Birthyay- A birthday reminder mobile app case study
You might never have to worry about forgetting birthdays again
Birthyay- A birthday reminder app
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Role: UX researcher, UI/UX designer
Deliverables: Prototype, Casestudy, mobile app
Tools: Figma, Google Docs, Google form
Introduction
You know how often you forget birthdays or remember them late. After conducting interviews, I discovered that many people struggle with remembering birthdays or often remember them too late. I also found that existing apps designed to address this issue fall short in certain areas. They fail to answer crucial questions such as: “What if I need frequent reminders?” or “What if I want a centralized platform to prepare notes, messages, and gifts for the celebrant?”
Well, Toni just missed her friend’s birthday again!
Toni: “I missed Faith’s birthday again! I wish there was a way to set reminders days, or even months before, and on the day itself.”
George, on the other hand, just got a Snapchat notification: “Today is Toni’s birthday.”
George: “Oh no, I didn’t realize today is Toni’s birthday! I forgot to get a gift, and finding notes about Toni across apps is so frustrating.
Problem
Social media notifications and calendar apps often fail to help users remember and prepare for birthdays, especially for those not on social platforms. Users like Toni and George frequently miss birthdays, because they cannot set reminders days ahead or they still forget even after getting a reminder.
Solution
Birthyay — A comprehensive birthday reminder app designed to address the very issues Toni and George face. It allows users input dates, ages, and set custom reminders well in advance and on the birthday itself. But it doesn’t stop there.
Users can also share birthdays, add notes about their friends, making it easier to prepare meaningful gifts and messages when reminded of upcoming birthdays. There’s also a widget just like that of Duolingo that ensures you see these upcoming reminders often.
Quick Backstory: How Did This Project Start?
The idea for Birthyay originated from a design competition hosted by Lighthall (It was a social learning platform for leveling up professional skills), where the task was to create a page or two of a mobile app that helps users remember significant birthdays, with added features like the ability to send messages via WhatsApp.
Screenshot of the project brief sent by lighthall
When this task was assigned, I had limited time to complete it and wanted to deliver promptly. The idea of the app made sense to me because I believed it could proffer solutions like manual entry of Birthdays, setting multiple reminders and being a backup if social media reminders fail.
Solution Development
To address the problems faced by users like Toni and George, I embarked on a structured development process for Birthyay. Here’s a step-by-step outline of how the solution evolved:
Initial Iterations
I developed multiple design iterations based on initial concepts for a user-friendly birthday reminder app, and shared the final two designs with friends to gather feedback on their preferences and usability.
Submission and Advancement
I submitted the most preferred design for the competition and advanced to the next stage. This success validated the idea but highlighted areas for further development. I then, made a mental note to revisit and develop this idea further into a comprehensive case study.
The final two designs I sent out
The final design I submitted
Rediscovery and Redesign
Over a year later, I revisited the Birthyay project with a renewed perspective. I outlined goals, designed additional pages, but realized I was making assumptions without user input, and in order to create a solid product, I needed insights from potential users.
User-Centric Approach
I created and distributed a survey to a diverse user base, encompassing both young adults and older individuals. The survey’s objective was to validate assumptions and gather user insights. This process helped uncover user preferences, pain points to guide the redesign, and essential features to enhance engagement.
Survey Insights
Responses revealed that many relied on social media platforms like Facebook, Snapchat and calendar apps(Google and phone calendars) for reminders. I was initially wrong about competitors being solely social media platforms. However, many faced issues with limited reminder options and late notifications. Feedback indicated a need for:
Customizable Reminders: Set reminders well in advance with various notification options.
Additional Features: Note-taking, sharing reminders, integration with messaging platforms.
Engaging UI: User-friendly interface encouraging regular use.
Offline Syncing: Reminders that work without internet.
Permanent Widget: Ensure visibility to prepare for birthdays.
I also analyzed competitor apps such as ‘Birthday’, ‘Google Calendar’, and native phone calendars, revealing significant gaps in customization and synchronization. These findings highlighted the inadequacies of current solutions in meeting user needs effectively.
