The Magic of Tidying App

A Companion App for the Marie Kondo's 'Magic of Tidying'

The Magic of Tidying was a phenomon opening its readers up to self improvement through de-cluttering and organizing. In creating the companion app for the book we had to confront a number of questions: Is there a way to capture the“magic” and “joy”of tidying in a way that is engaging, useful, and fun to use? ? Is there a way to address the elephant in the room, motivation? Is there way to create a product that complements and enhances the experience of the book and is not redundant.

Role

Research UX Design UI Design

Tools

Figma, Notion, Photoshop, Illustrator, In Design

Timeline

60 Hrs

This project will be unique in that the content is driven by the book and its lessons. That begs the question of how the app can be a utility that is not redundant. What can the app do that the book cannot? What will make this a unique and joyful entity unto itself?

Background

The Magic of Tidying organizing principle for the app. What can the technology and design do for us to aid in the goals of the book?

Is there a way to make an app for the life-changing magic of tidying up that is engaging, useful, and fun to use?

Problem

Motivation is a huge issue with regard to cleaning, decluttering, and organizing.

Is there a way to capture the“magic” and “joy”of tidying?

Goals

Determining the design principles of the project will serve to guide the design process and create a standard to which decisions will be made:

Simple

Fun

Joyful & Magical

The design of the app captures the philosophy of the book creating joy through simplicity. We addressed motivation and inspiration through the social feed creating a friendly environment to share progress and encourage engagement. Ultimately, according to the research, accountability was the antidote to apathy toward tidiness.

create simple interactive lesson guides

create a sytem to log and record progress

create a means to share and see progress with friends to encourage progress

create a metrics and rankings to motivate the community

create simple interactive lesson guides

create a sytem to log and record progress

create a means to share and see progress with friends to encourage progress

create a metrics and rankings to motivate the community

create simple interactive lesson guides

create a sytem to log and record progress

create a means to share and see progress with friends to encourage progress

create a metrics and rankings to motivate the community

Discover

Finding: People are Busy

Their free time is extremely limited it comes to tidying & organizing with what free time they have.

Sometime it’s hard to care:

Some people just don’t care to clean.

Motivation is an issue.

Finding: Motivations & How to Inspire

When people to tidy and organize they find it the very satisfying - they relish in the results of the labor and find joy in that moment

Self improvement is a major motivator.

Games and apps that involve rewards, collecting, and earning feedback are addictive/fun and could provide a framework around which to design.

Summary of Research

Finding: Accountability Counts

People found motivation to tidy & organize when they anticipate guests or when someone else has to suffer as a result of their mess.

Incorporating a social network could help encourage tidiness by recognizing this sentiment.

“I never have guests over and don’t have a girlfriend so I never clean”

User Interviews

I conducted one-on-one interviews with potential ferry users to understand their needs, behaviors, and pain points (approximately 4-5 interviews lasting 30-45 minutes)

Surveys

I created a short survey for a broader swath of people to fill out

Competitive Assessment

Discover

Finding: People are Busy

Their free time is extremely limited it comes to tidying & organizing with what free time they have.

Sometime it’s hard to care:

Some people just don’t care to clean.

Motivation is an issue.

Finding: Motivations & How to Inspire

When people to tidy and organize they find it the very satisfying - they relish in the results of the labor and find joy in that moment

Self improvement is a major motivator.

Games and apps that involve rewards, collecting, and earning feedback are addictive/fun and could provide a framework around which to design.

Summary of Research

Finding: Accountability Counts

People found motivation to tidy & organize when they anticipate guests or when someone else has to suffer as a result of their mess.

Incorporating a social network could help encourage tidiness by recognizing this sentiment.

“I never have guests over and don’t have a girlfriend so I never clean”

User Interviews

I conducted one-on-one interviews with potential ferry users to understand their needs, behaviors, and pain points (approximately 4-5 interviews lasting 30-45 minutes)

Surveys

I created a short survey for a broader swath of people to fill out

Competitive Assessment

We want to know how users discover, plan trips, and buy tickets to understand how to improve the experience.

Define

Armed with a number user issues we created archetypal user personas to embody our discoveries. Three types of archetypal users that embody the overarching needs we determined:

Develop

Determining the design principles of the project will serve to guide the design process and create a standard to which decisions will be made:

Simple

Fun

Joyful & Magical

Develop

Determining the design principles of the project will serve to guide the design process and create a standard to which decisions will be made:

Simple

Fun

Joyful & Magical

The sitemap is simply based around four categories the map, routes, landings, and experiences.

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The brand harkens back to the midcentury transit map and environmental graphic design (the 1972 design by Massimo Vignelli). It seeks to be clean, optimistic, colorful, and ordered and modular.

Deliver

The culmination of the iterations and research is embodied in the Deliver phase. User testing is a testing ground for the ideas proposed and a way to see if we are doing what we actually say we are doing. Also, we can find unanticipated, unrelated basic issues. We can gather the findings and package it in this final iteration.