ZZZbudy

Crafting an gamified sleep app from 0-1, backed up by scientific research

About

ZZZbudy is a behavior-change app that helps users improve sleep quality by building effective sleep routines. It is a course project where we design consumer-health technologies based on theories of human behavior and behavior change.

Impact

Research
Game mechanics
0 to 1 app design

Timeline

Sep - Dec, 2023

Team

2 Designers
1 Product manager
1 Researcher

Tool

Spline
Figma

What’s special about this sleep app?

The first app focuses on building effective, healthy pre-bed habits to improve sleep quality, rather than just offering relaxation techniques,

Imagine playing Pokémon, but your pet's health depends on you completing your bedtime tasks. If you fail to do so, your pet will experience sleep deficiency symptoms, just like humans.

My role

Why was it done?

This is a course project where we design consumer-health technologies from 0 to 1 based on constructs from theories of human behavior and behavior change.

What did I do?

I am the lead designer on the team, managing everything from wireframes to high-fidelity designs. I integrated psychological theories, such as sleep hygiene and reward and punishment systems, into the design features. I developed mechanics that focus on task completion as a core element, while fostering a connection between users and their virtual pets. Additionally, I conducted interviews and four rounds of user testing, generating iteration ideas based on user feedback.

What impact did I make?

The mechanics and reward systems are fun, creative, and engaging, with 99% of classmates expressing interest in trying the app! Additionally, I introduced the concept of sleep hygiene, with 96% of students learning about these ideas for the first time.

What did I learn?

User testing is essential! It's important to keep the problem we aim to solve in mind throughout the process and ensure that design features align with the goal.

What did I do?

What impact did I make?

Take me to design

Snapshot

Problem

After a long day of work, you finally made to bed. Despite using sleep apps and meditating, racing thoughts keep you awake, leading to late nights and daytime fatigue.

Solution

Instead of forcing yourself to calm down at bedtime, you prepare 60 minutes in advance. By exploring various calming pre-bed strategies, you will find a routine that works best for you, leaving you confident in achieving a restful night's sleep.

Design process

💭 Sleep app is ineffective. I cannot sleep after using it!

How well is the market doing?

To identify the reasons, we first conduct market research and competitor analysis to assess the performance of current sleep apps and how they address sleep-related problems.

Most apps focus solely on relaxation techniques.

Low sleep score without explanations causes confusion and anxiety.

Limited apps have features to assist behavior change, which makes it hard to persist in the long run.

Based on 35 best-reviewed sleep apps out of 369 in the market, researchers find that

1/35

Celebrations

4/35

Education

6/35

Reminders

Let’s understand users through interviews

After understanding how current apps help users sleep, we conducted interviews to explore why users find sleep apps ineffective. We aimed to understand how people sleep and identify opportunities for improvement. We interviewed 5 college students who have used sleep apps before but abandoned them because they still cannot fall asleep.

01 Poor bedtime habits!

People go to bed directly after work, with no time to relax and calm down.

" I go to bed when I feel exhausted from work, but my mind is still racing, making it hard for me to fall asleep. "

Screen usage, such as on computers and phones, stimulates the brain.

" I often scroll through my screen just when I start to feel sleepy and drowsy. "

Irregular sleep schedule

" My bedtime depends on whether I have class tomorrow morning or not. However, I find it hard to sleep even though I go to bed early."

02 Relying heavily on internal motivation for long-term change.

Breaking the promise is easy and comes without any consequences.

" I’ve tried to build a healthier routine by setting wake-up and sleep notifications, but they’re easy to dismiss without any consequences. "

Don' have the courage to start again.

" Failing to stick to my goals makes it stressful and discourages me from starting the next round of change. "

What are other ways to improve sleep quality?

Thoughts, behaviors, and attitudes about sleep have a powerful impact on sleep quality — yet many apps overlook these crucial aspects.

