Auri
Providing solutions for missed messages & notification overload
ACADEMIC PROJECT
Desktop Application
TEAM
Maxine Ancheta
DURATION
6 weeks
Feb—Mar 2025
SOFTWARE
Figma
IDEATION
This assignment brief was left intentionally open-ended, leaving us to explore a variety of avenues for problems we wanted to target and solutions we wanted to create. Drawing from our own experiences of message and notification overload, we found that billions of people worldwide utilize various messaging applications, receiving hundreds of notifications per day across platforms. This often causes important messages to be buried or forgotten.
PROBLEM STATEMENT
Individuals struggle with managing their incoming messages across multiple platforms, leading to missed and delayed responses. How might we help overwhelmed individuals to respond to messages so that they can maintain timely connections in their personal and professional lives?
Figjam BRAINSTORMING
Utilizing a variety of brainstorming methods to kickstart ideation and concept development, including feature brainstorming
Assumption Prioritization
Categorizing assumptions in order to structure and direct our research
Competitor Analysis
Targeting both direct and indirect competitors showed that while the existing apps were highly competitive, we had an opportunity to fill an untapped space through our gamification of the messaging sphere
USER PERSONAS
Splitting our potential users into four personas, we were able to concentrate our research on these four groups. In turn, this allowed us to think creatively about how to build a customizable experience that each individual user would enjoy, while remaining useful and applicable to all other groups as well
Contextual inquiries & Empathy map
Observing our two main user personas further emphasized the diverse wants our application would need to fill
User Survey
Our survey revealed a strong connection between unread messages and feelings of anxiety or stress
Journey Map
Structuring a hypothetical customer experience to better understand emotional responses, pain points, and opportunities. Special focus on lessening stressful emotions over time, as the app becomes more integrated with user habits
User Journey
Several optional steps within the flow were added in order to support the user, guide them through the messaging process, and gives them flexibility to reverse mistakes
Lo-Fi Sketches
Initial concept development for overall app layout, with focus on organizing locations for potential features
Mid-Fi wireframes
Further development of inbox features, messaging space, and dashboard, in addition to some early components
DESIGN SYSTEM
Typography and color systems (note that workspace color systems would be more extensive than the five included, as further color options are customizable for each user workspace)
Auri Mascot
Auri was the cherry on top of all the research we conducted and systems we developed. Gamification of reply streaks separates the application from competitors and encourages users to stay on top of incoming messages. Complete with in-app reminders and responsive facial expressions, Auri is designed to happily support even the most stressed users
Final Solutions
Giving users access to every tool they need, in a single application that allows them to personalize their entire experience
ONBOARDING
Allows users to link accounts and create initial workspaces. Everything done in the onboarding stage is editable later on through dashboard or account settings
DASHBOARD
The dashboard is the default opening page of the application, giving users an overview of their notifications within all workspaces
CUSTOMIZABLE WIDGETS
Allows users to tailor their home dashboard to their individual needs, adding or removing widgets as they desire
EXPANDABLE WORKSPACE MENU
Menu is expandable to view workspace titles, as well as preset keyboard shortcuts
Workspace 1: Work
Professional workspace, displays how email message formatting would appear as well as some features of the toolbox
AI ENHANCE
Use prompts and tone tags to enhance your messages, ensuring professionalism and precision
FOCUS MODES
Set focus times for each workspace, muting messages from other workspaces and allowing the user to focus on the task at hand
Workspace 2: personal
Personal workspace, showing text message format and color customization
RESPONSIVE TOOLBOX
Tools update as new messages are added to the conversation, and AI tools learn from and respond to user behavior as they continue to use the application
MESSAGE ACTIONS
Additional actions include scheduling messages for later, setting reminders, and more
Workspace 3: Business
Small business workspace, displaying the suggested replies and schedule send features of the toolbox
WORKSPACE SETTINGS
Allows users to customize everything from workspace name, to colors and fonts
DARK MODE SUPPORT
Option to convert entire app to dark mode, for comfortability of use during all hours of day
MOBILE SUPPORT
Application and features are fully compatible with mobile as well
NOTIFICATIONS
Reminder and alert notifications compatible with iPhone and Mac
Reflection
CHALLENGES
The scope of the research, design, and prototyping in this project was far greater than any project I had worked on in the past. The time commitment alone was a struggle to balance with other responsibilities, which definitely put my time management skills to the test. However, having Maxine as my amazing and hardworking partner was so key to bringing our vision to life. In addition to the time, considering a wide range of users and their needs on a variety of platforms was an exhaustive but rewarding process. User customization has always been something that is highly important to me, and both Maxine and I spent hours on hours digging into the gritty details of user behavior in order to deliver an application that would supply our users with the best and most necessary of features. Looking at this project after its completion, I would have loved to do more user texting after development, but unfortunately time constraints prevented us from doing so.
CONCLUSION
I am incredibly proud of the final product and seeing all of our work culminate into a beautiful and functional application. An extreme amount of care and thought went into every step of the development process, from research to color selection to prototyping. I hope the excitement and passion we had for this project is displayed throughout the many parts of Auri.