning with flow diagrams and identifying which features and functions would be most important for users.
An important part of the process was testing. During summer 2023, I developed and coded a working prototype version of the app, with functionality that could be tested by users for a month. The prototype was developed on Android Studio, meaning it was compatible with any Android device, ensuring I had a wide base of users testing the app. To ensure a diverse audience, testers from multiple countries were picked, with an overall age range of 10 - 46. After these users had tried to use the app regularly over a month-long period, they were given a survey to relay their thoughts on the concept.
After my research was complete, I could design the app's UI and branding. I focused on keeping a friendly and accessible theme throughout, with yellow as a primary colour representing the sun — a symbol of both productivity and positivity at the same time. The design language throughout the app maintained a friendly and easily understandable atmosphere, as it's meant to rival the cluttered and overwhelming nature of other feature-creep-heavy apps.
The dashboard provides the user with everything important at a glance.
The user is greeted, reminded of the date, and then reminded of what they've set their focus of the day to be. They also have the option to set their focus for the next day, see which of the last 7 days they successfully did so, and configure a reminder in case they forget. In the center, located behind the focus of the day, is a large ring which acts as a subtle indicator of how much of the day has passed. As the time goes on, the ring gets more filled in.
There's also a calendar, which makes it easy for users to remember what prompts they had been asked, and what they answered throughout their usage of the app. This lets anyone easily reflect, and see if they had achieved their goals in the past.
Another important element of the app was widgets. Throughout research, multiple users had expressed the desire to have a widget on their home screen that would remind them of their focus, to make the process even quicker. Glancing at something on their home screen would also make whatever they write easier to follow, as they'd be consciously reminded every time they unlock their phone. I made sure to design widgets that are simple, yet effective, easily legible, and quick to convey the message.
With Google's adaptive Android theming system, they can also perfectly blend in with any wallpapers the user may have.
From a fully-fledged concept and testing, the project has come a long way. It is still, however, in progress, as the process of development is ongoing. I have an eventual plan to release the app to the PlayStore, marking it as a free productivity tool. However, as I am working entirely alone, the project naturally takes a long course, especially when it comes to coding and developing.
To follow updates and be notified of any new developments, feel free to follow me on Instagram, where I will post as soon as new stuff is done.