MindFlow
Project type: End-to-end app + branding
Role: UX/UI designer and User Researcher
Industry: Mental Health, Productivity
Tools: Figma, Adobe Illustrator
Duration: September - December 2025
Balance between productivity and wellness using task management and mental regulation without having to abandon one or the other
Intro
The Challenge
Many people often encounter burnout due to difficulties with time management and the struggles to make time for personal care. When work and productivity is prioritized, it’s often easy to neglect self-care like eating, sleeping, or just taking a short break. There are apps for productivity and apps for self-care, but the separation forces users to choose one or the other, which can lead to inconsistent habits and lack of balance.
How can I help users balance between productivity and self-care without sacrificing one or the other?
- Design an app with smooth flow between productivity tasks and wellness activities
- Design an easy-going and rewarding digital experience convenient to use on the go
The Objective
Research
User Surveys & Interview
Conduct short survey with 7 individuals and Interview with 3 individuals from the target audience to assess their daily routines, time management, and overall feelings towards their wellness.
Tell me about how you fit in eating, sleeping, and self-care, socializing with your other commitments.
Key questions
If you could design your perfect productive environment or routine, what would that look like?
What is your current/past method of keeping track of your activities?
Research Insights
Procrastination is a common problem
Most survey participants and interviewees struggle with procrastination. According to interviewees, it often stems from being overwhelmed by task and misconception of time
Workflow often interrupted by notifications/social aspects
Most survey participants spend more than 2 hours a day on social media and interviewees have revealed that social media notifications often take away their focus from their current tasks.
Friends/family plays a big part in pushing through difficult time
When encountering stressful times, interviewees have stated that having the support of family and friends often decreases their worrying and helps them feel more motivated.
Calendar/task reminders are very helpful
Many survey participants value task reminders and notifications while interviewees said that they’re very helpful in terms of keeping track of their daily schedule
Sleep and eating is often sacrificed because of other priorities
A few interviewees struggle with finding time to eat and sleep well because of their busy schedules
Technology difficulties prevent usage
Interviewees mentioned that some productivity methods they have used but didn’t like in the past often involves difficult usage or was more burdening to use than to not
Empathize
User Persona
Based on the patterns from the user insights I collected, I developed a user persona representative of the primary user group.
How might we...
- How might we help users be productive while making sure they don’t neglect wellness?
- How might we simplify technology usage as much as possible so using the app doesn’t feel like a burden?
- How might we prevent distractions from external environments or from users’ devices?
Problem Statement
- Individuals who feel overwhelmed by their tasks without proper time management and emotional regulation will likely experience burnout, and further negatively impact their routine, productivity, and mental health.
Design
Lo-fi Wireframes
Using the research I gathered, I drafted out some features that would help solve certain user pain points, like suggested calendar activity, stats summary, and activity tracking.
Launch Screen with logo icon
Sign-in Screen with other services to login
Register as a new user
Customize name for user
Import calendar feature with suggested self-care tasks separated in a different tab set up with reminders
Home page with most recently used features for quick access, with sign-in streaks, message wall pop-ups, and pathways to to productivity and personal wellness
Productivity page and personal wellness page are of the same format with different activities
Profile page where there are stats to give users insights into their productivity and wellness tracking as well as reminder customizations to block external reminders or go into focus mode
Mood Board
Using Adobe Illustrator, I created a simple mascot in the shape of a star to replicate the feeling of getting a star sticker from accomplishing a task in elementary school.
In terms of the color scheme, I chose orange and yellow to represent energy, positivity, and warmth.
Hi-fi Wireframes
Based on the lo-fi wireframes and mood board, I further developed the design, including the daily sign-in tracking, message wall from loved one, pop-up notification, and suggest calendar activity.
View Full Prototype
In the beginning of the project, I had simply wanted to solve an issue for my peers and I, who seem to struggle with self-care because of our busy schedules. After conducting user surveys and interviews, I got really interesting insights and perspectives into other student’s daily schedules and the way they handle stressful situations. It was a rewarding process developing solutions to address some of the user pain points, like the suggested calendar activities that is designed to help users better manage their wellness habits.
With more time, I would further develop the productivity and personal wellness pages, specifically the Pomodoro timer with an immersive environment. I would also test other options of displaying the productivity and personal wellness pages for best accessibility. Additionally, I would work on the screen-time management, the notification blocker, as well as the emotion tracker.
Although, the main worry that I have would be that there are too many features, blurring the focus. Therefore, I would like to run usability testing and A/B testing to gain user feedback for the design.
Reflection