Smart Flow

Smart Flow

Overview

  • Smart Flow is a personalized feature in the ABC Listen app that aligns media with users' routines and emotional needs, promoting balanced digital engagement. As a UI/UX design and research project focused on digital healthand personalized media consumption, it combines user-centered design, interaction design, and behavioral research to address challenges of focus and overconsumption. Through research, personas, and testing, the team developed Standard and Lite settings that sync with calendars and biometrics to deliver media tailored for focus or relaxation, supporting ABC’s goal of healthier digital habits.

    Project Duration: 11 weeks, approximately 150 hours

    Final Deliverables:

    • Report

    • Interactive Prototype

    • Poster

  • Summary: 
    The Australian Broadcasting Corporation (ABC) is committed to delivering content that informs, educates, and entertains Australians, reflecting and contributing to the nation's society, culture, and identity. Recognising the growing concern over unhealthy digital habits, ABC is exploring strategies to encourage users to engage with its content in healthier ways.

    Goals:
Daily Consumption: Promote regular engagement with ABC content to keep users informed and up-to-date.
Content Accessibility: Ensure users have easy access to the diverse range of ABC content across various platforms and formats.
Circadian Consumption Habits: Promote balanced and mindful consumption of ABC content, considering users' daily routines and rhythms.
Utilization of New Media Formats: Explore innovative media formats and interaction patterns to deliver ABC content in engaging and health-promoting ways.

    The Complication: 
    Several challenges must be addressed to achieve these goals, including:
Promoting Healthy Consumption: Encouraging users to consume ABC content in moderation and avoid unhealthy digital habits.
Content Relevance: Ensuring that ABC content remains relevant and valuable to users' lives, promoting sustained engagement.
Balancing Engagement and Rest: Finding a balance between engaging users with compelling content and promoting rest and relaxation to support overall well-being.

  • Ginky Huang - UI/UX/Graphic Design Lead

    Jianing (April) Yuan - Project Lead

    • Conducted primary and secondary research to define user needs.

    • Created personas to shape the design.

    • Led user testing for iterative improvements.

    • Co-authored the final report for cohesive documentation.

    Leyla Dong - Research Lead

    Mia Liu - Teamworker

Discover

Secondary Research: Media multitasking effects and user habits.

Primary Research: Interviews and surveys on media reliance and overuse.

Design Process

Define

Problem Statement: Balance productivity with healthy media use.

Personas & Journey Maps: Addressed needs for focus and reduced fatigue.

Develop

Ideation: SCAMPER and SWOT for solution ideas.

Prototyping: Low- and mid-fidelity with calendar and biometrics sync.

Deliver

User Testing: Refined usability, relevance, and notifications.

Final Solution: Smart Flow modes with biometric-based media adjustment.

Primary and Secondary research

Competitor Analysis

Research

This project explored user needs using user interviews, surveys, and competitor analysis, guided by the Double Diamond framework. Tools like empathy mapping helped identify pain points and behaviors.

    • Excessive media use leads to mental fatigue and reduced productivity.

    • Users rely on media for stress relief, but overuse negatively affects focus and well-being.

    • User Needs: Media that adapts to activities, aiding focus during work and relaxation during downtime.

    • Pain Points: Struggles with overuse, distraction, and finding a balance between engagement and productivity.

  • Interview Questions:

    • Can you describe a typical scenario where you find yourself engaging in media multitasking?

      • Follow-up: Do you experience any fatigue during these sessions? When watching a video, do you focus more on the visuals or the audio? If you find yourself focusing more on the screen, how do you balance this with your primary task? Do you usually use one device or multiple devices for multitasking?

    • What specific reasons or triggers, such as boredom, notifications, or work demands, prompt you to start multitasking with media?

    • How do you generally feel while engaging in media multitasking? What are your thoughts on the quality of the work or results you achieve while multitasking?

      • Follow-up: Have you encountered any specific challenges or issues when multitasking? What changes or features would you like to see in the apps you use to help manage or improve your multitasking experience?

    • How does the environment you’re in (e.g., home, office, public place) influence your media multitasking habits?

    • Have you ever used any products or services provided by ABC? If so, how do you typically integrate them into your multitasking routine?

    Questionnaire:

    • Media Multitasking Habits

    • Personality & Behavior

    • Productivity Impact

    • Environment & Context

  • Interview:

    • 15 participants

    • Age group: 20-50

    Questionnaire:

    • 113 Participants

    • Age Groups: Ranges from under 18 to 65 and above

    • Gender: 50% male, 50% female

    • Analyzed apps offering personalized media recommendations.

    • Few competitors offered dynamic adjustments based on user schedules and biometrics.

    • Identified a gap for Smart Flow to integrate with users’ daily routines and emotional states.

    • Noisli

    • Focus@Will

    • Spotify

    • BBC

    • Cold Turkey

    • Douyin

    • Deeper Personalization: Our product could provide deeper personalization by integrating existing productivity apps or personal data. This would offer real-time media tailored to users' specific needs and contexts.

    • Intuitive and Organized Platform Interface: Inspired by Noisli's simple design, we could create a more intuitive and organized platform interface.

    • Enhanced Multitasking Features: Our product could enhance multitasking by offering content or environments tailored to support multitasking, like Cold Turkey and TikTok. This could include creating focus-driven spaces or providing media that adapts dynamically to the user’s task to stay focused.

Personas & User Journey Maps

Target Audience

Problem Definition

To clearly define the problem, we developed personas and user journey maps based on our research findings. These tools helped us visualize user needs, behaviors, and pain points, allowing us to pinpoint specific challenges in media consumption that Smart Flow aims to address.

