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Change Tracker App
App Design | Digital Prototyping | User Research
With Pisci Abrego and Maria José Urbana
Team: LAist.com
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Background: ​LAist, Los Angeles's largest radio station and travel blog, was looking for a way to empower their listeners and readers to contribute towards the causes they care about and make meaningful change.
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Challenge: How might LAist empower their audience members to make change?
Researching
We began our research by interviewing young LA residents who were interested in social causes. Ada, for example, was interested in magnifying indigenous voices. Maya was the chair of the sustainability committee at her college. Mei organized local art markets and donated profits to mutual aid funds. We asked them about their relationship to change, how they fought for it, and what got in their way.
"How do you work to make change?"
"What obstacles do you face when making change?"
We organized our notes into an empathy map, as seen above.
Defining the User & Problem
We analyzed our research in an effort to generate a refined problem statement. We began by generating multiple user POV statements inspired by the people we interviewed.
Then, we experimented with a handful of potential problem statements and design questions.
We found two compelling themes in our work. The first was that people often felt imposter syndrome when trying to make change. The other was that people felt a sense of paralysis when trying to make change. We fleshed out POV statements and design questions for each of these themes.
Finally, we synthesized a theoretical user that represented the key needs, challenges, and backgrounds from our research. Her name was Lizzie. In the eyes of Lizzie and many real users like her, fighting for change feels like summiting an unimaginably tall mountain.
How might we help Lizzie overcome her sense of paralysis and make her feel empowered to contribute to the fight against climate change?
This was the problem we set out to solve.
Ideating
We began or ideating by doing some analogous research. How do other organizations empower their audience to make change? What services exist to help users overcome internal barriers that prevent them from doing what they want to do?
We brainstormed and compiled a large list of potential solutions to our problem. We triaged them into categories, and ultimately landed on a favorite.
We would work to develop an app that essentially gamified the change-making process in an effort to make it easier for people to participate in.
Prototyping and Testing
We sketched out an initial wireframe for the app, tested it, and made changes based on feedback.
Eventually, we came up with the signature "monthly change progress" bars, iterated on features, and began to work on the brand identity.
Finally, we came up with the first prototype of Deltita, the change tracking smartphone app. The name is based off of the greek "Delta" (which is shorthand for change) and the Spanish "-ita" (meaning small or little). The purpose of the app is to frame acts of change making as small, approachable tasks, which add up to large changes over time.
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The app is described in greater detail in the video below.
Next Steps
We pitched the idea to LAist.com management and received their feedback and ideas. We are currently working to make a more robust and testable prototype in Figma, and hope to develop the app in its entirety in the near future.