Instead of just promoting relaxation, why not focus on the moments before bed and the mindset around sleep itself? By incorporating strategies like sleep hygiene, stimulus control, and cognitive interventions, we can transform the way people approach sleep — making it easier and improving its quality.

cognitive behavioral therapy for insomnia (CBT-I)

Avoid Screens Before Bedtime

Good Bedroom Environment

Stick to the same bedtime

Restructure negative thinking

Avoid coffee or alcohol

Use Bedroom for Sleep Only

Opportunities to changes

To synthesize information and gain a better understanding of users, we use a Journey Map to display pre-bedtime behaviors and identify opportunities.

How might we …

enhance college students’ sleep quality by helping them build healthy pre-bed routines?

Match key problems to behavior change strategy

Solution 1

Help users build healthy bedtime habits

Users' pain points

Solutions

Stimulated brain

Bedtime reminders to create the wind-down period.

Guidance on pre-bedtime routines to help people unwind by exploring and adopting habits that suit them best.

Screen usage

Education and sleep tracking can help people avoid screen use by locking the phone to minimize distractions.

Irregular sleep schedule

Goal setting and education to highlight the importance of maintaining a consistent sleep schedule.

Solution 2

Provide motivations through gamification and psychological theories

Users' pain points

Solutions

No consequences for breaking the promise.

Visualize negative impacts and apply behavior change theories to support habits formation.

Need an encouraging approach to inspire the courage to start fresh.

Use gamification to make habits formation fun and less serious, reducing stress. It also helps make information more digestible and acceptable.

Why not turning sleep hygiene into games?

According to sleep hygiene, which refers to practices that promote consistent, restful sleep, creating a relaxing bedtime routine is essential. Activities like reading, taking a warm bath, or other relaxation techniques signal to your body that it's time to wind down, contributing to better sleep.

We propose a pet raising game where completing pre-bed routines and sleeping on time will be the main game mechanic. Whether or not finishing tasks will be visualized through pets’ health and conditions.

