Spark

Design a goal tracking app based on user data and develop a design system

overview

Every year, people set New Year’s resolutions, but 92% of them end in failure. To uncover the reasons behind this and offer solutions that help people stay on track with their goals, we started project Spark.

I was involved in the end-to-end process, from service planning to product design, with a primary focus on branding design and optimizing the goal-setting process. Our team is currently working with developers to launch an MVP by the end of the year.

Product

ios

What I did

Diary Study & Interview
Product design
User testing

My Role

UIUX Designer

Timeline

Mar 2024- Present

thumbnail-image

Summary

Grow a specific and small goal gradually

Most goal-tracking apps focus on extrinsic motivation like rewards rather than on setting goals. This leads users to set overly ambitious or vague goals. We designed a service that focuses on gradually growing a specific goal from the start, ultimately increasing the goal achievement rate.

Challenge

Find a way to maintain
people’s behavior

Most people begin their goals with strong willpower, yet maintaining that momentum can be challenging, often resulting in abandonment. This project aimed to help people enjoyably pursue their goals by providing engaging tools that keep them motivated and on track.

goal-tracking apps

Goal tracking apps: timer-based and community-driven

Market Research

Goal-tracking apps commonly don’t rely on willpower,
but their strategies for maintaining goals differ.

For market research, we chose Todomate (community-driven) and Routinery (timer-based).
Both avoid relying on willpower but differ in their goal-sustaining methods. Todomate focuses on extrinsic motivation,
while Routinery emphasizes creating an environment that supports habit formation.

Todomate, Routinery

Todo mate, Routinery

Customer Research

Impact of extrinsic motivation & environmental changes on goal achievement

Research Method

  • Diary Study
  • Contextual Interview

Test Group

  • Group A: Todo mate (2 testers)
  • Group B: Routinery (2 testers)

Mission

  • Set a goal and maintain it for 3 days
  • Share your experience in achieving a goal

Process

1. Collect feedback

diarystudy-feedback

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2. Analyze screen & audio recordings

recorded screen

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3. Conduct interviews

contextual interview

Discovery

Customer Insights

multiple, difficult goal

Set multiple, difficult goals at the start

External motivation leads users to set multiple and challenging
goals, but their enthusiasm fades and results in failure.

Randomly add recommended goals

Randomly add recommended goals

Recommended goals were added without strong intent,
leading to quick abandonment.

tiresome to track goal

Tracking goals feels like a chore

Users want a quick way to log their progress
but found the process cumbersome.

Ignore push notifications

Ignore push notifications

Both services use push notifications to remind users.
However, people often ignore them, leading to fatigue.

Our vision

Unlock potential,
track success!

Our vision is to help people accomplish the goals they genuinely aim to achieve.
We have identified three key design goals to address in our final solution.

Design Goal

specific goal icon

Set specific initial goals

Start with specific and manageable goal
to increase the success rate.

growth icon

Track and showcase growth

Gradually increase goal difficulty
to help users track their progress.

Randomly add recommended goals

Make goal tracking fun

Make the process enjoyable and easy to
encourage consistent goal tracking.

Theming Decisions

What is your inner spark?

We named the service "Spark" to convey the intention of helping people achieve the goals they hold in their hearts, and proceeded with branding design accordingly.

Branding

branding guideline

Character Design

We designed the character to visually convey the message that sustained goal pursuit leads to gradual growth

character design

Design System

Ensure consistency

We built and documented a design system to reduce redundant asset creation and improve development productivity. This ensures a consistent ux across all interfaces and enables clear communication with developers.

designsystem

Solution

Introducing Spark

Guide to set small, measurable goals

To prevent setting overly ambitious goals early on and facing failure, Spark helps users establish small, measurable goals during the initial setup.

goal-setting screen

Achieve goals gradually through levels

To avoid the pitfalls of setting unrealistic goals, Spark divides progress into four levels, enabling users to gradually increase their goal difficulty over time.

adjust-level screen

Make goal tracking fun with
engaging motion-based interaction

To encourage users to voluntarily enter the app without push notifications, Spark incorporates interactive features like shaking the device to log goals.

goal-tracking screen

Takeaways

International Acclaim

Project Spark were honored to be nominated in the prestigious UX Design Awards competition.

nominated in UX Design Awards

Spark nominated in UX Design Awards

Cohesive Digital Experience

We built a design system and UX document with the goal of launching the MVP. Through this process, I have learned how to create a consistent digital experience across the entire app by componentizing reusable assets.