The TLDR;

Intro

Story

Solution

Product

Outcomes

Contributions

THE DETAILS:

Overview

Definition

Extra Research

Comp Analysis

User Interviews

Design Support

Digital Melatonin—an app that works with users’ bedtime phone usage to encourage sleep

Digital Melatonin—an app that works with users’ bedtime phone usage to encourage sleep

Digital Melatonin—an app that works with users’ bedtime phone usage to encourage sleep

Location

Cornell, Remote

Timeline

Nov 2024—1 month

Role

PM, Designer, Researcher

Team

4 Designers

THE STORY

Using our phones before sleeping is bad. We know that, but still do it.

Existing solutions don’t meet people where they are. Our project started with the acknowledgement that our phones are stuck to us and people resist change.

THE STORY

Using our phones before sleeping is bad. We know that, but still do it.

Existing solutions don’t meet people where they are. Our project started with the acknowledgement that our phones are stuck to us and people resist change.

THE STORY

Using our phones before sleeping is bad. We know that, but still do it.

Existing solutions don’t meet people where they are. Our project started with the acknowledgement that our phones are stuck to us and people resist change.

THE SOLUTION

What if we let people use their phones the way they want while encouraging sleep intrinsically?

The app we came up with

The app we came up with

The app we came up with

The metaphors

Digital Melatonin is a digital "pill" that activates features to reduce phone use before bedtime.

Digigram (dg) is our playful unit of measurement, like digital milligrams.

Dosage describes the intensity level (1, 5, or 10 dg) that determines which features are activated.

Dosages and features

While each intensity level (1, 5, and 10 dg) comes with preset features, users can customize their experience by editing, disabling, or regrouping features for each dosage.

Dosages and features

While each intensity level (1, 5, and 10 dg) comes with preset features, users can customize their experience by editing, disabling, or regrouping features for each dosage.

Digital Melatonin is a digital "pill" that activates features to reduce phone use before bedtime.

Digigram (dg) is our playful unit of measurement, like digital milligrams.

Dosage describes the intensity level (1, 5, or 10 dg) that determines which features are activated.

Digital Melatonin is a bedtime app that helps reduce phone usage before sleep. Users select their desired sleep time and choose an intensity level (1, 5, or 10) that determines how strongly the app's features affect phone activity.

The metaphors

Digital Melatonin is a digital "pill" that activates features to reduce phone use before bedtime.

Digigram (dg) is our playful unit of measurement, like digital milligrams.

Dosage describes the intensity level (1, 5, or 10 dg) that determines which features are activated.

Dosages and features

While each intensity level (1, 5, and 10 dg) comes with preset features, users can customize their experience by editing, disabling, or regrouping features for each dosage.

PRODUCT SHOWCASE

Onboarding

During onboarding, users are introduced to the concept of Digital Melatonin, and take a quiz or self-prescribe their typical dosage.

During onboarding, users are introduced to the concept of Digital Melatonin, and take a quiz or self-prescribe their typical dosage.

Taking Digital Melatonin

After receiving a notification, users can decide if they want to take digital melatonin tonight. If they do, they’ll set a goal and choose a dosage.

After receiving a notification, users can decide if they want to take digital melatonin tonight. If they do, they’ll set a goal and choose a dosage.

Home

On the home screen, they can see a graph of features being activated over the time from the pill intake to sleep goal and options to edit and cancel features.

On the home screen, they can see a graph of features being activated over the time from the pill intake to sleep goal and options to edit.

1 Digigram Features

Short form video tracker

Bedtime routine helper

Gradual dimming

Gradual B&W mode

Timed muted notifs

The short form video tracker is a lightweight feature that overlays social media apps to help users keep track of their short form video intake.

5 Digigram Features

Sleep exercises

Calming content

Reverse snoozing

Sleep exercises interjects bedtime phone usage with increasingly frequent 20-30 second exercises that help relax the body and mind for sleep.

Sleep exercises interjects bedtime phone usage with increasingly frequent 20-30 second exercises that help relax the body

10 Digigram Features

Intentional usage

Exhausted phone mode

Slow battery charging

Intentional usage requires users to set a goal and time limit each time they use an app, making each phone interaction purposeful and time-boxed.

Bedtime Statistics

The statistic tabs provides a weeks overview, with toggles to overlay screen time, sleep, and digital melatonin usage.

THE OUTCOMES

Moonshot 1st Place

On Demo Day, I pitched on behalf of my team, and our project received a unanimous vote from all 4 judges.

MY INDIVIDUAL CONTRIBUTIONS

UI/UX Design, PMing, Pitching

78 final screens; 11 user flows

Our PM software & SoT (Google Docs)

Storytelling, presentation deck, pitch

That was the TLDR; continue below for details!

Process Overview

Timeline & Roles

PROBLEM DEFINITION

What’s a meaningful project?

I led 2 ideation sessions with the team. We started with 30+ problem spaces and ideas and narrowed it to 11 by voting.

SECONDARY RESEARCH

Zeroing in on modern-day insomnia

Poor sleep is common and unbiased—it appears across demographics, therefore solutions are impactful and have high social value.

  • 1 in 3 adults in the US don't get enough sleep every day 

  • 70M Americans have chronic sleep disorders

  • 46% of people with sleep problems use Panadol and Melatonin

MDPI

NIH

Unsurprisingly, bedtime phone use is one of the culprits. We each struggled with this, and we could easily interview this.

  • 1 in 3 young adults reported smartphone addiction

  • 93% of Gen Z stay up past bedtime due to their phone

  • 42% of people have poor sleep quality

COMPETITIVE ANALYSIS

Existing solutions: What isn’t working?

Productivity apps tell us to exclude our phones,

…but it’s not sustainable or realistic for many

Sleep apps focus on providing activities to add to routines

…but people already have their own phone routines

USER INTERVIEWS

Meet Sarah and Mark, our personas

We collectively conducted 20+ student interviews, 5+ mentor interviews, and 1 professor interview to understand people’s bedtime routines, motivations, and pain points.

I synthesized our research insights into personas, and averaged their bedtime routines and pain points. This allowed persona-driven design, where we could ideate features and flows for different user groups.

90%

of interviewees identify with Sarah

Sarah

20, Student

Sarah doesn’t plan to change her phone habits drastically and doesn’t like interventions

10%

of interviewees identify with Mark

Mark

28, Adult

Mark actively wants to sleep earlier, reduce phone usage, and appreciates app intervention

DESIGN CONSIDERATIONS

Our North Star

Melatonin heavily inspired our features because its characteristics (unintrusive, gradual, and taken case-by-case) addressed pain points with existing solutions. Here are our UI and UX goals.

Exploring good UX

I also analyzed popular and award-winning apps to develop my design intuition for Digital Melatonin.

I also analyzed popular and award-winning apps to develop my design intuition for Digital Melatonin.

I also analyzed popular and award-winning apps to develop my design intuition for Digital Melatonin.

Accessibility

Font size and colors were chosen thoughtfully to pass A11y guidelines, verified by the A11y Figma plugin.

Font size and colors were chosen thoughtfully to pass A11y guidelines, verified by the A11y Figma plugin.

Font size and colors were chosen thoughtfully to pass A11y guidelines, verified by the A11y Figma plugin.

END CREDITS

The warmest thank yous

This designathon was a huge team effort and I am so grateful for the team. We met for ~2 hours every other day at 9PM for 3 weeks, which was not an easy task while balancing school. I am grateful to everyone who supported us along the way!