TOMMI APP
Context: Microsoft New Technologist Internship
Duration: 7 weeks (Summer 2019)
Collaboration: Member of 5-person team
Tools: Adobe Illustrator, Figma, Xcode IDE, Swift, Git, Firebase
My team and I designed 'Tommi,' an original iOS app with an interactive avatar to be used by both parents and children to promote healthy technology usage by children. I applied my UX and engineering knowledge and received training and hands-on coaching from Microsoft developers and product managers.
We successfully created a minimum viable product (MVP) that we pitched to Microsoft executives after our team was selected from a competitive process.
PROBLEM AREA
Technology addiction is a growing issue within society, especially in children. Personally, I witness this in family settings where children are mesmerized by their devices. Parents, teachers, and physicians are expressing their concerns, and many in the tech industry are responding with tools aimed at adults and teens. However, my team wanted to develop an app geared towards children, because we felt that establishing healthy relationships with technology early on fosters healthy tech users in the future.
USER IDEATION
To represent our user demographic we created two personas: a working parent and her child. This encouraged empathy within my team and allowed us to better understand our users' experiences, behaviors, and goals. The personas also shaped our user journeys.
With Wendy and Charlie as our inspiration, we created two user journey maps to solidify our goals and understand the relationship between our users and app.
Lastly, we generated user stories to define high priority app features. This ensured that we created an app that is useful for both parents and children.
COMPETITIVE ANALYSIS
To better understand the current market, we performed a SWOT analysis (Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities, and Threats).
We determined that our main competitor was Apple Screen Time. It is successful because it has a beautiful, friendly UI, it’s already integrated into the iPhone, and can be used across multiple devices.
I recognized that there was a gap with Apple Screen Time and other tech time moderator apps. They all focused on monitoring and setting time limits on screen time and apps, but they lacked a fun, interactive aspect for children. That’s when I had the idea of Tommi, a cute, lovable interactive avatar that serves as the tech time-mediator between the parent and child. My team embraced this concept and wanted to expand on it. Tommi presents a more digestible and fun way for children to participate in tech time boundaries.
APP IDEA
After a team brainstorming session, we defined the app’s main components and sketched the Tommi avatar.
USER RESEARCH
Microsoft held a BBQ that provided an opportunity to conduct user research. My team and I pitched our initial app idea to 12 parents and 2 children and received positive feedback and helpful input.
KEY TAKEAWAYS:
1. One family with four children noted that they already had a Tommi-like system at home using physical coins. They thought integrating a reward feature into a single cohesive app would be a fantastic improvement over their existing tool.
2. Some parents did not want their children to be able to buy more App Time.
3. The children responded positively to Tommi and thought the avatar was adorable.
4. Most parents said they liked the Quest system the most. They thought it was both unique and useful.
IDEATION
After our user research, my team discussed the feedback. Customization was an important core feature because every family is unique and has different rules and values associated with technology.
Parents thought it would be more meaningful if we created another option for children to spend their earned Time Coins. I thought that an accessory store would be a fun way for children to interact with Tommi.
After talking with our coach, we were unsure what kind of monitoring statistics to show parents. Our coach challenged us to think about how the statistics can support our goal of helping children create a healthy relationship with technology. After significant discussion, we concluded that two key statistical trends would be provided: The child's App Usage and Spendatures (Time Coin usage).
Monitoring statistics page for parents
WIREFRAMES
As an aspiring UX designer, I led the creation of our wireframes using Figma. I helped my teammates learn Figma and UX design. I also transformed the Tommi sketch into a digital avatar using Adobe Illustrator.
Watch prototype demo here!
ENGINEERING
We developed Tommi in Swift using the XCode IDE and relied on Git to collaborate and resolve conflicts. Our overarching goal was to create a minimal viable product (MVP) that consisted of three primary components: Quest system, App Time limitation, and Tommi Accessory Store.
We implemented Firebase to store user data. The data includes, username, password, pin code, time limit per category, time coin amount, and quests. I was responsible for coding the child's homepage where the user spends Time Coins on more App Time and/or Tommi Accessories.
Child home page on iOS app
I implemented a progress bar to show how much time remained for each app category (e.g., games, education, etc); I retrieved this data from Firebase. I located a plus button next to the progress bar that the child can press to increase the App Time by 5 minutes, which translates into spending 5 Time Coins. After pressing the button, the progress bar increases and the child's Time Coin amount decreases and updates Firebase’s coin data. Additionally, a pop-up alerts the child to check their Quests if the child does not have enough Time Coins to buy more App Time.
Tommi store on iOS app
I also coded Tommi's Store, which includes various accessories. Each accessory has a price and button to buy the accessory. After buying it, the child can equip it onto Tommi.
Watch functional app demo here!
FUTURE FEATURES
If we had more time to develop Tommi, we would allow the user to interact with Tommi through voice commands. It would also be useful to integrate machine learning to automatically adjust App Time restrictions based on usage history and suggest time limits based on the child's weekly time spent on tech.
My idea is to implement a new feature to the Quest system that enables parents to generate fun, redeemable activities such as getting ice cream or visiting the zoo. This encourages the child to save complete chores and save up their time coins.
OUR TEAM
My team became life long friends. We started as a group of unique individuals, from all over the world (Brazil, China, Tunisia, USA), who are passionate about using technology to improve the world. We bonded over our love for Shawn Mendes, our adorable app avatar Tommi, and of course, free food. My team inspired my creativity and fun-loving spirit. We unabashedly sang while coding and hyped ourselves up with dancing before competitive presentations!
TAKEAWAYS
Explore your career path
Through this internship I explored the intersection of design, computer science, and technology. I am excited to pursue a UX design career in the tech industry. I am also motivated to understand and contribute to the technical underpinings of projects.
Find the sweet spot
To meet deadlines, my team worked individually on app features. Initially, we rarely merged our code together. This caused major merge conflicts; some resulted in nuking the code. I quickly realized I had to merge smaller portions of code. But the trick is finding the sweet spot between too big and too small. If it's too big merge conflicts occur, and if it's too small it becomes tedious and very time consuming.
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