Final Designs
I refined my designs to address these gaps, aiming for a simple, multi-functional interface.
1. Onboarding Screens
I introduced onboarding screens that provide a concise overview of the app’s key features. Each screen includes a brief description to guide users through the app’s functionality.
2. Optional Registration
I made account creation optional on first use, with a skip feature for user convenience. Users can always create an account later by accessing the profile icon on the homepage or prompted by a pop-up when saving a birthday reminder.
Having an account is crucial for saving user data, especially if you uninstall the app or switch phones. Additionally, besides in-app notifications, users receive email reminders with prompts to edit or view their notes.
3. Homepage Redesign
I designed blank states for unsaved birthdays and re-imagined the overall design. Through the homepage, users can message the current celebrant on the provided social media platform.
They can also “see all” to navigate to a separate page displaying all upcoming birthdays. Additionally, users have the option to switch to any month on the homepage to view all birthdays scheduled for that specific month.
4. Input birthdays flow: Streamlined Experience by including optional questions
Optional & Mandatory questions: The input screen features a mix of mandatory and optional questions to enhance user convenience. Mandatory fields like the celebrant’s name, birthday, and reminder date ensure essential data is collected. Optional fields, indicated by the absence of a red asterisk, include details like the celebrant’s age, birthday notes, Bitmoji preferences etc.
This approach allows users to skip non-essential information without feeling overwhelmed, ensuring a smoother and more engaging form-filling process.
Customizable reminders: The input screen allows users to set multiple reminders in advance.
Create category: I provided an input field for users to categorize birthdays e.g best friends, family etc.
Users also get to select how often they want the reminders to repeat, be it every year, bi-annually or never.
Expanded Communication Options: I added fields for email and social media links so users can directly message loved ones from the app.
Celebration Illustrations: If users do not select or upload a Bitmoji or picture, a celebration illustration will be automatically used, ensuring the profile icon remains visually appealing and functional.
Success Screen: After successfully entering details, users are presented with a success screen with options to view the saved birthday details.
5. View saved birthdays flow
Search bar and filter: To streamline birthday management, I enhanced the search bar with a filter option. This allows users to quickly locate birthdays by specific names, months, or categories. This feature is beneficial for users with extensive birthday lists, making it easy to manage and prepare for birthdays.
Selected birthdays page: This page includes a kebab menu (three vertical dots) for additional options. When selected, an overlay appears, providing actions for users to share, edit, delete, or download the saved birthday information as a PDF.
Sharable reminders: The app enables users to share birthday reminders and notes with others through the app or external messaging platforms. This makes it easy to notify and involve others.
I introduced these features not only to enhance user engagement but also for effective advertisement, potentially increasing app downloads and visits.
6. Calendar screen
This screen functions similarly to a phone calendar, displaying birthdays with a balloon icon under the respective dates. Clicking on a specific birthday leads to a detailed page with information about the event.
7. Settings page flow
The Settings page is organized into seven sections:
Theme: Users can switch between light and dark modes.
Profile: Users can edit personal details such as name, email address, and birthday.
Language: Select a preferred language through a popup selection.
4. Notifications: Users can toggle push notifications and email reminders, and select a preferred notification sound from a popup menu.
5. Default Reminders: Set default reminder preferences for all birthdays.
6. Deleted Birthdays: Restore previously deleted birthdays.
7. Log Out: Log out from the app.
Each section, except Theme, Log Out, and Language, navigates to a detailed settings page for more specific adjustments.
8. Widgets
Birthyay’s widget functions similarly to Duolingo’s streak tracker but is tailored for managing birthdays. It displays countdowns, 1 week, 3 days, 1 day before, and on the birthday itself, for each registered birthday.
By offering timely reminders, Birthyay helps users plan celebrations in advance, thereby strengthening personal relationships by ensuring birthdays are never overlooked.
