Develop an end-to-end application:

Write Here

Write here is a journaling app for people interested in writing down their thoughts and feelings, and documenting their daily lives.

This app aimed to create a safe and convenient space for users to keep a diary to document their experiences and a journal to help with self-reflection and personal growth.

About Write Here

Over the years, people are more aware of the importance of mental health and emotional well-being. One of the practices that became a popular tool is journaling, which provides a place for people to keep track of any details of their day, but also to help with reflection and coping with any stress or overwhelming emotions.

While it is often recommended to journal with pen and paper to allow people to focus and avoid any distractions, there is no denying that people are constantly surrounded by devices in the current day and age. In fact, a study by Statistics Canada in 2018 shows that 45% internet users in Canada over 15 years old, check their smartphone at least every 30 minutes. The goal of Write Here, is to create an app to make journaling more convenient and accessible, and that can empower more people to experiment and use this tool to support their well-being.

The project was done over 6 weeks:

User Research
Defining the problem & ideation
Usability Testing
Final iteration & handoff

User research

Competitive Analysis

To start this project, I started with getting a better understand with what is currently available in the productivity apps space, by comparing 4 apps that are related to journaling: DailyBean, Happyfeed, Reflection.app, and Dreamkit.

Most apps function on a subscription model, which allow users to use the app ad free, or have access to more functions (e.g. themes, ability to edit previous entries, add more photos etc.)

DailyBean

DailyBean is a diary app to help people record their day, and their main feature is a tracker for users to document their mood, activities, weather etc.

✅ Aesthetic interface

✅ Simplistic layout; provide options for user to easily select an icon to record their day

✅ Allow users to personalize and prioritize tracker categories (e.g. meals, events, weather etc.)

✅ Multi-platform; data backed up on the cloud

❌ Some users complaint that options are limited (e.g. limited mood variation choices)

❌ Many user complaint about issues with backing up and losing records after updates

Happyfeed

Happyfeed is a gratitude journal and photo diary, that allow users to share their day with others, which encourages the users to reflect on 3 good things each day.

✅ Prompts or hint button for users that wants a suggestion about what to write about

✅ Recap “happiness jar” feature, that show a random moment that the user has recorded

✅ Allow users to create groups and share memories

✅ Allow user to attach images

❌ Limited number of prompts; repetitive prompts

❌ Unable to edit previous entries, without the premium version

Reflection.app

Reflection.app is an app to make journaling more convenient for users, which includes prompts to inspire users, and reminders to encourage users to stay consistent.

✅ Include wide range of journal guides (prompts and questions)

✅ Encourages long form journal entries with blank entry text field

✅ Multi-platform; allow user to access the product on both desktop and mobile devices

✅ Auto save + automatically log information(e.g. time and date of entry)

✅ Ad-free, even in free version

❌ Not much incentive for users to pay for subscription, since core features are available in free version

❌ Can better adapt to users that prefer templates to guide their entry

Dreamkit

Dreamkit focuses dream journaling, to help people keep track of their dreams and potentially help make interpretations.

✅ Specialized; only focus on dream journaling

✅ Simplistic layout with categories to help users record their dreams (e.g. sleep times, type of dream etc.)

✅ Allow user to record audio & insert images

✅ Inclusion of AI (e.g. AI dream interpretator)

❌ Overwhelming list of tags available; should allow user to personalize tags that are relevant to them

❌ Limit user to 3 minute long audio

❌ No audio-to-text option

Click here to see the full competitor analysis.

Secondary Research

Before creating the user interview guide, I wanted to get an idea about people who journal, as well as any common practices or challenges they encountered. I explored threads in Reddit (r/Journaling; journaling community), where many people shared their experiences and advices with other like-minded individuals.

People mentioned that they all journal for various reasons, including to keep and remember their memories, refine and reflect on their thoughts, or just to see themselves from other perspectives when they read it back later on etc. People also write in different ways, such as using prompts or questions, just writing whatever that comes to mind, or keeping a list of things they saw and did during the day.

In one of the threads, Redditors shared that they feel journaling can feel pointless. Sometimes, they can feel pressured when they are writing, because it feels like they are writing for other people, instead of themselves. While others shared that they try to think of their journal as “space for their honest thoughts, even the ugly ones”.

These insights were helpful when curating the questions asked in the user interviews.

