UI/UX Product Design

Zēno, the smart fidget toy and app, gives users the ability to manage and relieve stress through fidgeting, to build better mental state through mindfulness exercises.

Team

Jay Lintag, Rachel Cheng, Zhen Li 

Timeline

November–December 2017 (2 Months)

Role

Research, Ideation, Design, Visualization

Problem

Many young adults, like myself, are struggling between schooling and adulating. When stress accumulates, it could easily lead young people to negative feelings like anger, anxiety and disappointment. Pressure situations make people feel difficult to focus on tasks.

Solution

With Zēno, users can track their stress through fidgeting. Zēno app suggests relieving exercises based on current emotions and usage. Zēno helps users to better manage their stress and emotions, at the same time encourage to focus.

So we are asking ...

Is fidgeting proven to help relieve stress?
How do people interact with different fidgets/fidgeting modes?

Research 

Exploring the realm of fidgeting objects such as stress balls, fidget spinners, and fidget cubes, we wanted to understand the correlation between fidgeting and stress relieving.

• Interviewing blindfolded participants to test users' fidgeting perferences in different shapes and textures 
• Using design thinking as strategy to ideate our product and directions.
• PACT Analysis
  
• Creating different user personas based on initial research.
  

How might we...

provide user comfort in order to help them concentration and self-manage emotions through out fidgeting?

Ideation 

PHYSICAL OBJECT

Portable — easy to carry for the pocket and provides comfort in hand.

Adjustable Sensitivity — Scenario dependent sound and pressure adjustments.

Versatility — playfulness interactions that not limited to the thumb.

MOBILE APP

Personalized Suggestions — emotions-focused exercise are suggested based on usage and duration from fidgeting. 

Distraction Alarm — notifies the user when they have been fidgeting for too long and might become a distraction.

Sketches of physical objects done by team members; Physical prototype created by Jay Lintag; 3D Modeling created by Michelle Vu. 

Visual Style 

Overall, the colour scheme of Zēno has a calm light blue as theme colour and a strawberry pink for visual emphasis, accompany with a selection of friendly colours and icons to deliver cheerful feelings. Card style are categorized and colour coded by emotion preferences. "Heart it" feature keeps the user's avourite activities on the top. 

Product Outcome

On Boarding

Going through highlighted features on app, on boarding flow helps first time users to explore Zēno quickly. 

Emotions-based Suggestions

Drowning in feelings?
Zēno suggests stress-relief exercises by filtering users' current mood and favourite preferences.

Tracking and Action

Instantly track and display data of fidgeting (pressure, frequency and usage). 

Visualizing collected-data to help understand the user’s stress level. Suggesting stress relief activities bases on the fidgeting results and the user's preference.

Hands-on Exercises

With hands-on interaction tutorials on mobile app, Zēno introduces different fidget techniques to users for stress-relief exercises.

Reflection

I focused on the visual aspects of the app, in terms of colour and styles. I took charge of the Emotion Filtering feature. Rachel and I collaborated closely exploring functionality of the app, establishing the userflows and rough prototyping of the overall app.

Jay Lintag took over the overall branding direction, initial user research on shapes and texture, and physical prototype.

Rachel Cheng took the lead position with design thinking exercises and final prototype. She focused on Tracking and Suggesting features.

It’s been a great pleasure to work with two of my amazing peer designers. I learned an incredible amount during the making of Zēno. Without contributions of any team member, Zēno couldn’t become the product we see today.