One Voice Journal
A journaling app designed to connect users to their faith and selves.
I completed this project through Develop for Good—an organization that connects non-profits to teams of student volunteer designers, developers, and project managers. My team’s client was the Firm Development Foundation—a non-profit Church Ministry with the goal of using technology to connect with Christians across the world to spread good.
Working with one other designer, 6 developers, and 1 product manager, I designed the journal entry creation portion of a mobile journaling app targeted at helping Christians connect more deeply with their faith and self. Over the course of 10 weeks, I conducted research, developed visual branding, progressed through multiple rounds of wireframing, and conducted two rounds of usability testing with a total of 15 participants. I used the final week of the project to engage in some speculative design—exploring how AI could be incorporated into the app.
ROLE
UX/UI Designer
UX ResearcherDATE
Aug 2024TOOLS
Figma
Miro
Project Objective
Create a mobile journaling app for self-reflection and spiritual growth, enabling users to connect with others globally.
Schedule
While the project was originally planned as an engineering-only effort, during the initial scoping phase, the team discovered a combined design and engineering effort was required. Therefore, they brought in two designers (including myself) in week 5 of the project, and as a team, we collaborated to develop a schedule for project to allow design and engineering work to happen simultaneously.
"Collaborating with Develop For Good was an absolute joy. The students brought fresh ideas and a real passion for excellence that showed in every part of their work. They listened to what we needed and created a design that’s both modern and incredibly user-friendly. The engineers were just as impressive, going the extra mile to include offline functionality, which has made our app even more versatile. We couldn’t be more pleased with the results and are truly thankful for their dedication to our project.”
- Curtis Smith, Partner, Firm Collective
Demo Video
Narrated by our Project Manager, Rozalin Draghosian.
Design Research
Competitive Analysis:
First, we conducted a competitive analysis of a variety of journaling and dream journaling apps, evaluating their strengths and weaknesses in areas such as user interface, features, and user experience. Our research highlighted several opportunities for One Voice Journal, such as incorporating prompts, tags, filtering, and text formatting.
Personas/User Journey Mapping:
Our client originally had two user groups in mind for the app—the primary user group was Christian adults and the secondary user group was non-religious dream journalers. From creating the journey maps for each of these groups, we found that the needs of each were different enough that, together with the client, we decided to focus solely on Christian users for the MVP.
Story Mapping:
To prepare for lo-fi wireframing and ensure we understood what each feature would require, I created the story map below.
Branding
After we found that the client’s current color palette did not meet accessibility standards, I developed a new palette with tints and shades of their previous colors and provided guidance for whether white or black text would meet accessibility standards against these new colors. I also added purple to the palette to evoke a sense of spirituality and reflection. I presented these colors along with recommendations for typography and a selection of wireframe mockups illustrating different ways these could be applied in the app and received the client’s enthusiastic approval.
Wireframing
To meet the schedule set with engineers, we progressed rapidly from lo-fi to hi-fi wireframes, incorporating the branding we developed for the client. I was responsible for the journal entry screens shown below.
User Testing
We conducted two rounds of user testing through User Testing with a total of 15 participants (5 in the first round and 10 in the second). Overall, the feedback from users was very positive, particularly around the audio recording and enhanced search features. However, we did find several small but impactful adjustments to make after each round to improve the user experience.
100%
of participants described having a positive experience with the app
9/10
participants in round 1 stated the audio recording feature met or exceeded their expectations
4/5
participants in round 2 found tags easy and intuitive
User Testing Quotes
“Amazing. Loved the features with audio notes, editing and journaling. Looks like fun and the media types make it better and more attractive. Love the audio notes.”
“My overall experience was positive as everything works well and it is a very clear and easy app to use.”
“Overall very good features all are easy to use and well implemented.”
App Features
Add and Format Text 📄
Users can enter a title and body text and format the text to change its size, add bold/underline/italics/strikethrough, create a bulleted or numbered list, or add highlight.
Record Audio and Edit Transcription 🎙️
Users can record an audio note and trim any unwanted sections. An auto-generated transcription will be available once the audio note is saved. This transcription can be edited to correct any errors.
Prompts 💬
A blank page can be intimidating. Users can get inspiration for what to write with prompts.
Team Collaboration:
Our remote team of 9 was distributed around the world with up to 12 hours of time difference between us. This meant we had to be intentional about our collaboration, both internally and with our client. We used Slack, Figma, and Miro boards for asynchronous collaboration and held weekly meetings with the client, with our internal design and engineering team, and with the design team.
In our meetings with the client, we presented our work and discussed any items needing their input. In our internal meetings, we did an individual stand-up and presented relevant progress in the design work—such as giving demos of features that had been designed to ensure the engineers understood the intent behind our designs when we handed them off to be developed. Our design team meetings functioned as working sessions where we could discuss any blockers or provide review of each others’ designs.
AI Brainstorming
There were many potential features we identified during the design process that we didn’t make it into the scope for the initial MVP. One of the biggest areas for future development is the incorporation of AI. To help the client communicate this potential to other stakeholders, I developed several high-fidelity wireframes illustrating ways in which AI could be incorporated into the app. For example, AI could enable features like journal entry analysis and writing assistance, weekly insights into patterns and themes within the entries, or custom prompt generation.
Project Collaborators:
Product Manager: Rozalin Draghosian
Designers:
Haley McLeod
Sonia Leung
Engineering Manager: David Cao
Developers:
Julian Beaudry
Lyton Mhlanga
Min Nguyen
Nankun Xu
Qilong Wang
Satvik Narang