User Interviews

I wanted to better understand people who journal, specifically how we can create a product to support their practice. I conducted user interviews with 3 participants (2 female, 1 male; ages: 52, 29, 25), who had experience with keeping a journal or diary. The main goal is to get first hand insights about how people journal, what do people journal about, why do people journal, and what are some challenges that they’ve encountered when journaling.

It is interesting to see that these participants all have different habits and motivations when it comes to journaling. One participant treats it more like keeping a diary, in order to share experiences with loved ones, while another participant is journaling for themselves, to help with managing stress and their emotions.

Key findings from user interviews:

Participants journaled about various topics, including their thoughts & feelings, problems & stressful situations, memories or something important to remember, and tracking list (e.g. investments, recommendations from others etc.)

Participants found journaling helpful to unload thoughts and for processing emotions and feelings, especially in difficult situations
Participants liked looking back on their memories or experiences later on
One participant journaled daily; others journal when they have something on their mind or as needed
Participants are likely to celebrate big occasions, like job promotions and birthdays, but not often small wins; one participant tried to do a gratitude log or keep list of cool or good things that happened, to share with significant other while they were long distance

Key challenges with journaling:

Some participants would just write on whatever that is available to them, when they feel like journaling (e.g. notes app, scrap paper or random notebook etc.), which can be disorganized and makes it hard when they want to find information or revisit their entries in the future

Participants noted that they would not bring the notebook with them everywhere, and can easily forget something that happened during the day; will take pictures or note to remind themselves
Writers’ block or too overwhelmed to start

Participants found prompts and questions helpful by providing a starting point to help process any thoughts and feelings

Defining the problem

Based on the insights gathered in user research, I started to develop point of view (POVs) and how might we (HMW) statements to help further define the problem.

I’d like to explore ways to help people who are interested in documenting their experiences, because they want to remember important details of their day and be able to easily revisit their memories.

How might we help individuals who are interested in documenting and sharing their experiences?

I’d like to explore ways to support people who are interested in journaling to improve their mental health, because putting thoughts and feelings in writing helps people with processing and self-reflection, and there are a lot of studies to show that journaling can help enrich people’s lives by cultivating gratitude and positive thinking.

How might we help individuals who use journaling as a practice to support their mental health?

From the insights gathered in the user research phase, I was able to identify 2 different target audiences, with different motivations for journaling. Leah, who is writing for mental health and self-reflection, and Liam, who wants to document and be able to look back on his experiences.

There are some similarities between these 2 personas, one major difference that Leah is mainly journaling for herself, while Liam has the intention of sharing these memories with others.

Summary of the 2 personas, Leah and Liam

Using the 2 HMW statements, I began to brainstorm a list of potential features to address problems and needs of both these personas, including prompt suggestions, multi-media entry format, gallery of small wins etc. I also created storyboards to help illustrate how the target audience, Leah and Liam would encounter the app, and how it addresses their problems. While both persona are trying to maintain a journal, it is clear that they each have their own goals and motivations.

Storyboard for Leah to demonstrate how the user would use the app to help manage stress and help support their mental health

Storyboard for Liam to demonstrate how the app allows users to easily keep track of big and small moments of their day.

Based on the research, I decided to focus on 3 main features: account creation, setting a reminder, and creating a new journal entry.

Creating an account would be crucial for the users to be able to access the product across multiple devices, and would also help with creating a personalized experience
While some of the user interview participants use a journal on a as-needed basis, others are planning to include journaling as part of their daily routine. Setting a reminder would help build the habit of journaling among users
Creating a new journal entry would be the most important feature in this app, which I plan to includes prompt hints, ability to attach media, and category options to help users document things the way they want, and create a satisfying journaling experience

There are many other features that I think would make the app more useful and helpful to address the needs of the target users we’ve identified, but these 3 features would be a good starting point to start building this product.

At this point, I created the corresponding user and task flows, to outline the steps and how the users will navigate the app to complete these tasks.

User and task flows to show how a user would go about creating an account on the app

User and task flows to show how the user will create a reminder alert

User and task flows to show how a user would create a new journal entry

To outline the information architecture of the site, I created a sitemap. This helps ensure that the content are grouped in a logical way, and that users will be able to easily navigate the app.

In addition to the key screens need for the users to complete the 3 tasks outlined in the task and user flows, I also explored other productivity apps and websites for common pages (e.g. homepage, help etc.), and referenced them when organizing the sitemap.

