OVERVIEW

Over the course of 10 weeks, my team and I journeyed through the entire design process to produce a complete operating system: joyOS.

joyOS is an operating system created for a mobile application design course aimed to foster healthier relationships with our mobile device. joyOS promotes mindful & meaningful interactions through more thoughtful & kind experiences.
‍

Team Members
6 members
Duration
10 weeks
My role
Principal Designer

Brainstorming concepts

We began by throwing out a bunch of ideas for our OS concept and potential users. We started off very specific but then decided to broaden our user group so that our OS would accommodate more people. We ended up deciding on wellness and mindfulness because everyone in our group felt at some point that they wished they had a healthier relationship with their phone.
The Problem
It is almost frightening how easy it is to develop unhealthy relationships with technology, specifically our mobile devices. But this is no accident, our mobile devices are specifically designed to lure us in, and take our time, attention, and money. This translates to the distortion of our interactions we have with ourselves and with others,  harming our mental and physical wellbeing.
‍
We wanted to flip the script.
Design Question
How might we design a mobile operating system to foster mindful and meaningful interactions through more thoughtful and kind experiences.

Timeline

Research
User Interviews
Personas
Ideate
Design Principles
Sketching
‍
‍
Design
Lo-Fi Mockups
Wireframes
Hi-Fi Prototype
‍
Evaluate
Critique
Reflection
User Research
Our team conducted 7 semi-structured interviews. The aim of our user interviews was to gain a deeper understanding of our users' motivations, pain points, and processes.
Key Pain Points
01
Distracting
​Participants mentioned that they both purposely use their phones to distract themselves and unintentionally get distracted by their phones, which takes up their time
02
Addictive
Several participants mentioned how they find themselves checking their phones multiple times an hour which can lead to them spending more time than they wanted to or planned to on their phone.
03
Mindless
A large portion of screen time is taken up by mindlessly scrolling and content consumption. These interactions usually provide entertainment.
Personas
We developed two personas in order to better understand our potential user groups and to help us keep them top of mind as we went through the design process. Our personas helped us to empathize with our users.
Design principles
Our design principles were informed by our user research and personas, which all identified key pain points we wanted to address. Our design principles centered us as we began to design, helping us to focus on maintaining consistency and meeting our users' needs.
Mood board
We created a mood board with inspirational images. We were drawn to curved corners/rounded edges, pastel colors, and simple & clean designs because they aligned with our design principles.

Sketching

We started to sketch ideas based on our design principles, user research, and mood board. We explored concepts such as widgets, gestures, and interactive features. Here is an example sketch of our springboard.
Design Language
Our design system helps to maintain consistency when designing in a group and across our multiple applications. We chose Poppins as our header type and Proxima Nova as our body type because of their sans-serif rounded edges and readability to exude a welcoming and smooth feel. Our color palette was chosen based off research that suggests these colors are linked to soothing and calming effects.
Gestures
Our gestures were mostly based off of commonly known gestures used in iOS and Android. We incorporated a few novel gestures to best serve the unique action, however we generally wanted a low learning curve for our users.
Lo-fi Wireframing
Bringing our ideas
to life
These are the lo-fi wireframes I created of different common formats and design patterns for my team as we began designing our apps. These wireframes served similarly to a template for our hi-fi mockups, ensuring uniformity.
Introducing joyOS...
joyOS is an operating system designed with you in mind. joyOS is centered on incorporating mindfulness into every facet of the OS, from the features, to the applications, to even the gestures. Through joyOS, we aspire to foster healthier relationships we have with ourselves, with others, and with our mobile device.


why?
Because everyone deserves to be joyous.
hi-fi mockups
Here is an overview of the key applications we decided to incorporate into our OS.
Lockscreen
Springboard
Contacts
Messages
Health
Calendar
Music & social Media
Reflection
This project pushed me out of my comfort zone in ways I never could have imagined. Designing an entire operating system means incorporating hardware design, gestures, user flows between different apps, and so much more. Much of which I have never tackled before. As one of the more experienced designers of the team, I really enjoying mentoring and teaching others tips and techniques I've picked up throughout the years. I learned so much both in the technical sense, especially regarding designing for industry standards, and in soft skills. I feel extremely grateful for the unique design brief and creative freedom that allowed me to create some of my favorite work yet.

If I had more time, I would create more themes to accommodate a wider range of audiences since I know our color palette is limited in its appeal. I would also love to further explore the myriad of "evil" design patterns within mobile, such as the black hole that is social media, notifications, and infinite scroll. Although these topics were far beyond the scope of this project, I am proud that we were able to at least able to take begin considering the ethicality of our designs.
‍
My biggest takeaway from this experience is to know the "why" behind your design decisions. Even seemingly insignificant details matter, and if the design decision is not serving the users or fulfilling the design principles, it probably isn't necessary.
‍
A huge thank you to Professor Brian Fling and my team for a wonderful quarter!
‍

Thanks for stopping by, let's keep in touch!

Made with ♡ in Seattle