our idea
No one likes waking up in the morning. We hit snooze repeatedly and purposely set multiple alarms. Sometimes we just give up and burrow under the covers. Even the most disciplined person has bad days.
Have you noticed it's much easier when your friends are around? We get up at 6am to catch a sunrise when we go camping, wake up early for brunch, and no one wants to be the last person left sleeping when everyone else is having fun. In short, sleeping becomes a social activity. Right now, waking up is a solitary battle between you and your pillow. We decided to harness the power of technology to change that.
how it works
1 join a cloud
Find your friends on SleepyCloud and add them to your "cloud." This becomes a personalized group of people who you go to sleep and wake up with.
2 set your alarm
At night, status indicators will indicate who in your social group is already sleeping, motivating you to sleep earlier. When you're ready, just set your alarm and hit the pillow.
3 wake up with friends
It's 7:30 am. Your phone starts buzzing with calls! Wake up and hear personalized messages
from friends in your "cloud" as everyone starts their day.
CARPE DIEM!
design process
Follow us along each stage of our design process. Or skip directly to whatever excites you most: contextual inquiry, concept video, low-fidelity prototype, medium-fidelity prototype, or hi-fidelity prototype.
contextual inquiry
Before drawing a single prototype, we started with the most important element: the user. We observed potential users waking up in their native environment and interviewed them afterward. Based on these results, we completed a task analysis. Our key insight was that waking up successfully starts first with a healthier cycle for going to sleep. These findings led to a brainstorming session and our initial application idea and sketches.
concept video
We continued to refine our product, narrowing down from multiple big ideas to a specific platform and implementation. We created some initial sketches, and produced a concept video to define and illustrate the various scenarios in which a customer would use the application. Warning: mild profanity occurs.
low-fidelity prototype
Once we had a solid idea of our scenarios & tasks, we created a low-fidelity prototype and headed out to do some user testing! Our prototype was drawn on paper and "powered" by a team member. Creating paper prototypes allowed us to quickly iterate without focusing on the details. One key insight from our user testing: the "create a cloud" flow was much too complicated and needed to be streamlined.
medium-fidelity prototype
After incorporating feedback from user testing, we created a medium-fidelity prototype using proto.io. At this stage, we began laying out components with respect to the constraints of the mobile platform. This prototype served as the basis for a heuristic evaluation done by other members of our studio, enabling us to quickly get additional data. The heuristic evaluation revealed issues with navigation that could confuse users, while noting a clean and minimalist design as a positive.
high-fidelity prototype
Our final step was to create a mobile app on the Android platform to serve as a high-fidelity prototype. This stage of the design process required us to work with the constraints of an actual native app on the Android platform and adapt our design accordingly.
poster session
We presented our final project at a poster session on the Stanford campus on December 5 2014, as part of the Stanford CS147 course project fair.
our team
Brought to you with love by your friendly neighborhood sleepaholics. Here is a link to research that shows just how important it is to get lots of sleep! We are all firm believers in the power of sleep and believe a healthy lifestyle (and getting up early in the morning) starts with proper sleep. Together, we can motivate each other! (NOTE: All team members participated in all stages of the design process: design, prototyping, user testing, and development.)
Pat B.
development & docs
sleep record: 8 hours. best place to sleep: my bedroom.
Sanby L.
visuals & user testing
sleep record: 14 hours. best place to sleep: the library.
Josh C.
prototyping & design
sleep record: 16 hours. best place to sleep: wherever.