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Caffeine is a natural stimulant derived from a variety of plant sources including coffee beans, tea leaves, cacao seeds and cola nut seeds. It stimulates the brain and central nervous system. When consumed, caffeine causes an increase of dopamine (a type of adrenaline) in the consumers system. Over time, consumers develop a tolerance and must intake larger amounts in order to experience the same effects. This becomes a problem when individuals develop a dependency on the substance and experience negative side effects without it. When consumed in larger amounts caffeine can lead to insomnia, nervousness, restlessness, irritability, increased heart rate, and muscle tremors.
Additionally, consumers can develop symptoms of withdrawal if they stop consuming caffeine. Many individuals resort back to consuming caffeine in order to eliminate these effects. Individuals are not aware of the side effects of consuming large amounts of caffeine or how much is even safe to consume in a day. Research also showed that caffeine limit differs based on age and medical conditions of individuals.
Hence our challenge is to design a system that enables individuals to monitor and decrease caffeine consumption in order to avoid or eliminate the negative effects.
We have designed an app packed with multiple features like tracking caffeine intake, alerts, quick add favorite drinks, checking history, withdrawal guide and achievements for successful streaks which will help the users to monitor their daily intake and decrease caffeine consumption.
"Caffeine intoxication is recognized in the DSM-5, the manual used by clinicians to classify and diagnose mental health concerns, and caffeine use disorder is identified as requiring further study."
- Elizabeth Hartney, BSc., MSc., MA, PhD
"In the United States more than 85% of adults and children regularly consume caffeine."
- Frary, Johnson, & Wang, 2005
"Caffeine is the world's most commonly used stimulant, and it's cheap and readily available so people can maintain their use of caffeine quite easily.”
- Roland Griffiths, Ph.D., professor of psychiatry and neuroscience at Johns Hopkins
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How might we design a system that enables individuals to monitor and decrease caffeine consumption in order to avoid or eliminate the negative effects?
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We created storyboard for the final design idea to understand the persona and product interaction. It gave us clear understanding of how the product will work.
Scenario for Madeline
Scenario for James
Low Fidelity Prototype Iteration 1 - Sketches
We did multiple app design iterations on whiteboard before making first low fidelity sketches on paper. Below are the screens for different important app features.
Low Fidelity Prototype Iteration 2 - Sketches
On the low fidelity iteration 1 screens, we performed our first evaluation using Cognitive Walkthrough technique. Accordingly, we improved the home screen by changing its design. Added 'Search by beverage name' in Add New Drink screen. Improved the notifications by giving alternative suggestions. Made add drink’ functionality faster by giving favorites a direct access on the home screen of the device(Quick add).
High Fidelity Working Prototype - Using Invision
This is the phase where we got the high-fidelity prototype solution evaluated by self and users.
(A) Cognitive walkthrough:
It helped us to find the usability issues with the app. It made us understand how easy or difficult it is for new users to operate. By this approach, we divided each task into different steps and asked a set of questions to the users and evaluated the user aspect for our app design. Because of this approach, we were able to do step by step analysis of how users completed the assigned tasks.
We did the analysis on two important tasks which were imperative to the usability of our design :-
● Sign up the in the application
● Add details of a beverage that they are consuming
Key Findings:
1. Users face confusion while adding information regarding their medical condition and age.
2. User do not face any issues in completing the signing up form.
3. Giving favorites a direct access on the home screen of the device saves users time.
4. Users found navigation easy.
5. At some points FAQ could be helpful for users.
(B) Heuristic evaluation:
We performed this evaluation using both "The Weinschenk and Barker classification" and "Nielsen's 10 Usability" Heuristics. With the help of both the heuristics we were able to find out the usability issues in the app user interface (UI).
Key Findings:
1. There were an equal number of positive and negative findings.
2. UI is pretty clean, attractive and simple to use.
3. The navigation is easy and terminology is understandable.
4. Users will be able to complete their goal given.
5. There is need of a self-help guide or help section which can help the user to carry out the tasks they don’t know how to do.
6. Color inconsistency in some pages7.
After the evaluations, the main problems we found are:
1. Lack of in app assistance
2. Inconsistency in colors
3. Lack of clarity
Recommendations :
Three us did this evaluation with three different users and found the above issues recurring. So, we thought its worth to make app
changes with respect to the above three issues and then conduct one more user evaluation.
1. We would create a help page or in app tour that could solve some problems a user is experiencing. This would help the users in times of any confusion with working or conventions of the app.
2. Additionally, we would make changes to the color scheme wherever it is required. Inconsistency in colors can also create uncertainty in the minds of user.
3. For removing the lack of clarity for ‘Age’ and ‘Medical conditions’ options on the sign-up page, we would add an information symbol besides those two fields which will let the users’ know in brief what these fields will be useful for. Also, this information can be added in the help section for which we are creating a page.
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