September-May 2020
For students who need help getting into the routine of writing every day, Rose Bud Thorn is an app that provides a simple set of questions that allows people to make quick entries. With a simple user interface, Rose Bud Thorn makes diary writing a low stress experience.
Rose Bud Thorn is a project I started on my own in the Summer of 2019. Over the past year, I have workshopped the design and development of the mobile app in my Interaction Design 2 and Human Computer Interaction classes.
Write a sentence.
Write a paragraph.
Write an emoji.
Just. Write. Something
I wanted to create something to give people a place to write down their thoughts to create a daily routine of reflection and introspection, no matter how busy and hectic their life might be. I also wanted to empower people to create a reflection routine that eventually betters their mental health.
A couple of my initial sketches that I digitized.
As part of my background research, I conducted a brand audit to better understand what products currently exist. I realized that many cost money, and the ones that are free have a very cluttered user interface. I wanted to make something that would be free, but also have a breathable design.
I wanted to stick to the "Rose Bud Thorn" theme which is derived from an old Girl Scout's tradition where every day you would tell the group a Rose (something good that happened that day), Bud (something you are excited about) and a thorn (something that didn't go too well). Playing off of this framework, I decided to incorporate a rose into my branding, and the colors and typography evolved from that.
To better understand how a user might use this application, I created and workshopped a hero's journey. This was a really fun exercise that helped me figure out certain interactions I wanted to focus on while prototyping.
After deciding on which interactions I wanted to focus on, I created small storyboards for some of those interactions in the real world. It was really helpful to see how the app might integrate into the real world, and what the screens might look during this time.
A simple sitemap for the application.
Then, I created a black and white UI spec to detail the user interactions.
After iterating and testing with the UI spec, I created a high fidelity prototype on Adobe XD.