Psyched to Study

Inspiration

Study apps I've used in the past were great, but lacking in motivation tools or encouraging rest. Rest is so incredibly important in day-to-day life but plays a crucial role in memory consolidation too. Studies show that sleep and quiet rest allow the brain to encode things learned into long-term memory. However, rest isn't the only important factor. Intrinsic motivation, or the motivation to do something because you enjoy it and not necessarily for an extrinsic reward (eg. money, stickers, etc), is an important predictor for persistence and overall quality of work according to research. My design aims to focus on both of these aspects while maintaining a clean design to reduce stress and/or overwhelm.

What it does

My design would ask a user to input how much time they would like to study (no more than 5 hours per study session to encourage self-care). This time would then be split into one-hour "reps" (if the time inputted is at least one hour) consisting of study time (45 min.), meditation/stretch quiet rest (8 minutes), and an optional active rest (7 minutes). Every "rep" would earn the user 5 experience points (XP), and XP could later be used as a motivation factor. I would try to implement a small game within the app where you can turn XP points into virtual rewards, almost as a way to track progress while having fun. By doing this, studying would be paired with something fun, helping to boost intrinsic motivation.

How we built it

I researched psychology studies using Google Scholar. Then, I used Goodnotes 5 to sketch ideation/user flows. Lastly, I started designing on Figma, implementing prototyping whenever possible.

Challenges we ran into

Currently, my project is only a Figma file and ideation sketches/user-flows sketches. I quickly realized that working solo, it would be extremely hard to both design and code everything within 24 hours, especially due to my lack of coding experience. I had to switch my focus from trying to achieve an app to just focusing on creating a Figma that's as well-designed as possible for my skill set.

Accomplishments that we're proud of

I'm proud of the overall idea I was able to come up with. I'm also incredibly proud of the visual design; I have not practiced my visual design skills much before this event, but through workshops, I was able to learn so much and I believe I have a much stronger understanding of visual design now than I did before. I'm excited to expand on these skills and keep moving forward!

What we learned

This year I learned the consequences of signing up somewhat late and not forming a team before starting. In the future, I will make sure to work in teams because not only is it beneficial to the amount of work outputted, but it's also incredibly beneficial to the input; everyone has a unique perspective to bring to the table and pulling ideas together can end up creating something more amazing than if you were to just fly solo (and I wish I had fully understood this more before going in).

What's next for Psyched to Study

I would love to keep working on my design and recruit some friends to help me in finalizing designs for Psyched to Study, as well as develop the design into a working app.

Built With

• figma