SQN • Shipped 2023
Case Study: SQN — behaviour-driven fluid design
Product Design Lead
2023
Main stakeholders
Behavioural scientists
Data scientists
Client operations
Product owners
Scrum master
Back-end developers
Front-end developers
Quality assurance tester
Stakeholder collaboration, workshops and feedback presentations
User interviews
Persona creation
Story mapping
Prototypes
User testing
User interface design
Design component system
Illustration
SQN strives to convert people’s energy to improved business outcomes. We offer a suite of culture change products and services that is driven by behavioural science, AI, design and technology.
We created a next-generation fluid operating system that is inspired by individual growth journeys and not linear flows. This AI and machine learning-driven process inspired a component-based fluid design system based on a user’s desired path.
Personal growth doesn’t happen in a straight line, but nearly every product built to support it does. Coaching, learning, development and mindfulness each sit in their own app, each with its own linear flow — modules to complete, streaks to protect, courses to finish. Someone genuinely trying to shift their mindset ends up managing four tools and eventually abandoning all of them, because none of them respond to who they are on the day.
Our research confirmed the appetite for “one tool to disrupt and combine the personal coaching, learning, development and mindfulness experience.” But the design problem underneath that was harder than merging four feature sets: how do you design an operating system that follows a person’s growth journey instead of a workflow — one that changes shape as the person changes?
Discovery
Our user research indicated that the market is in need of one tool to disrupt and combine the personal coaching, learning, development and mindfulness experience.
These requirements and research were gathered through stakeholder, and investor discussions, design thinking workshops, user interviews and feedback from Minimal Viable Product release.
Preliminary user flows
High-fidelity wireframes/prototype for website onboarding
We created a standalone native mobile app for self-directed individuals to shift mindsets and behaviours. It is a guided exploration of life outcomes and intention setting.
More personalisation in the user experience means more relevance for users.
The illustration and style of the app adjust to your interactions and identified frame of mind. We did research and testing on colour and shape psychology and applied our findings throughout the experience.
Prototype video from the original post
The data science and behaviour team continuously trains the algorithm in sentiment analysis on voice and text input. It identifies and records keywords and achievable outcomes as a “living diary” that keeps you accountable.
Our current challenge is providing accurate sentiment analysis across main languages and accommodating design for lengthy responses.
Historic iterations have taught us that users provide inaccurate and biased information when in a rush or distress. By providing a short, guided meditation we nudged the user into a more mindful and present space.
Wearables integration shows the value of this process by indicating heart rate BPM before and after meditation.
Guided meditation for mindfulness
Brief open text or voice surveys continuously update your personalised recommendations. Every day you will receive new content in podcasts, articles, games or videos to help you on your journey. To keep you motivated, it shows you memories from past entries to show progress.
Every action actively updates your personalized growth journey
What made the project cool
❤️ Working and learning from an international team of data and behavioural scientists.