Sitemap for the Write Here app

The design process

Initial sketches of the Write Here app screens

To begin designing the app, I started with sketching the essential frames that would allow the users to create an account, set a reminder and create a new journal entry, including the homepage, profile, reminder setting, the actual journal entry screens.

I then started creating mid-fidelity versions of the wireframes in Figma, using just only neutral colours.

Mid-fidelity wireframes (left to right): explore inspirations, journal guide, sign up, journal entry, profile, and reminder alert screen

Mid-fidelity testing

After I digitized the screens on Figma, I did a brief round of mid-fidelity testing with 5 individuals, to get some feedback on the layout and functionality of the mid-fidelity wireframes, before I started applying the visual design elements. Especially the journal entry, explore inspiration and the journal guide screens.

One of the main feedback I’ve gotten was that the participants found the entry screen to be cluttered and busy, especially the entry section. So I made some changes on the entry field itself, and grouped the text style edit options as a collapsible button. The participants mentioned that they will likely only need them once or twice when they are writing a single entry.

Updates from mid-fidelity testing:

1) Grouped all the text style edits option in an expandable button to simplify the input field of the entry screen.

2) Participants preferred the journal guide card with description, as they think it will help give them some information without having to click onto the actual guide.

3) Participants think that subtitles within the journal guide screen would be helpful to organize the prompt list, as it can be overwhelming with just a long list.

To create the branding for this journaling app, I started with developing a moodboard, and gathered some ideas by searching for images related to journals. I wanted the branding to reflect the brand values: authenticity, discovery, compassion, care and welcoming, and create a feeling of safety for the users. I experimented with various brand names, including pocketpages, nostalog, sentimemo etc., and ultimately decided on the name “Write Here”.

For the logo, I opt for a simple pictorial mark of a note with the brand name “Write Here” along with a pencil.

For the brand colours, I took inspiration from common stationary, like lined paper, and the classic sticky note yellow colour. But in the end, I decided on using blue for the primary colour and red for the secondary colour. However, after applying it to the wireframes, I did get some feedback that the red colour can be easily mistaken as an error or warning message, so I changed it to a pink hue, similar to the classic pink pearl eraser.

Branding and UI elements for Write Here

After I finalized the branding, I started applying the visual design elements to the wireframes, to start developing the high fidelity wireframes and prototypes.

High-fidelity screens for the Write Here app

Click here to view the final prototype

Testing & improvements

I did a round of usability testing with the high fidelity prototypes with 3 participants in person, by showing them the prototype on the Figma app.

All participants were able to complete the 3 tasks, and found it mostly easy (0-being easy; 10-being difficult).

Account creation: Average 1/10
Create a reminder: Average 1.33/10
Create a journal entry: Average 2.67/10

Feedback from usability testing:

Need a confirmation page to know that they successfully saved the reminder and should be able to set more than 1 reminder
The prompt button is unclear, as the question mark icon can appear like “get more information”
Should remove facebook as a sign up option
Layout of the reminder alert screen is similar to the clock app on the phone, so process appears intuitive
The mood scale can be confusing, especially the labels of the different moods (e.g. how does upset differ from sad?)
Need a confirmation page after saving the entry
Overall, participants think this app would be helpful and convenient for people who want to keep up a diary or want to start journaling

MoSCoW prioritization of the feedback and results of usability testing

Key changes from usability testing:

1) Changed the prompt button and layout of the text field on the new journal entry screen, to make it more obvious to users what it is for

Version 1: Using a question mark icon

Version 2: Using inspiration icon (sparkles)

Version 3: Using sparkle icon with “get inspired” label

2) Updated the colour of the activity tags on the entry screen to make it more obvious when selected

3) Updated the mood scale on the entry screen, to a day rating scale instead. But I think that can be something to be left as an option for users to personalize (e.g. if they prefer to rate their mood, or if they prefer to have only the emoji icons without the label etc.)

4) Added a reminder alert list screen to show list of all reminder alerts. This also acts as a confirmation screen, that allows user to know which alerts are enabled at a glance, without being in the individual reminder setting screen.

Click here to view full usability testing analysis

Conclusion

Here is the proposed journaling app Write Here, that is aimed to create a safe space for users to jot down any fleeting thoughts and feelings, or big moments, conveniently right in the palms of their hands.