I was a UI/UX designer for Automn, a student led startup. Autumn is a productivity and scheduling app to help students and young professionals spend their time wisely to achieve their goals. I worked with five other designers and communicated with stakeholders and developers to create an improved information architecture, design library, and prototype for Automn.
UX Design, User Research, UI Design
April 2021 - June 2021
Figma, Illustrator
From the pre-existing information architecture, it wasn’t clear what problem the app was trying to solve. Our clients were aiming to create a habit tracker, planner, calendar, and a social app, all with an artificial intelligence chatbot. Furthermore, the visual design was unappealing to an audience of young professionals.
We conducted 12 long-form interviews with potential users to learn about their productivity and scheduling habits. We also provided a short questionnaire for other potential users to evaluate the pre-existing screens and information architecture.
Here are some key insights from our user research:
We researched several other productivity apps and programs. Here are a few of our favorites, with the features we liked most.
Next, we created wireframes and mapped out new solutions.
Users can create a project and break it into subtasks to make the project more achievable and manageable. Each project has its own page, to help the user track their progress.
Users import their calendars into the Automn app. From there, they can create a “session” to work on their project.
Users can self schedule time to work on their project, or use a “Smart Scheduler” tool, that gives them suggestions on when to work.
Our next step was to update the design library while staying true to the Automn brand. We traded the Automn mascot for a more mature and minimalist leaf design. We chose Lato as our primary font, but added a few more fonts for some visual texture. We preserved the fall theme of the color palette, but brightened it up to give the app a sunny, positive, vibe.
Working with Automn taught me the importance of user research to validate your ideas. It's okay to pivot, ideate, or create something entirely new if you're building a project that users want and need. In the end, an productivity chatbot wasn't what users needed, but they still needed some help to make progress on goals that were meaningful to them.
I would like to thank my awesome team, Saud, Emily, Athena, Jennifer, and Max(who took this photo). This was my first time working on a design project, and my team made it a great experience.
