Case Study
Praxis
Targeting time insecurity with a subscription design service that makes you think
Context
During their last year of university, design students are asked to research a topic of interest and then devise solutions. The goal is to showcase everything we learned during the course and to get a taste of academic research.
Time and all the debates and values surrounding it has always captivated me. The preoccupation with optimizing every second of our lives has shifted our perception of time drastically in the last 100 years. People expect so much of themselves that they become self-conscious, negatively impacting their physical and mental health.
My goal was to incentivize people to reflect critically about how they spend their time. Not following the logic of optimization, but instead thinking independently about themselves in order to find solutions catered to their personal goals and reality.
My Role
Undergrad final project
PUC-Rio
User research, service blueprint, brand design, editorial design and interaction design
Mar - Nov 2020
The Challenge
- Connecting users to valuable, actionable information
- Retaining lightness and fun while dealing with a stressful subject, making it more approachable
- Empowering users to improve their relationship with time
- Developing a strong product and brand that could be integrated into the user’s everyday life
Research
An academic component was inevitable in this project, which meant research was extensive in the lead-up to the development. This step involved an exploratory research study conducted to uncover new ideas and concepts that would guide the project's development, including literature review, mind mapping, and framework development.
Semi-structured interviews were conducted to explore how people of various ages, lifestyles, and professions manage their time and how technology affects their daily lives. The interviews humanized the research process and made sure that all solutions targeted real-life demands instead of getting too bogged down in philosophical concepts.
Top Insights
- Users universally want to improve their relationship with time, but don’t know how to
- Success, productivity and time optimization are all heavily linked to each other, so they must be approached simultaneously
- Potential users do not want to spend their time doing research, instead preferring that information be brought to them
- Universal solutions aren’t possible, so the goal should be to give users tools they can use to craft their own, personalized solutions
Using the insights gathered in the research process, after many considerations, tables, and refinements, all insights were consolidated into the product, branding and communication strategy.
The Product
Praxis is a monthly subscription service that includes a physical package containing a pamphlet, activity card, sticker sheet, and surprise gift. The heart of the project are the pamphlet (which contains articles and ideas related to the overarching theme of time) and the activity card (which helps users reflect on the presented ideas and apply them to their lives), but who doesn’t love receiving a few extra goodies with their mail? In all seriousness, these extra elements were geared towards keeping the package fun and incentivizing users to adopt a positive outlook.
Praxis encourages self-awareness and contemplation by asking about your time management. The monthly kit's questions vary, but always revolve around the concept of time, with the goal of honing in on critical thinking and knowledge retention. Routine, productivity, performance, organization, and the speed of the world are all addressed. I believe readers would benefit from a variety of opinions and views, thus no authors or writing styles would be favored. Freedom of knowledge should be a core value, ensuring an unbiased approach. Reflections would be further encouraged in the service’s website, which would also serve as a discussion forum.
After the concept was fully developed, a user journey map was created to comprehend the service experience from the customer's perspective. This helped create a business and marketing plan that was also covered in the final report, and helped me understand the full context that the product would be part of.
Communication Strategy
The goal with the service's website was to create a communication hub. Subscribers and non-subscribers are two systems within the website environment. The biggest distinction between these environments is the subscriber-only material, which includes more content, incentives (such as collectible wallpapers), and the heart of it all: the discussion forum. Subscribers can also watch live conversations, video interviews, and chat with writers of current and upcoming issues. The non-subscribers’ side of the website would be primarily for sales. Social media accounts for the brand would also be vital points of engagement, with a segmented approach to content, optimized according to the context in which users approach each platform.
Branding
Understanding Time
Our perception of time has changed a lot in recent years, and understanding the reason for these changes is key.
Understanding Myself
As we are all very different, you are the best person to reflect and define your relationship with yourself, with others and with your time.
Understanding Others
Having access to different perspectives and foundational concepts is key to defining your own vision. Diversity applied to types of texts, authors and activities ensures a dynamic worldview that brings us all together.
Understanding Time
Our perception of time has changed a lot in recent years, and understanding the reason for these changes is key.
Understanding Myself
As we are all very different, you are the best person to reflect and define your relationship with yourself, with others and with your time.
Understanding Others
Having access to different perspectives and foundational concepts is key to defining your own vision. Diversity applied to types of texts, authors and activities ensures a dynamic worldview that brings us all together.
Taking into account the visual concepts of the brand, a logo was created that plays with the idea of investigation and anonymity, recalling the aesthetic of do-it-yourself magazine clippings in the 90s.Both the treatment of images and the colors reinforce the diversity and contrast of different points of view, in addition to the concept of boldness – all reflected in the vibrant colors. For typefaces, a versatile neutral sans serif family, Acumin, and a classic and delicate serif display, Orpheus Pro, were chosen to provide a counterpoint of stability and calmness.
Reflection
In an increasingly fast-paced and demanding society, I feel it is critical to examine one's relationship with time and how it affects one's life both in the short and long term. During the project, I learned a great deal about time management and how society and technology influence it. We can’t escape or remove ourselves from our cultural context, so it’s up to us to rework our place within it, recontextualizing our tools to better serve our personal lifestyle goals.
I had no idea what this service would become when I started the research, I was only driven by one question: how do we use our time? That exploration branched out in unpredictable ways, bringing me to concepts I had no previous contact with, and teaching me how to interact with academia and philosophy in ways I will continue to use in my life. Praxis has not yet been put into production, so unfortunately it is not possible to measure its success externally, but who knows what the future holds?