Verified by behavior change model

User story

User Testing

Reward System - Pets' energy levels reflect their owners' sleep quality
Issues - High
8/10 were confused
I use this app because I have trouble sleeping. What if I followed all the suggestions but still can't sleep well? Then it would feel like a punishment.
Analysis
We should reward behaviors, not just the final outcomes, to avoid assuming that everything will always go well.
Success
10/10 understood the mechanics
10/10 thought the game was fun and would love to try it
Recommendations 💡
Energy and happiness increase when users complete sleep hygiene routines and go to bed on time.
Asking User for Feedback - Record your sleep behaviors the next morning
Issues - Medium
9/10 wanted to record their actions now instead of tomorrow
Why should I wait until tomorrow to check the tasks I completed today?
Analysis
How to enable users to record their actions while also minimizing screen usage?
Success
8/10 liked the process as a casual conversation
Recommendations 💡
Record actions through notifications without the need to open the app or unlock screens. Lock the screens once sleep tracking begins. If users quit the screen, the process will be interrupted, and their pets will lose energy points.
Sleep Insight
Issues - High
Professor Pedja Klasnja: How well have sleep hygiene practices helped?
How can we better assist users and reinforce behavior change?
Analysis
Although sleep scores can indicate how sleep hygiene has helped, actionable insights based on data analysis could provide users with a better understanding of the relationship between their actions and results, enabling them to make more informed decisions.
Success
9/10 found the sleep analysis helpful
Recommendations 💡
Provide insights on how specific sleep practices affect sleep quality.
Offer actionable feedback on how to adjust for better sleep.
Offer alternative tasks if the current ones are not helpful.
Reward System - Pets' energy levels reflect their owners' sleep quality
Issues - High
8/10 were confused
I use this app because I have trouble sleeping. What if I followed all the suggestions but still can't sleep well? Then it would feel like a punishment.
Analysis
We should reward behaviors, not just the final outcomes, to avoid assuming that everything will always go well.
Success
10/10 understood the mechanics
10/10 thought the game was fun and would love to try it
Recommendations 💡
Energy and happiness increase when users complete sleep hygiene routines and go to bed on time.
Asking User for Feedback - Record your sleep behaviors the next morning
Issues - Medium
9/10 wanted to record their actions now instead of tomorrow
Why should I wait until tomorrow to check the tasks I completed today?
Analysis
How to enable users to record their actions while also minimizing screen usage?
Success
8/10 liked the process as a casual conversation
Recommendations 💡
Record actions through notifications without the need to open the app or unlock screens. Lock the screens once sleep tracking begins. If users quit the screen, the process will be interrupted, and their pets will lose energy points.
Sleep Insight
Issues - High
Professor Pedja Klasnja: How well have sleep hygiene practices helped?
How can we better assist users and reinforce behavior change?
Analysis
Although sleep scores can indicate how sleep hygiene has helped, actionable insights based on data analysis could provide users with a better understanding of the relationship between their actions and results, enabling them to make more informed decisions.
Success
9/10 found the sleep analysis helpful
Recommendations 💡
Provide insights on how specific sleep practices affect sleep quality.
Offer actionable feedback on how to adjust for better sleep.
Offer alternative tasks if the current ones are not helpful.
Reward System - Pets' energy levels reflect their owners' sleep quality
Issues - High
8/10 were confused
I use this app because I have trouble sleeping. What if I followed all the suggestions but still can't sleep well? Then it would feel like a punishment.
Analysis
We should reward behaviors, not just the final outcomes, to avoid assuming that everything will always go well.
Success
10/10 understood the mechanics
10/10 thought the game was fun and would love to try it
Recommendations 💡
Energy and happiness increase when users complete sleep hygiene routines and go to bed on time.
Asking User for Feedback - Record your sleep behaviors the next morning
Issues - Medium
9/10 wanted to record their actions now instead of tomorrow
Why should I wait until tomorrow to check the tasks I completed today?
Analysis
How to enable users to record their actions while also minimizing screen usage?
Success
8/10 liked the process as a casual conversation
Recommendations 💡
Record actions through notifications without the need to open the app or unlock screens. Lock the screens once sleep tracking begins. If users quit the screen, the process will be interrupted, and their pets will lose energy points.
Sleep Insight
Issues - High
Professor Pedja Klasnja: How well have sleep hygiene practices helped?
How can we better assist users and reinforce behavior change?
Analysis
Although sleep scores can indicate how sleep hygiene has helped, actionable insights based on data analysis could provide users with a better understanding of the relationship between their actions and results, enabling them to make more informed decisions.
Success
9/10 found the sleep analysis helpful
Recommendations 💡
Provide insights on how specific sleep practices affect sleep quality.
Offer actionable feedback on how to adjust for better sleep.
Offer alternative tasks if the current ones are not helpful.
Reward System - Pets' energy levels reflect their owners' sleep quality
Issues - High
8/10 were confused
I use this app because I have trouble sleeping. What if I followed all the suggestions but still can't sleep well? Then it would feel like a punishment.
Analysis
We should reward behaviors, not just the final outcomes, to avoid assuming that everything will always go well.
Success
10/10 understood the mechanics
10/10 thought the game was fun and would love to try it
Recommendations 💡
Energy and happiness increase when users complete sleep hygiene routines and go to bed on time.
Asking User for Feedback - Record your sleep behaviors the next morning
Issues - Medium
9/10 wanted to record their actions now instead of tomorrow
Why should I wait until tomorrow to check the tasks I completed today?
Analysis
How to enable users to record their actions while also minimizing screen usage?
Success
8/10 liked the process as a casual conversation
Recommendations 💡
Record actions through notifications without the need to open the app or unlock screens. Lock the screens once sleep tracking begins. If users quit the screen, the process will be interrupted, and their pets will lose energy points.
Sleep Insight
Issues - High
Professor Pedja Klasnja: How well have sleep hygiene practices helped?
How can we better assist users and reinforce behavior change?
Analysis
Although sleep scores can indicate how sleep hygiene has helped, actionable insights based on data analysis could provide users with a better understanding of the relationship between their actions and results, enabling them to make more informed decisions.
Success
9/10 found the sleep analysis helpful
Recommendations 💡
Provide insights on how specific sleep practices affect sleep quality.
Offer actionable feedback on how to adjust for better sleep.
Offer alternative tasks if the current ones are not helpful.