September 2020 to June 2020
In the cloud
Bachelor project
At a glance
Along my third year of my Bachelor’s degree in UX/UI design, I had to design an independent project on the subject of my choice. I decided to focus my research on the organisation of our memory and how to use a tool to improve our daily life.
Software
Illustrator
Photoshop
Sketch
Principle
What I did
UX·UI design
Information architecture
User research
Interaction design
Graphic design
Service design
The problem
In today’s society, where most of the world’s population lives in mass consumption, we watch and read a lot more information compared to a few years ago when we didn’t have access to the internet and social networks. Our memory quickly becomes saturated with information and most people struggle to keep up and organise themselves in the daily life.
The Solution
The solution is a service application. It makes note-taking and organisation intuitive for several types
of users like professionals or students.
This service has all the necessary resources to allow note and calendar management, offering sufficient
customisation for daily and professional use for users.
Application - InTheCloud
Steps of the project
01 UX Design
- · Review articles
- · Quantitative : Survey
- · Personae
- · Architecture
02 UI Design
- · Logo
- · Graphic charter
03 UX Design
- · Login & notification
- · Home page
- · Notes management
- · New note
- · Calendar
- · New event
04 Solution
- · Prototype
- · Evaluation
- · Lesson learn
UX Design
UX DESIGN
Review articles
My research is based on three principles (eidetic memory, information saturation and the habit of letting go).
Information saturation· article link
For this part, let’s take the example of taxi drivers of the time before the arrival of GPS.
The drivers were very well known for having a great knowledge of the streets of their cities.
By working in the same field over and over again they stored a lot of information and are very good at
putting it into practice.
However, if we test their memory skills in areas outside their own, we realise that they have great
difficulty in memorising. Why is this? Because they have saturated their memories with primary information
to the detriment of secondary information.
Eidetic memory· article link
Eidetic memory (the most common example is Sherlock Holmes’ absolute memory) is the ability to retain a
large amount of information in a very short period of time.
You might think it’s impossible to acquire it, but it’s not that unreachable in the end.
Surveys have shown that if we exercise and fulfil several conditions such as getting out of our daily
habits in order to stop thinking about secondary information and concentrate on primary information, we
can develop our memory exponentially.
Information saturation· article link
For this part, let’s take the example of taxi drivers of the time before the arrival of GPS.
The drivers were very well known for having a great knowledge of the streets of their cities.
By working in the same field over and over again they stored a lot of information and are very good at
putting it into practice.
However, if we test their memory skills in areas outside their own, we realise that they have great
difficulty in memorising. Why is this? Because they have saturated their memories with primary information
to the detriment of secondary information.
UX DESIGN
Analysis · Review Articles
Now, if we bring together the common point and the result of these data, we can see a recurring point. If
we decide to take the mental load out of our daily lives (secondary information), we can become much more
efficient by concentrating on one area in particular (primary information).
This conclusion led me to develop the idea of a memory assistant that would help us meet these conditions.
UX DESIGN
Quantitative : Survey
To collect a database that will be useful for the architecture of my solution. I carried out a survey on habits. It gathered more than a hundred answers.
Survey - Calendar result
Survey - Note result
UX DESIGN
Analysis · Quantitative : Survey
I used a card sorting method, to classify all my answers to determine the differences and similarities. I
came out with two important categories, the calendar and the notes system, which will be a start of the
research for the solution.
Through this questionnaire, my aim was to find similarities between the respondents in order to understand
the needs of the study population. The answers differed depending on whether the person was in the
professional or student environment. From this I was able to define two types of personaes.
UX DESIGN
Personae
As a result of my research and surveys, I was able to define the needs of users in this area. The following 2 personaes are fictional characters, built from real data to model the target users. In order to explore several different areas of use. My two personaes differ through the use of the solution. One will have a professional use for his business and the other will be for a student.
Personae - Business man
Personae - Student
UX DESIGN
Analysis · Personae
These two personas allow me to start designing the features that will be part of the solution I will propose to the problem under study.
UX DESIGN
Architecture
To answer the problem, I decided to turn to an application whose main functionality is note taking. In order to propose a relevant solution for my future users, I composed an information architecture based on the answers of my studies and my personas. I identified the user path until the validation of each step required.