Image source: bakeshopofficial on Instagram
Incase you were wondering ( Why collect age details?)
Collecting age information is optional, but it allows us to create cute and personalized gift ideas, such as bento cakes with age inscriptions.
Image source: bakeshopofficial on Instagram
User testing and feedback
After designing, I created variations of the app’s brand mascot and conducted user testing for two primary purposes:
To determine user preferences for the mascot.
To identify suggestions, usability issues and observe user navigation patterns through the app.
All users chose option B because they felt option A was too childish
Based on user feedback, I iterated on the designs to address issues and enhance the user experience.
Positive Feedback
Users praised the app’s intuitive flow and interface, which were the key design goals. They found the navigation seamless and the interface visually appealing. Here are some of the compliments received:
“The interface is lovely, modern, and very easy to understand.”
“The notes feature is brilliant. That was the first thing I thought of before going through the prototype, and I was so excited to see that it was included.”
Constructive Feedback
Users provided valuable insights on potential enhancements. Most of the suggestions align with features already planned for future iterations. However, based on these feedback, key enhancements include:
Email Collection for Celebrants: To accommodate user preferences for sending birthday emails, I integrated email collection with the existing social links.
In-app prompts and motivational messages: These are targeted messages that can be used to onboard users, engage them throughout their usage journey, and highlight new features. For Birthyay, such messages can encourage users to save birthdays, set reminders, help keep users interested in the app, boost app retention rates, ultimately leading to a more fulfilling and user-friendly experience.
Tips for market performance
To ensure market growth and enhance customer engagement, I plan to introduce new app features, including:
Expanded Functionality: Enhance the app’s functionality to manage anniversaries and other recurring events, expanding its utility beyond just birthdays.
AI Suggestions for Notes and Gifts: Implement AI-generated gift and note suggestions based on celebrants’ interests or current trends. Also, provide customizable message templates for different relationships (e.g., mom, dad, friends) while retaining the ability to manually create notes for authenticity.
Memories collation: Enable integration with phone or Google Photos to create dynamic visual presentations similar to a personalized video album.
Dark mode: Enable dark mode to allow versatility for app themes.
Calendar synchronization: Integrate with other calendars like Google calendar, android and apple calendar which will allow users to import and sync birthdays.
Gamification: Introduce gamified elements such as achievement badges and leader boards to encourage consistent use, like creating 10 consecutive birthdays.
Monetization
Some of these features will be available in a demo version, requiring users to subscribe for continued access to premium services, leveraging a freemium model to drive revenue through subscription-based access.
Upcoming Steps
Conduct consecutive user tests following feature implementation to gauge usability, satisfaction, and areas for improvement.
Explore additional ways to enhance the app’s functionality based on user feedback and market trends.
Key takeaways and Conclusion
When I started working on this app, one burning question dominated my thoughts “What would make it standout from the rest?”
The answer didn’t come to me immediately, but through conversations with people and extensive research, I gradually gained valuable insights that brought me closer to uncovering a unique feature idea. It became clear to me that thorough research is indispensable in design, it’s a key ingredient for a successful product.
I also learnt a profound lesson that, when it comes to users, every effort is worthwhile. It’s not just about solving a problem for others; I’m also solving a problem for myself. This is why I have a deep passion for design, It feels like it gives me a superpower to creatively solve real-life challenges.
Looking ahead, I am eager to embark on new projects across diverse domains. I want to continue expanding my knowledge, addressing meaningful problems in my own unique way, and stretching the possibilities of what I can do.
P.s: I’m currently job hunting, so if you have a gig, contract, or any juicy role you need filled, I’m your person! I promise I’m up to the task and ready to bring some zest to your team. Consider this ammunition for the shots I’ll be shooting (•̀ᴗ-).
Thank you for taking the time to read this. Your feedback and comments are greatly appreciated!
View Prototype here
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Posted Nov 28, 2024
You know how often you forget birthdays or remember them late. After conducting interviews, I discovered that many people struggle with remembering birthdays o…
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