Glide

Glide around the world and treasure the skies passed by.

Overview

Glide is a personal app where you can share and receive views of the sky from nature in different perspectives of the world. Through your very own customize glider, relaxes and meditates your mind without needing to travel around the world.

My Role

UX Designer

UI Designer

Key Contributions

Concept Ideation

Competitive Research

User Research

Interaction Design

Interface Design

Prototyping

Tools Used

Figma

Protopie

Process

Emphasize

Specify

Ideate

Prototype

Verify

Our Challenge

"In such period of the pandemic, people often feel anxious about their appearances in the online world. With the restriction of traveling, people lack a way to truly communicate with others. “

How might we create a way to communicate beyond time and space, healing ourselves without the anxiety and stress of social media?

Research

Topic Research

Understanding the problem

The COVID-19 pandemic has led to implementation of unprecedented “social distancing” strategies crucial to limiting the spread of the virus. However, a high cost was brought along. Studies show that many had experienced acute, severe sense of social isolation and loneliness with potentially serious mental and physical health consequences.

In recent poll conducted by UNICEF shows that the COVID-19 crisis is having a significant impact on the mental health of adolescents and young people.

27% reported feeling anxiety and 15% depression.

46% report having less motivation to do activities they usually enjoyed.

36% feel less motivated to do regular chores.

Lack of outdoors activity

Loss of access to outdoor recreation opportunities inhibits individuals’ abilities to engage with restorative natural environments and escape the pressures of the crisis.

Outdoor recreation provides important recreational ecosystem services (e.x. stress relief, socialization, nature appreciation, etc.) through physical interaction with the natural world.

Market Analysis

Seeing possibilities

To get a sense of the current market. I searched through competitor applications such as meditation apps and self-care apps. Understanding their main objectives, user feedbacks, and overall strategy. Then, I analyzed some of the successful approaches of health tracking and meditating apps through SWOT and UX analysis.

Window Swap

Through sharing the view from their windows to help someone else relax, focus, meditate and travel without moving.

Strengths

Intuitive instructions
Video upload
Tip Jar feature
GPS feature

Weaknesses

No downloadable app

Shine

A diverse community by learning a new self caring tip every day, and explore an audio library of over 800 original meditations, bedtime stories, and calming sounds to help you shift your mindset or mood.

Strengths

Attractive UI design
Health state evaluation
Meditation audio
Interactive check-ins
Community
Personalized programs

Weaknesses

Lack ways of meditation other than audio
Can't reply on posts in community

Mooda

Mood tracker app with various mood icons that facilitates users to keep track of their feelings everyday.

Strengths

Attractive UI design
Mood tracker
Photo upload
Diverse mood icons to choose

Weaknesses

Unable to add more than one mood
Lack weekly/monthly/yearly mood statistics

Project Goals

Developing core values

Using results from both topic research and market analysis, I came up with two core insights of my project topic:

While social media remains to be the most convenient way to get in touch with others during the COVID-19 pandemic, it also puts people under an increasingly amount of stress, anxiety, and depression.

Without the ability of travel around the world, people lost a way to relief stress by going outdoors and walking into nature.

Furthermore, I defined the three project goals to be implemented later on throughout the design:

Goal #1:

Create an anonymous platform to share and receive nature sky pictures.

Goal #2:

To bring out the creative minds of users, customized features to create an unique character.

Goal #3:

Track personal moods and memories with the inspiration of nature to reflect on their personal growth.

Prototype

Wireframe

Visualizing the solution

With all the researches and conclusions in mind, I started out sketching the main features in Glide on paper. Then, I seeked out some feedbacks from my team mates, identifying pain points and optimising the design. I finalized the wireframes in Figma.

IA Structure

Connecting the dots

Meanwhile, we organized the features through AI structure. Getting a better view of how the features work together.

Visual Design

Concept Art

Creating the main character

I wanted to give the users a sense of actually traveling around the world even during this time period of the pandemic. So I decided to create a glider as the representation of the users of Glide.

Concept Art

Creating the Background

As for the background, I created a concept art of a great valley to be further implemented throughout the UI design.

Style Guide

Visualizing

As I started to work through the interfaces, I created am UI style guide that contains the necessary details related to the app's user interface, which ensures continuity throughout the app design.

Final Design

Key Features

Bring out the solutions

After settling down with UI wireframes and AI structure, I brought the final ideations to life in Figma and Protopie.

1. Receive Skies

Each day users will receive a new sky from a special part of the world.

2. Catch Another Sky

Users may also catch a new sky form an interactive game by selecting a glider passing by!

3. Saved Albums

All saved skies can be categorized by different albums.

4. Personalize Glider

After uploading a photo/video of a sky, users may then customize their own glider to travel around the world.

5. Sky Map

Map view allows users to pin their skies from it's origin.

6. Messages

Senders of the sky can receive feedbacks from anonymous receivers.

Reflection

This project challenged me to really deepen into the background research of the core problem. Understanding the solutions that have been brought out, and trying out different combinations of ideas that can best empathize the users' needs. Ultimately, I was able to bring out a solution of this challenge through the concept of "Glide".