Application “InTheCloud” - Architecture
UX DESIGN
Analysis · Architecture
In this architecture we find 5 sections, each of which responds to a particular need. The two most
important ones are the calendar and the note taking.
The first will allow you to preview upcoming events such as appointments, birthdays but also important
periods such as duties.
The second is used to note information that can be personalised according to the wishes of each user. They
will be able to choose between creating a new note that they will be able to categorise in storage systems
in order to organise themselves perfectly, but also to create an ephemeral note for information that they
judge to be less important and which will disappear after a given time.
UI Design
UI DESIGN
Logo & Graphic Charter
Logo - InTheCloud
Graphic Charter - InTheCloud
UI DESIGN
Analysis · Logo & Graphic Charter
Before starting to design the application, it is important to choose the colors and fonts that will be
used. This will give you a first idea of the final result.
I decided to call the application “InTheCloud”, in reference to people who have their head in the clouds
which is a French common expression for people who tend to daydream and forget things regularly.
Poppins and Lato go perfectly together and are known to be common typographies and often used for websites
and applications.
Test & Iteration
TEST & ITERATION
Login & Notification
A login page with which you can log in via Google or Facebook, which gives you the possibility to retrieve
birthday data for example.
The notification gives a daily reminder of upcoming events, appointments or warns you if today is the
birthday of one of your loved ones.
Application “InTheCloud” - Login Page
TEST & ITERATION
Home page
The Home Page gathers all the information you need for your day. Starting with your personal events, followed by an announcement of the day’s birthdays or upcoming birthdays, a presentation of upcoming public events, not forgetting the reminder of a random note that changes every day to help you remember your perhaps forgotten notes.
Application “InTheCloud” - Home Page
TEST & ITERATION
Notes management
You have at your disposal a management of your notes categorised in groups and completed by a hashtag reference system. A group can be personalised with a colour of your choice which allows you to put a colour code. The possibility to create a group within a category can help you improve your organisation.
Application “InTheCloud” - Notes management
TEST & ITERATION
New note
The creation of a note can be edited using different methods. Texts, drawings, images, photos and audio. Once you have added content to your note, you can edit it as you wish. Change its position or delete it. You have access to the list of your categories to arrange your note more quickly.
Application “InTheCloud” - New note
TEST & ITERATION
Calendar
The calendar gives a visual indication of your next appointments and events.
You can view the calendar by year, month or day.
Application “InTheCloud” - Calendar
TEST & ITERATION
New event
When creating from the calendar, you can choose between a reminder, an event or a birthday. The information fields to be filled in will be adapted according to your needs.
Application “InTheCloud” - New event
Solution
solution
Final Video
Solution
Evaluation
After having passed in front of my bachelor project jury (Frédérique Krupa & Clément Thiéry). I received
very positive feedback and congratulations. (Frédérique Krupa ‘’I think that if this application were to be
developed, it would surely be the most efficient management tool I know of in this field”)
However, even after this good feedback I had the opportunity to have the prototype tested by a ten testers.
7/10 of them are satisfied with their user experience and were able to reach their initial goal intuitively.
It still lacks a user testing phase to understand what works and what needs to be removed or improved.
Taking the example of the note-taking part, some elements of the page are not correctly positioned and do
not allow the user to have total freedom of movement, which will cause frustration for the user.
solution
Lesson to be learned
This project was my first experience of independent design. I was followed throughout my research by
Clément Thiéry (Co-founder of Sparkk). He was a great help and I thank him for the expert support he gave
me.
After spending my year working on this project in parallel with my classes. I understood the importance of
regularity and organisation which inspired the design of this project.
I encountered difficulties in the research phases such as my search for information about my target and the
use of the future solution. However, I managed to redefine them to be coherent and this taught me not to be
afraid to take the risk of going back. I find it more important to take the time to understand and exploit
the information about your target audience in order to provide a relevant service. Rather than rushing into
a solution that won’t be suitable.
You may also like
This doesn't have
to be over!
Let’s chill and chat about your project
Send me an
© 2021 Robin Exbrayat · All rights reserved