Problem Space

How might we encourage Sophia to develop more mindful media consumption habits, helping her set boundaries and avoid study disruptions.

How might we create media that helps James manage work-related stress and prevent mental fatigue during long work sessions.

Based on our research findings, we defined the core problem: Users struggle to balance productive and relaxing media use due to the lack of personalized media options that adapt to their changing needs and schedules. This problem statement guided our design, focusing on creating a solution that could help users achieve healthier, balanced digital engagement.

Our primary and secondary research identified adults aged 18-35 as our target group, as they exhibit a higher tendency for media multitasking and are more affected by its impact. Additionally, during our initial meeting, the client highlighted ABC's goal to attract a younger audience, aligning with our chosen demographic.

Ideation

The design phase progressed from ideation with SCAMPER to iterative prototyping. Feedback from user testing allowed us to refine our concepts, resulting in a final solution that aligns with user needs for balanced media consumption.

Developed three refined concepts from SCAMPER brainstorming, then used SWOT analysis to select the final idea.

Low-fi Prototype

Design

User Testing

Iterations

    • Conducted low- and mid-fidelity prototype testing with 6 users (first iteration) and 13 users (second iteration).

    • Used A/B testing, think-aloud methods, and System Usability Scale (SUS) to gather feedback.

    • Key focus areas: interface usability, task success rates, and user preferences.

    • Task Success: Lower success rates and higher error rates observed for complex tasks (e.g., manual calendar input and mode selection).

    • System Usability Scale (SUS): Average score of 74.42, indicating above-average usability but with room for improvement.

    • Inconsistency in Scores: Scores ranged widely, suggesting certain features need simplification for clearer user understanding.

    • Entrance Page: Smart Flow button was not prominent; users suggested relocating it to a more visible spot.

    • Initial Setup: Confusion around calendar syncing; users requested clearer guidance and a progress bar.

    • Main Page: Icon and term confusion (e.g., “Daily Focus” and “Schedule Overview”); clarity improvements needed.

    • Playback Page: Users wanted more intuitive playlist navigation and preferred automatic playback after mode selection.

    • Privacy Concerns: Users hesitated on data sharing, needing clearer explanations of health data usage.

    • Notifications: Preference for manual control over mode switching based on stress levels.

Final Design Solution

The final solution, Smart Flow, is a personalized feature within the ABC Listen app designed to adapt to users' routines and emotional needs. By integrating calendar syncing and biometric feedback, Smart Flow offers tailored media options that support focus, relaxation, and balanced digital habits.

It offers two settings: Standard and Lite.

Smart Flow syncs with users' calendars and wearable devices to gather biometric data, such as Heart Rate Variability (HRV) levels indicating stress. This integration allows Smart Flow to provide tailored media recommendations that help users focus, relax, or stay energized based on their current activity. The system dynamically adjusts to user needs in real-time, effortlessly enhancing productivity and well-being.

Key Feature Overview

Standard Setting Home

Offers all users an overview of the three listening modes available in Standard Setting. This feature aids in manually selecting the mode that best aligns with their current activity or desired focus level.

Pop-up Notifications

Manage Timeline allows users to customize their daily schedule directly within the app, enabling them to align Smart Flow’s media recommendations with their planned activities throughout the day.

Alerts users when a task is complete and prompts for a mode switch.

Wireflow

Smart Flow Walkthrough

Suggests mode changes based on high stress levels.

Manage Timeline

Reminds users to take breaks during prolonged app usage.

Media Playback

For those seeking a quicker experience, Lite offers six quick modes tailored to common daily activities. This allows users to enjoy the most suitable audio content for different tasks without the need for presetting calendars or wearables, ensuring a seamless, hassle-free experience.

Interact with Prototype

The Media Playback Interface combines essential features on one screen for streamlined access and enhanced usability.

Why Smart Flow?

User-Centric: Designed to adapt seamlessly to individual routines and preferences.

Intuitive Interface: Clear navigation and mode options for easy switching between focus and relaxation.

Adaptive: Syncs with calendars and biometric data to provide real-time, relevant media suggestions.

Personalization: Tailored media options based on user activities and emotional needs, enhancing relevance.

Versatility: Offers both Standard and Lite settings, accommodating different levels of engagement.

Health-Oriented: Encourages balanced media use, addressing overconsumption and supporting well-being.

Improves Productivity and Well-being: Helps users stay focused or relax as needed, promoting a healthier digital experience.

Engages Younger Audiences: Aligns with ABC’s goal of connecting with younger demographics through innovative, user-centered features.

Supports Sustainable Digital Habits: Encourages mindful media consumption, reducing screen fatigue and fostering long-term user satisfaction.

The Smart Flow project faced several key challenges. Balancing personalization with simplicity was difficult, as making features intuitive for diverse user types required multiple iterations. Usability testing revealed confusion around terms (e.g., “Daily Focus”) and icons, as well as issues with the rotating dial, suggesting further refinement is needed to align with user expectations.

Privacy concerns were also significant; users hesitated to share health data without clear explanations, highlighting a need for more transparent data-sharing options to build trust. Additionally, technical limitations restricted the implementation of real-time biometric feedback, impacting the depth of personalization in our prototype.

Time constraints limited our ability to address all feedback, especially around usability improvements. Future iterations with more testing and refinement would help resolve these issues, making Smart Flow more intuitive, trustworthy, and aligned with user needs.

Reflection